Krafting the Patriots into champions
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. - Robert Kraft sat in his office as his busy day was winding down. Dressed casually in a blue sweater, he seemed animated about the latest playoff berth for his New England Patriots.
Looks can be deceiving.
"You know what?" the soft-spoken owner who grew up just 20 miles away said. "I'm tired today, but it's good stuff. We've got a lot of good stuff. So I'll just knock on wood here."
He leans forward, taps his desk twice, and wishes for more. "Hope it keeps going past this weekend," he said with a hint of a smile.
Luck should have little or nothing to do with the outcome of today's emotionally charged divisional playoff game against the Jets, just as it hasn't had much impact on his team compiling the NFL's best record since he bought it in 1994. Step by step, Kraft has methodically and boldly built a franchise that once seemed headed to St. Louis or Hartford.
He took big risks and spent loads of money. He is chairman of the NFL's broadcast committee and a member of its labor committee.
He was listed as the ninth-most influential person in sports last month by Sports Business Journal. Forbes magazine ranked him as the 269th richest American with a net worth of $1.5 billion as of last September.
"I love action," Kraft, who turns 70 on June 5, said in an interview with The Associated Press. "I think I'm 28. I love people. I love all kinds of people."
Kraft occasionally strolls through the locker room talking with players. He chats with employees such as those who do laundry and cleaning for the team. He and his wife, Myra, recently announced a $20-million gift to attract medical personnel to work in community health centers in Massachusetts.
"I love this country," Kraft said Thursday. "I worry when we have unemployment like we have, the social impact of that, and so we try to create a system in medical treatment that would go into the inner city and allow people of all backgrounds to get the same treatment my family could get."
For now, his focus is on football. The Patriots are in the playoffs for the 12th time in his 17 years as owner. They've been in four of the past nine Super Bowls, winning three. Their 14-2 record this season was the league's best. Sunday, they host the Jets at 4:30.
The Patriots should be contenders for a long time. Young players are making major contributions and Tom Brady has a $72-million, four-year contract extension that starts next season. He'll be 37 by the time it expires and said before the deal was made that he wants to play 10 more seasons.
The contract agreed upon three days before the season opener was "one of the great strategic things we did," Kraft said. "I wonder if Tommy would have had the year he had if we hadn't taken the contract [issue] away and put it to bed . . . I think that was a real big move in giving him peace of mind."
Brady had one of his best seasons, perhaps surpassing his 50 touchdown passes with just eight interceptions in 2007 when the Patriots went 18-0 before losing the Super Bowl to the Giants, 17-14.
"It's a tremendous amount of money," Kraft said, "but he obviously is worth it."
Brady had given the owner fair warning soon after the Patriots drafted him in 2000.
"He was this skinny beanpole," Kraft said. "I always tell the story how he came down the steps at the old Foxboro Stadium. I'm going out one night and . . . he had a pizza under his arm and he comes up and he says, 'Mr. Kraft, I'm Tom Brady.' I said, 'I know who you are, you're our sixth-round draft choice from Michigan.' And he looked me right in the eye and he said, 'and I'm the best decision this organization has ever made.' Verbatim."
One of the best, anyway.
"All you have to do is look at the Patriots now compared to when Robert acquired the team," commissioner Roger Goodell said. "The franchise was seriously challenged. Now they've won multiple Super Bowls, transformed the stadium experience for Patriots fans, and it's a terrific success story all the way around."
Kraft's wife is the daughter of Jacob Hiatt, a philanthropist and owner of the Rand-Whitney Group, a Worcester-based packaging company where Kraft went to work. Kraft is still that firm's board chairman. He also founded International Forest Products in 1972.
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