TheBigLead.com: Top 15 NFL owners

[thenepatsrule]

Ranking the NFL Owners, Part I | The Big Lead

1. Robert Kraft, New England Patriots. This one is a no-brainer. Owning the team in New England may seem easy now, but Kraft bought the team when it was at a low point and saved it from a move to St. Louis. He has since built his own new stadium in Foxboro, and did so by doing something unimaginable, spending his own money and developing Patriot Place around the stadium. His teams have been in the final eight in more than half the seasons he has owned the franchise, and have six Super Bowl appearances. (18 seasons, 67.0% win percentage, 6 SB Appearances)

Every one is entitled to their opinion, but it is hard to disagree with the authors analysis.

 

[MrNathanDrake]

with the exception of a few, this could easily be a list of "Best teams of the past 15 years"

 

[IllegalContact]

Every one is entitled to their opinion, but it is hard to disagree with the authors analysis.

absolutely......

top it off with the fact that kraft was the lead in ending the lockout

 

[Ron Sellers]

with the exception of a few, this could easily be a list of "Best teams of the past 15 years"

Part II, with the bottom 16 owners is more interesting.

Ranking the NFL Owners, Part II | The Big Lead

 

[LetsGoBuffalo]

Kraft is a top owner, no doubt, but can we stop pretending he didn't play hardball with both Hartford and Beacon Hill? This revisionist Robin Hood role that he is being cast now plays nice in the media, but what really occured?

Remember When the Patriots Almost Moved to Hartford? | Boston Sports Then and Now

Please. The guy should be highly commended for hiring top notch coaching and front office talent and commiting the resources it takes to sustain a long run of success. He is beyond any measure a top owner.

However, let's not pretend he didn't use Hartford for the whore that they were willing to be in his quest to build a new stadium. Would he have really moved to lowly CT? Probably not. But how would many of you feel now if those two days referenced in the article had passed?

I was living in CT at the time and I remember some of my friends who were fans of other teams chomping at the bit for the Pats to move to Adrien's Landing and saying they would convert.

The real question is, would you guys have converted to another team if those two days had elapsed?

 

[Joker]

I've been a Patriots fan since day one of the AFL...seriously, WTF kind of drugs are you on?

You seem to know about 100,000 times more about this CT. "controversy" than I do,which seems rather odd. You lived in CT, you know every syllable of every word printed about Kraft's business dealings and you want to get admissions that Pats fans would immediately run off to follow another team over this flea blip on the NFL radar....you sound like an obsessed stalker type...go away....

 

[tuckeverlasting]

why would we change allegences ? CT is still in new england. doesn't matter where they play in ne. just a different venue. kraft is definitely the top owner in the nfl followed closely by maras and rooneys.

 

[NEGoldenAge]

Kraft is a top owner, no doubt, but can we stop pretending he didn't play hardball with both Hartford and Beacon Hill? This revisionist Robin Hood role that he is being cast now plays nice in the media, but what really occured?

Remember When the Patriots Almost Moved to Hartford? | Boston Sports Then and Now

Please. The guy should be highly commended for hiring top notch coaching and front office talent and commiting the resources it takes to sustain a long run of success. He is beyond any measure a top owner.

However, let's not pretend he didn't use Hartford for the whore that they were willing to be in his quest to build a new stadium. Would he have really moved to lowly CT? Probably not. But how would many of you feel now if those two days referenced in the article had passed?

I was living in CT at the time and I remember some of my friends who were fans of other teams chomping at the bit for the Pats to move to Adrien's Landing and saying they would convert.

The real question is, would you guys have converted to another team if those two days had elapsed?

If you knew what you were talking about, you'd realize that Finneran was the villan in that situation. I doubt there is another owner in the league who would have kept the Pats in MA in that environment. States with a lot less money than MA were willing to use public funds to build a stadium for the Pats.

 

[BSR]

Kraft is a top owner, no doubt, but can we stop pretending he didn't play hardball with both Hartford and Beacon Hill? This revisionist Robin Hood role that he is being cast now plays nice in the media, but what really occured?

Remember When the Patriots Almost Moved to Hartford? | Boston Sports Then and Now

Please. The guy should be highly commended for hiring top notch coaching and front office talent and commiting the resources it takes to sustain a long run of success. He is beyond any measure a top owner.

However, let's not pretend he didn't use Hartford for the whore that they were willing to be in his quest to build a new stadium. Would he have really moved to lowly CT? Probably not. But how would many of you feel now if those two days referenced in the article had passed?

I was living in CT at the time and I remember some of my friends who were fans of other teams chomping at the bit for the Pats to move to Adrien's Landing and saying they would convert.

The real question is, would you guys have converted to another team if those two days had elapsed?

I wanted them to have a respectable stadium, not that embarrassment that was the old Foxboro Stadium. There was no way I would have stopped being a fan. I'm also still pissed that there is a Federal Courthouse sitting on prime waterfront property instead of a downtown Boston stadium as it should be.

 

[Ron Sellers]

Kraft is a top owner, no doubt, but can we stop pretending he didn't play hardball with both Hartford and Beacon Hill? This revisionist Robin Hood role that he is being cast now plays nice in the media, but what really occured?

Remember When the Patriots Almost Moved to Hartford? | Boston Sports Then and Now

Please. The guy should be highly commended for hiring top notch coaching and front office talent and commiting the resources it takes to sustain a long run of success. He is beyond any measure a top owner.

However, let's not pretend he didn't use Hartford for the whore that they were willing to be in his quest to build a new stadium. Would he have really moved to lowly CT? Probably not. But how would many of you feel now if those two days referenced in the article had passed?

I was living in CT at the time and I remember some of my friends who were fans of other teams chomping at the bit for the Pats to move to Adrien's Landing and saying they would convert.

The real question is, would you guys have converted to another team if those two days had elapsed?

Since you lived in CT at the time you are (or should be) familiar with the New England area. Aside from not considering what else was happening at the time (see above comment) with the local politicians, why would you expect sports fans from here to root for another team even if the Pats had moved to Hartford? The Patriots would still be by far the closest NFL team, and it's not as if Hartford is that far away.

Stop and think about it: a drive out on the Mass Pike and then down 84 to Hartford would probably take less time than most spend on Route 1 getting to Foxboro.

 

[chuckdoucette]

The Rooney's have no business on that list. The moment they kept the Rapistberger instead of doing the right thing and dropping him they went right to the bottom of my list.

 

[LetsGoBuffalo]

Allow me a quick mea culpa here guys.

While I do think Kraft backing out of a signed contract with Hartford to move the team to Adrien's Landing was disingenuous and shady, I'd still be psyched if he was my owner and respect what he has done with his team since the purchase.

 

[Jackson 2]

Allow me a quick mea culpa here guys.

While I do think Kraft backing out of a signed contract with Hartford to move the team to Adrien's Landing was disingenuous and shady, I'd still be psyched if he was my owner and respect what he has done with his team since the purchase.

Part of the signed contract included "out clauses", at least one of which Kraft utilized to "back out", as you put it.

 

[LetsGoBuffalo]

Part of the signed contract included "out clauses", at least one of which Kraft utilized to "back out", as you put it.

Yep. At the end of the day it's smart business on Kraft's end. Hartford is a dead end street IMO (my wife is from WH) and I don't think anyone other than John Rowland ever thought Kraft was going to honor that deal.

Sorry to pick a nit, b/c I was pretty banged up when I made my first post in thread and my instinct is telling me to let it go, but I have to ask u what is the difference between exercising out clauses and backing out?

 

[BradyFTW!]

Yep. At the end of the day it's smart business on Kraft's end. Hartford is a dead end street IMO (my wife is from WH) and I don't think anyone other than John Rowland ever thought Kraft was going to honor that deal.

Sorry to pick a nit, b/c I was pretty banged up when I made my first post in thread and my instinct is telling me to let it go, but I have to ask u what is the difference between exercising out clauses and backing out?

"Backing out" implies that he didn't honor the terms of the contract. Exercising an out clause explicitly states that he did honor the terms of the contract.

 

[NEGoldenAge]

"Backing out" implies that he didn't honor the terms of the contract. Exercising an out clause explicitly states that he did honor the terms of the contract.

Why respond to the guy? He tried bashing Kraft, and when he found out he was wrong, he dug until he found something he thought he could criticize Kraft for. He found out he was wrong again and is still trying to criticize him. This troll has been fed enough.