Bart Hubbach is Back and He's Writing a Senseless Hit Piece on Mr. Kraft
Remember Bart Hubbach, that little ball of resentment from New York Post who got fired for comparing Trump’s inaugural to 9/11 and Pearl Harbor? And he sued them for unlawful termination and lost because there’s nothing in anyone’s employment contract saying they have to keep a douchebag who compares an election to surprise attacks that killed six thousand of his countrymen? Well just when you thought you’d heard the last of this dickface, he’s back.
Like a spider crawling back up out of the drain after you ran the faucet full blast. Barstool Jr., which is also somehow still afloat, gave Hubbach a safe landing. Forming a perfect Yin/Yang of hatred and slanted hackiness, Deadspin and are together at last and doing what they love best: Posting unhinged hatchet pieces about the Patriots. This time about how Mr. Kraft is basically Ace Rothstein from Casino:
Kraft is making money from casino gambling and sports betting, and the NFL knows all about it.
Why you didn’t learn about this before—at least not from me—is a story of a media mogul and his company’s golden goose, of the bulletproof owner of football’s most dominant franchise … with a backdoor investment in Caesars Entertainment, one of the world’s largest chains of casinos and sportsbooks.
Caesars Entertainment is an owner, stakeholder, or operator of 50 casinos and horse-racing tracks around the world, most under the Caesars, Bally’s, Harrah’s and Horseshoe brands. That lineup also features more than a dozen casinos in Nevada with sportsbooks accepting bets on NFL games.
For the last three years, Kraft has held a spot on the board of directors of Manhattan private-equity behemoth Apollo Global Management. … Apollo will still share a 16 percent investment in Caesars Entertainment. …
Both Caesars Entertainment and Apollo are publicly traded, and Kraft’s investment in Apollo (worth approximately $7 million based on recent trading) is pocket change relative to an estimated $5.1 billion fortune that ranked the 75-year-old Kraft No. 102 on Forbes’ most recent list of the world’s richest people. Kraft doesn’t hide his role with Apollo, either, listing his board spot in his bio in the Patriots’ 2016 media guide. He’s listed on Apollo’s site as well.
Holding that position would appear to be a clear violation of the NFL’s gambling policy.
Gasp! I don’t know what to say. I’m shocked – SHOCKED! – to learn there’s gambling going on in places that are owned by corporate entities partly owned by enormous investment conglomerates that Mr. Kraft owns some stock in.
Seriously, this is the worst news since the Globe told us Tom Brady’s raised $46.5 million for a worthy charity that donated $3.5 million back to his other worthy charities. I mean, I know guys like Bart Hubbach and Deadspin have always told us the Krafts are involved in shady football practices. But I never imagined he’d have $7 million of his $5.1 billion invested in a company that owns part of an entertainment company that has some gaming interests. I’m not good at math, but I think that’s like 0.1372 percent of his total investment.
I don’t know how Bart managed to uncover this. Aside from the publicly traded nature of the companies and the Patriots and this Apollo listing in their media guides, but that is some brilliant detective work. And this idea that the NFL is hypocritical when it comes to players doing work in Vegas while the billionaire owners can do whatever and get away with it? That’s something that’s only occurred to every player, owner, reporter and fan in the country. But let’s not let that get in the way of the real story: Mr. Kraft is guilty and deserves to lose all his draft picks then be led away in handcuffs.
Welcome back, Hubbach. Way to announce your presence with authority! Glad to see you still don’t have any kind of a fastball.