Patriots Owner Robert Kraft Turns 81: Happy or Crabby?
Relatively speaking, it was a 'Happy Birthday' over the weekend for New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft.
Healthy (especially for 81). Happy (thanks, six Super Bowls). And just a year removed from one of the coolest birthday gifts ever: A new Bentley, courtesy of Philadelphia 76ers co-owner Michael Rubin and rappers Meek Mill and Jay-Z.
Kraft has turned his little paper and packaging company into a fortune and a sports dynasty. In 1994 he bought the Patriots for $172 million. Today, according to Forbes, the franchise is worth $5.08 billion and his portfolio $8.3 billion, making him the world's 263rd most wealthiest person.
More and more, sports are an old man's game. Last year Phil Mickelson won the PGA at 50. Last weekend 36-year-old Rafael Nadal won another French Open. And, of course, the Boston Celtics' old man - 36-year-old Al Horford - exploded for 26 points in the Game 1 victory of the NBA Finals.
Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones will turn 80 in October. Patriots coach Bill Belichick hit the big seven-oh this offseason. And this week, 77-year-old Miami Heat president Pat Riley had this retort to the assembled media when asked about his longevity:
"I can do more push-ups than you can right now."
We're not sure if the 81-year-old Kraft can drop and give us 20, but it's clear he's still bubbling with passion: about both his country and his football team. He loaned one of the Patriots' planes to fly American soldiers home for Memorial Day, and he is nothing if not unsatisfied with New England's downturn from its dynasty.
“I’m a Patriots fan big-time first.," Kraft said in an interview at the NFL owners meetings last March. "And more than anything, it bothers me that we haven’t been able to win a playoff game in the last three years. After my family, there’s nothing more important to me than the New England Patriots and winning football games. That’s my passion. Whatever I can do, hopefully in a small way, to make that happen, I’m there. I’m not happy that we haven’t won a playoff game in three years. I think about that a lot.”
So call it a Happy Birthday. Just not a totally content one?
