When the rich and powerful appear to get caught with their pants down, as it were, it is perhaps natural to revel in the spectacle of titans humbled, of masters of the universe brought to heel. In the case of billionaire Robert Kraft and the situation he now finds himself in, such reveling is an unfortunate distraction. When celebrities make the news, the news is often overshadowed by celebrity. But however this is resolved, there actually could be a constructive outcome: a focus on what’s really important here.
Kraft, as everyone in the universe now knows, is the owner of the New England Patriots. He was charged on Monday with two misdemeanor counts of soliciting prostitution as part of a monthslong investigation of massage parlors in Florida that are suspected of being involved in human trafficking. Authorities allege that Kraft visited the Orchids of Asia Day Spa in Jupiter, Fla., twice — once the night before January’s AFC championship game, and again the next morning — and was videotaped paying for sex acts on each occasion. Kraft, who was one of hundreds of men charged in the crackdown, has denied any wrongdoing. Ten spas have been shut down between Palm Beach and Orlando, and several of the alleged operators face prostitution-related charges; at least one is facing charges of trafficking.
For some this sorry spectacle is supercharged because Kraft’s Patriots are the most successful franchise in NFL history, which means they are reviled by fans of the 31 other, less accomplished teams. Their two decades of dominance, combined with a string of controversies — Spygate, Deflategate, the Tuck Rule — ensure that the Patriots routinely top lists of the most hated teams in sports. After news of the charges against Kraft broke, a wave of schadenfreude manifested itself on Twitter and elsewhere. One wag awarded Kraft the 2019 Prostitution Ring, to add to his collection of Super Bowl rings. A barbecue joint in New York briefly offered a pulled chicken sandwich it called the “Robert Kraft.” Fans of the rival New York Jets gathered outside the now-closed spa in their green-and-white jerseys for selfies. Others made sure to note Kraft’s friendship with President Donald Trump, pointing out that it’s a short cab ride from the Trump National Jupiter Golf Club to the spa.
But what’s heartening here is that, from news reports to sports talk radio to social media, few were willing to let the tawdry tale begin and end with Kraft. As the story took shape, journalists, law enforcement officials and others made sure to bring the focus back to where it belongs: on the hundreds of thousands of people — the vast majority of them women and girls — who are trafficked for sex work and other kinds of forced labor every year around the world. Traffickers use violence, threats, coercion, isolation and emotional and economic abuse to gain and maintain control of their victims, many of whom are forced to work in spas and massage parlors like the one Kraft allegedly visited. (No trafficking charges have been filed against Kraft, and The Robert Kraft Foundation has in fact donated money to organizations that work to combat human trafficking.)
On Friday, the day the story broke, Kiera Blessing, a reporter for The Eagle-Tribune of North Andover, Mass., jumped into the Twitter fray. “Before you attempt to make light of this Kraft situation: women were victimized,” she wrote. “They were lied to, trafficked, used as sex slaves. … This is not funny. This is horrible, and it happens all over the world every day.”
“Human trafficking means forced into sexual slavery,” added Jemele Hill, a sports columnist for The Atlantic who formerly worked for ESPN. “Trafficking experts will tell you how men in America are enormous consumers, thus making it that much more difficult to stop.”
Palm Beach State Attorney Dave Aronberg was on the same page in a news conference on Monday: “The larger picture, which we must all confront, is the cold reality that many prostitutes in cases like this are themselves victims, often lured to this country with promises of a better life, only to be forced to live and work in a sweatshop or a brothel performing sex acts for strangers.”
So there is a silver lining to this sordid story. Not for Kraft, who regardless of his guilt or innocence has already been humiliated and could wind up being punished severely by the NFL. With a net worth of some $6.6 billion, he can afford to buy his own silver linings. Instead, the potentially positive outcome here is that Kraft’s celebrity scandal will help shine a bright light on the brutal, multibillion-dollar sexual slavery industry, on the thousands of massage parlors, day spas and similar outlets for that industry that are operating right now, in plain sight, in strip malls and shopping centers all around America, and most important, on the men whose patronage creates the market for them.