Dale Arnold: How much does character figure in to the acquisition and ultimate signing and resigning of New England Patriot football players?
Robert Kraft: That’s a very big part of it. I saw all kinds of situations in my early years. When I hired Pete Carroll and then Bill Belichick, those are the two coaches that I have hired since I’ve been in the NFL. I said to each of them, the only thing that’s important to me. Is that we not have thugs and hoodlums here and if we need that to win then I’m getting out of the business. People in this region of the country are not willing to forgive the way people in other areas of the country are and if we’re responsible for bringing someone here to this region who has a past history of abusing women and then they come to this marketplace and do it then shame on us. We want to win but we don’t want to win so badly that we’re going to compromise certain values. You know when you understand that this is the ultimate team sport. And people are responsible to other people. And we’re gonna have our problems that doesn’t mean certain things are going to happen but that at the basic core we want good guys, good guys who can subjugate their egos for the good of the team and feel a responsibility to the brand and the team that they’re proud to be part of it."
