WATCH: Super Bowl-Winning Patriots Owner Robert Kraft Praises Donald Trump

Image by Getty Images

By Daniel J. Solomon February 6, 2017

Patriots owner and Superbowl LI winner Robert Kraft offered kind words for President Donald Trump ahead of the game, praising the leader as a long-standing friend of his.

“He’s been great to me over these past two decades,” he said on Fox News over the weekend, saying that he attended Trump’s inauguration and his last wedding to Melania Trump.

He also praised the president for looking after him and being in touch after Kraft’s wife died six years ago of ovarian cancer. “He called me once a week for a year,” he said. “I’m loyal to my friends. I remember who are the people there for the tough times.”

Kraft’s Patriots won the Super Bowl on Sunday night after a come-from-behind win that was vaguely reminiscent of Trump’s own election victory. Despite the National Football League’s best efforts to keep the sporting event a non-partisan red, white, black and blue, politics entered into the game, with many rooting against the Patriots — and for them — due to quarterback Tom Brady, coach Bill Belichick and owner Kraft’s allegiance to Trump.

Contact Daniel J. Solomon at [email protected] or on Twitter @DanielJSolomon

Daniel J. Solomon is the former Assistant to the Editor/News Writer at the Forward. Originally from Queens, he attended Harvard as an undergraduate, where he wrote his senior thesis on French-Jewish intellectual history. He is excited to have returned to New York after his time in Massachusetts. Daniel’s passions include folk music, cycling, and pointed argument.

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO