Few people around the NFL wield as much power as Robert Kraft. The 77-year-old owner of the New England Patriots is one of the strongest voices at league meetings, the leader of the team that has won six Super Bowls in 18 years and a man who took a $172 million investment on a struggling football franchise and built it into an empire worth nearly $4 billion.
As his Patriots boomed behind coach Bill Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady, Kraft became one of the most recognizable faces of the NFL’s financial success. The team’s on-field dominance, often referred to as “The Patriot Way,” allowed Kraft distance from a pair of cheating — one involving Belichick, the other Brady — as well as the murder conviction of star tight end Aaron Hernandez.