The Story of Michael Jackson and the New England Patriots
Published on November 29th, 2022 12:41 pm ESTWritten By: Dave Manuel
Without Michael Jackson, aka the "King of Pop", the New England Patriots dynasty may never have happened.
In fact, it's almost a certainty.
What was the chain of events that led Michael Jackson to being directly responsible for the start of the Tom Brady/Bill Belichick/Patriots dynasty?
Read on.
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The story begins in 1984. Here are the pieces of information that are important to this story:
1) The Jackson Five are about to embark on their disastrous "Victory Tour".
2) Billy Sullivan is the owner of the New England Patriots.
3) Sullivan has financially backed the "Victory Tour" and has pledged the Patriots' stadium, Sullivan Stadium, as collateral (remember, the NFL isn't close to the financial juggernaut that it is today).
4) Robert "Bob" Kraft, a successful businessman, owns the property around the stadium, including "Foxboro Raceway".
5) Bob Kraft wants to own the New England Patriots.
The Victory Tour had issues from start to finish and resulted in heavy losses for Sullivan. This was the cherry on the cake for Sullivan's financial issues.
As a result of his financial issues, Sullivan sold his controlling interest in the Patriots in 1988, and Sullivan Stadium entered bankruptcy.
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Bob Kraft was a crafty businessman, and he knew that he might not win the bidding war for the Patriots.
Instead, he won the bidding war for Sullivan Stadium, which was seen as most to be practically worthless.
Kraft, however, knew that the stadium had one very important asset attached to it - the Patriots' lease with the stadium, which couldn't be broken and was in force until 2001.
Kraft lost the bidding war for the Patriots to Victor Kiam, but Kraft refused to allow the Patriots to break their lease to move to Jacksonville.
Kiam had financial issues of his own, and sold the team to James Orthwein in 1992.
The problem? The Patriots had an ironclad lease in place until 2001, which was nine years away. Orthwein didn't want to keep the team in New England, but had no choice.
Orthwein offered Kraft $75 million to let the Patriots out of their lease, and Kraft refused. He wanted the Patriots.
In the end, Orthwein saw that Kraft couldn't be swayed, and the two reached a deal for Kraft to purchase the Patriots.
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Robert Kraft would hire Bill Belichick as the head coach of the New England Patriots on January 27th, 2000.
Belichick was the man who selected Tom Brady with the 199th overall pick in the 2000 NFL Draft.
The pieces of the puzzle were now in place, and the Patriots would end up winning six Super Bowls with Brady and Belichick.
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If Michael Jackson and the Jackson Five hadn't had such a disastrous tour in 1984, none of this likely would have happened.
In fact, there is a very good chance that New England wouldn't have a football team, as they would have very likely moved away to a city like Jacksonville.
In the end, it was Robert Kraft's stubbornness to own the Patriots that resulted in the dynasty and New England staying put.
With a little help from Michael Jackson.