Kraft has largely stayed out of coach Bill Belichick’s way when it comes to making personnel decisionsGETTY IMAGES
Patriots Owner Robert Kraft "maintains there’s no dysfunction within the Patriots organization, but the team owner recently acknowledged there has been some tension," according to Nicole Yang of BOSTON.com. But Kraft, referencing a recent report about tension between he, coach Bill Belichick and QB Tom Brady, said a certain amount of tension "helps make great things happen." Patriots President Jonathan Kraft added, "Dysfunction is when people take energy and use it to think about how to undermine other people and that does not happen. If It happens in this organization, I haven't seen it" (BOSTON.com, 1/31). ESPN's Trey Wingo said of Jonathan Kraft's comments about Brady, "It makes it sound like the guy who has always been in charge of football, which would be Bill Belichick, is no longer in charge of Tom Brady, who plays football, which seems to go to the tension we were talking about" ("Golic & Wingo," ESPN Radio, 2/1). PFT's Mike Florio said of the Krafts' reiterating that there is no dysfunction within the team, "You're going to have people who have strong opinions about the way things should be and they're not always going to line up, and you have to work through it and you find a way to work together. I still believe that Bill Belichick has fingerprints on that story, that this was a way to deal with tension that was bordering on dysfunction by clunking everyone's head together, by having this story come out." NBCSN's Chris Simms said, "I appreciate them addressing the elephant in the room" ("PFT," NBCSN, 2/1). In Boston, Jeff Howe notes Robert Kraft’s approach as owner of the Patriots "has been vital." He "ignored members of the league office and television networks who didn’t want him to hire" Belichick in '00 because Kraft "wanted a coach who was equally in tune with the performance on the field as he was with the roster management off it." That is why Kraft has "largely stayed out of Belichick’s way with personnel decisions." And Kraft "took a financial risk on a franchise that was bound for St. Louis, kept the Patriots in Foxboro and rejuvenated local interest after hope nearly was lost." They have "sold out all 263 home games since Kraft took control, and he replaced a decrepit stadium with a privately funded, state-of-the-art facility that has since added its Hall of Fame and a mall" (BOSTON HERALD, 2/1).
