Patriots Owner Robert Kraft made his first public comments since the NFL handed down its Deflategate penalties, saying that he is convinced QB Tom Brady "played no part in any football-deflation scheme before the AFC Championship Game in January," according to Peter King of THE MMQB. Kraft was asked if Brady had told him he was innocent, and Kraft responded, "Yes. Because we had the discussion -- if you did it, let’s just deal with it and take our hit and move on. ... He’s always been honest with me, and I trust him. I believed what he told me. He has never lied to me, and I have found no hard or conclusive evidence to the contrary." King notes Kraft during the interview "sounded alternately defiant and angry." Kraft indicated that he "is convinced the league does not have a smoking gun that would prove anyone connected with the organization deflated a bag of footballs to make them more to Brady’s liking in the AFC title game." He also is "convinced the Wells Report distorted the science to fit a conclusion that doesn’t work." Kraft: "This whole thing has been very disturbing. I’m still thinking things out very carefully. But when you work for something your whole life. ... I just get really worked up. To receive the harshest penalty in league history is just not fair. The anger and frustration with this process, to me, it wasn’t fair. If we’re giving all the power to the NFL and the office of the commissioner, this is something that can happen to all 32 teams. We need to have fair and balanced investigating and reporting. But in this report, every inference went against us … inferences from ambiguous, circumstantial evidence all went against us. That’s the thing that really bothers me. If they want to penalize us because there’s an aroma around this? That’s what this feels like. If you don’t have the so-called smoking gun, it really is frustrating. And they don’t have it. This thing never should have risen to this level" (MMQB.SI.com, 5/18).
SHORT AND TO THE POINT: King this morning said Kraft’s tone during the 50-minute interview was “defiant” and he was “curt.” King said, "He's hardly ever curt even when things don't quite go his way or after even a bitter loss. He is able to be somewhat philosophical and put things into perspective. But here he's angry, defiant and I think he's still trying to calculate what his next step should be.” King noted Kraft "feels like there is a cacophony of noise out there, and one proven thing that happened to his team (Spygate), where they admitted a mistake and moved on." King: "I don't think that he places a lot of stock in a lot of the other charges, the sort of wildcat charges that people say, ‘Oh, they cheat doing this, that, or the other thing.' If you're going to bring those charges, prove it, and I think in this particular case, the reason he has come out swinging is that he's convinced they haven’t proven it” ("SportsCenter," ESPN, 5/18).
THE END OF A BEAUTIFUL RELATIONSHIP? Kraft and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell prior to Deflategate were seen to have a strong personal relationship. However, when Kraft was asked by King about the current status of the relationship, he responded, "You’ll have to ask him." He "wouldn't answer further." King notes Kraft "is on five significant league business committees." When asked if he would remain as active in league affairs as he has been, Kraft responded, "I’d rather not get into that for a week or two" (MMQB.SI.com, 5/18). In Boston, Karen Guregian notes the NFL spring owners meeting gets under way tomorrow in S.F., where "all eyes" will be on Kraft and Goodell to "see how -- or even if -- they interact." Guregian: "Will they talk? Will it be cordial? Or, might there be more fireworks in store?" Another question in light of the punishments handed out is whether Goodell has the "support of the league’s 31 other team owners." Guregian: "Who are his allies? Would they be disappointed if the commissioner reduced Brady’s suspension during the upcoming appeal?" After the "harsh sanctions levied against the Patriots, the feeling now is that their bond is irreparably broken" (BOSTON HERALD, 5/18). King said during the owners meeting, everybody "is expecting Robert Kraft and Roger Goodell to duel at 10 paces." He added, "You’re going to see Kraft stand up for himself, but I don't think you're going see any sort of defiant confrontation. I believe that the two men will probably meet behind closed doors and have some sort of discussion out of the public eye” (“SportsCenter,” ESPN, 5/18). Meanwhile, in DC, Mark Maske notes despite the fact the Kraft/Goodell dynamic "clearly has changed now," it is "another thing entirely to be completely convinced that the matter will lead Kraft to stop supporting Goodell as commissioner." Team owners "tend to do what is good for business," and Goodell "has been good for business." Maske: "The issue of whether Kraft, or any other owner, would cease to support him must take that into account" (WASHINGTONPOST.com, 5/18).
KRAFT PIER: ESPN BOSTON's Mike Reiss wrote some observers have "asked what Kraft accomplished by launching the website Wellsreportcontext.com on Thursday, because it’s not as if the NFL will be reducing any penalties because of it." The website actually "only intensifies hard feelings between the team and league office." But one "needs only review Kraft’s remarks in recent months to understand the purpose of the website -- it’s a legacy piece." Kraft "simply wanted to put the team’s version of events on the public record." For an owner that "feels his team was railroaded by the NFL, the website was deemed the best avenue to tell his team’s side of the story and formally introduce it to any public debate right now and into the future." Reiss: "My feeling is that the Patriots’ fight most likely stops there; I’d be surprised if Kraft filed a lawsuit against the NFL" (ESPNBOSTON.com, 5/17). Meanwhile, in Boston, Ron Borges writes Kraft is "teetering on the edge" of becoming a new version of late Raiders Owner Al Davis. Borges: "Defending yourself and your organization is one thing. Allowing an overpaid lawyer to turn you into a laughingstock is quite another. Sadly, it is too late to save Kraft from the latter." Davis’ worldview "was that there’s his way and the wrong way." Anytime the league office "acted, it was to hurt him." Anytime his fellow owners "voted on something, it was to hurt him." Borges: "Do we see a trend here? Sadly we are beginning to in Kraft’s handling of Deflategate" (BOSTON HERALD, 5/18).
ALLS WELL THAT ENDS WELLS? In Boston, Ben Volin writes Deflategate investigator Ted Wells "needs to speak again," as the Patriots "made several compelling points in their defense." One that "needs to be explored, and demands a response from Wells, is the idea that the Patriots didn’t fully cooperate with Wells’s investigation." Wells, it "seems, was not 100 percent genuine in his description of the Patriots’ non-cooperation." There "are other questions that the NFL needs to answer." Namely, "why didn’t the league publicly correct the false leak about one of the Patriots’ footballs measuring at 10.1 PSI, which started the whole hysteria?" Also why didn't NFL Manager/Game Operations James Daniel "say anything when he watched" locker room attendant Jim McNally "walk away with the footballs right in front of him?" (BOSTON GLOBE, 5/18).
