F. Scott Fitzgerald once said the very rich are different from you and me.
Bob Kraft is proving that.
You would think the New England Patriots owner would be keeping a low profile after police in Jupiter, Fla., announced last Friday that Kraft was one of 25 men caught on video visiting a massage parlor where human traffickers were exploiting women.
Instead, he attended pre-Oscar parties in Los Angeles over the weekend.
Kraft craves the limelight so much and loves rubbing elbows with his fellow plutocrats that he can’t be shamed.
So it probably won’t bother him that prosecutors announced Monday details of his visits to the massage parlor on consecutive days Jan. 19thand 20th with the specifics on the sex acts that were performed. And doing it two days in a row shows it wasn’t a one-time thing. How many other times did he visit before police installed the cameras?
And what is noteworthy about Jan. 20th is that it was the day of the AFC championship game, when the Patriots were playing at Kansas City.
He left the parlor barely eight hours before kickoff. Plenty of time for him to fly to Kansas City on his private jet.
But shouldn’t he be too focused on the game to think about going to a massage parlor? And what if the weather was bad and he couldn’t fly there the day of the game? Being a billionaire, he doesn’t think the way the rest of us do.
And then the London Daily Mail showed pictures of him attending the pre-Oscar parties.
The paper also had photos of him arriving in Boston on Monday on his private jet and getting a hug from Tom Brady, who apparently traveled with his wife with Kraft.
Kraft isn’t changing his jet-setting lifestyle.
The prosecutors also announced a court date of April 24th, but he doesn’t have to appear in person.
And the legal issues are the least of his problems. If convicted, he will probably get a fine and community service.
But then the league will get involved. He will likely be fined and suspended by commissioner Roger Goodell.
If his weekend appearance at the pre-Oscar parties shows, Kraft will probably resume watching the games from his box at Gillette Stadium when the suspension ends. The suspension should be for a year, but then you never know what Goodell will do.
It will be interesting to see if Kraft attends the annual March NFL owners meeting in less than two months.
Another thorny issue will be whether he will go into the Hall of Fame anytime soon.
With an expanded class planned next year for the 100th anniversary of the founding of the forerunner of the NFL, Kraft was likely to make it next year.
Since off-field conduct is not supposed to be a factor in the voting, there is nothing to stop him from being inducted next year.
But will the voters want to put Kraft in the Hall if he is under suspension? Or so soon after this incident?
Meanwhile, what does the Kraft family think of all this?
The Kraft sons should have an intervention and explain to him what he is doing to the family reputation that he cultivated all these years.
Kraft just doesn’t get it.