This Week in Jewish Sports – BAGELS & JOCKS Monday, January 30, 2012

Created by Matthew J. Goldberg, tipofthegoldberg.com

Six more days until Super Bowl XLVI (“46” isn’t epic-enough looking for the NFL), as Bagels & Jocks highlights one of the team’s owners—a remarkable man named Robert Kraft. Kraft celebrates his team’s accomplishments while still mourning the loss of his beloved wife, Myra.

THE NFL: THE PATRIOTS PILLAR – MOURNING MYRA

Bagels & Jocks usually celebrates the exploits of Jewish athletes and coaches, but at a time when many professional sports owners are Jewish, it is time to salute one of the very best.

When the New England Patriots attempt to keep the Vince Lombardi Trophy away from the New York Giants on February 5, they will have extra incentive to win another Super Bowl for their popular owner, Robert Kraft, an extraordinarily accomplished businessman, celebrated philanthropist and successful sports franchise owner.

Kraft, chairman and former CEO of the Kraft Group (with diversified holdings in paper and packaging, sports and entertainment) has owned the Patriots since 1994; in those 18 years, the team has advanced to five Super Bowls, and will look to win their fourth. No other team has won more than two such championships since Kraft took the reigns of the franchise—one thathad never won an AFL or NFL championship in the 34 years that preceded him.

The team’s success (the Patriots have also won more games than any of their competitors during that span) has helped ease some of the pain that Kraft has felt this season; his wife of 48 years, Myra Hiatt Kraft had lost her battle with cancer last July. Just days later while still in mourning, Kraft was instrumental in helping NFL owners and players salvage the season after a lockout, and helped both sides sign a 10-year labor pact. Many players and owners, including Indianapolis Colts center Jeff Saturday (one of the leading player union representatives, who famously hugged Kraft after the agreement was reached) credited the owner for salvaging the season.

The Patriots have worn a patch that says “MHK” on their uniforms this year, and Mrs. Kraft—who was a great philanthropist and presided over the team’s charitable foundation and sat on many boards of directors, such as the Boys and Girls Club and United Way—has been mentioned frequently by Robert and the players this season.

The Patriots were hardly a flourishing franchise prior to Kraft assuming control, but Kraft was able to leverage his position to not only keep the franchise in the Boston area, but to privately finance the team’s home stadium. On the field, he has had the great sense to be supportive while letting the football experts run the show.

Of course, the Patriots’ two greatest moves were hiring Bill Belichick as coach in 2000, and taking a chance on a skinny quarterback out of the University of Michigan—some California kid named Tom Brady—in the sixth round of that year’s NFL draft. Suffice it to say that both men will one day be enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and Kraft deserves an opportunity to also be enshrined in the Canton, Ohio museum.

Kraft, a native of Brookline, Massachusetts, was a scholarship student at Columbia University and received his MBA from Harvard. A former lightweight team football player at Columbia, he has given much of his time and money (it has been estimated that the Krafts have donated over $100 million to various causes) to bringing football to Israel.

The Israeli Football League is sponsored by the Kraft Family; Kraft Stadium in Jerusalem is the site of the IFL’s version of the Super Bowl (the Israel Bowl – last year was Israel Bowl IV) which was won last March by the Judean Rebels. The IFL presently has ten teams; per their website, the Jerusalem Lions (sporting a 6-0 record) appear to be the team to beat this year.

TENNIS: UPDATING THE JEWISH WIZARDS OF OZ

Tennis fans were treated Sunday morning to one of the greatest matches ever played, as world number one Novak Djokovic (Serbia) outlasted world number two Rafael Nadal (Spain) in the Australian Open Final by a score of 5-7, 6-4, 6-2, 6-7 (5), 7-5. Oh yes, the fatigue-defying match took a record five hours and 53 minutes to complete.

Jewish players still playing as of last Monday included Israel’s Andy Ram who advanced to the second round of the mixed doubles with Russia’s Yaroslava Shvedova, before bowing to the eighth-seeded team of Horia Tecau and Bethanie Mattek-Sands, 4-6 6-7 (2). If it is any consolation to them, Tecau and Mattek-Sands went on to win the tourney.

Merrick, NY’s own Scott Lipsky advanced to the second round of the mixed doubles, and to the quarterfinals of the men’s doubles—a good overall showing.

HURRAY FOR A TERRIFIC JEWISH QUAKER

The top U.S. Jewish collegiate hoopster may well be guard Zach Rosen of the University of Pennsylvania Quakers. Rosen, who was voted All-Ivy League first team the past two seasons, may be saving his very best for his senior year as Penn (10-9, 2-0 in the Ivies) prepares to host arch-rival Princeton this evening at the historic Palestra.

Rosen, perhaps the leading candidate for his league’s player-of-the-year honors, is second in the Ivies at 18.3 points per game, and leads all conference players with 6.2 assists per contest. He also ranks near the top in steals and free throw shooting percentage.

Two summers ago, the native of Colonia, New Jersey played on the US basketball team that won the gold medal at the 18^th Maccabiah Games in Israel.

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On that auspicious note, it is time to sign off from today’s edition of Bagels and Jocks. See you next Monday right here. Please feel free to share some dialogue below.  If you would like to bring another Jewish athlete or mover-and-shaker to my attention, please contact me via this site or by e-mail.

Matthew J. (call him Matt) Goldberg will be taking a look at “This Week in Jewish Sports”) every Monday on www.jewocity.com. Please send feedback or suggestions to Matt@tipofthegoldberg.com.

For information about Matt’s books, sports columns, speaking events and requests for appearances and custom writing, please visit www.tipofthegoldberg.com, or contact him via email.