NY Islanders captain Anders Lee and former NY Jets quarterback invest in soccer club

Since the day New York Islanders captain Anders Lee signed his seven-year, $49 million contract extension, it was categorized by most as too long and for too much money. Well, at least we now have some insight into what the 33-year-old forward is planning to do with some of that wealth when his playing days on Long Island are over.

Lee and former New York Jets quarterback and Super Bowl champion Joe Flacco are among the strategic investors in St Patrick's Athletic F.C., an Irish association football club based in Inchicore, Dublin, that plays in the Irish Premier Division.

I guess we shouldn't be surprised that the Notre Dame alum would invest in an Irish soccer team.

Lee and Flacco, the AP comeback player of the year, who is currently a free agent after leading the Cleveland Browns to the playoffs, are among those that make up Kenosis Sports Group, a subsidiary of U.S.-based private equity firm Kenosis Capital.

The group includes former Minnesota Vikings center Matt Birk and linebacker Chad Greenway. Flacco won a Super Bowl in Baltimore with Birk, and Birk's brother is Lee's financial advisor in Minnesota and the one who told the Edina, MN native about the investment opportunity.

“This was an opportunity brought to me, Matt did, that was exciting on my end," Lee said in Newsday. "I’m always interested in companies, how they work, the business side of things,” he said. “It’s completely an offseason type of thing. I like to learn about these types of things."

We all knew about Lee's football background, but didn't know his interests went beyond the American kind. Lee's financial group have been working to arrange for their newest team tp play a friendly match against Minnesota United of Major League Soccer on March 20.