Mr Kraft, The Time has Come To Ask: Whose Side Are You On?

For me, it's less about hearing the "they cheated" rhetoric again. What annoys me is I woke up today happy to start reading an analysis of the beat down they put on the Colts, and start previewing what should be a classic Super Bowl. Instead, I get this garbage everywhere.

SEA_Pat said:

I dunno, by trying to resolve this now, then it becomes the lead story and blows up like Spygate. By pointing out that it's absurd and just letting it lie, then it will get overwhelmed by actual football news and opinion. Haters who are going to be rabbiting on about this would be going "Belicheat...Spygate..." regardless, so let 'em.

I think what it shows is an agenda to try to distract the Patriots since this happens EVERY time we have a huge game coming up. They know they're up against it so they're trying to even the odds at the expense of the game. It's sad.

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1) Your first sentence: You may want to revisit how they handled 2007. Because they did nothing and it blew up into a fireball that still smolders 7.5 years later.

2) This is an easy thing to investigate and report. Delaying it 4+ weeks only keeps it in the news.

It's in the Pats best interest for this to be resolved quickly. Kraft better get working on this stupid thing.

man, what I wouldn't give for a good two or three days of new Don Shula rants....

Bella*chick said:

Well, I guess I'm just not as concerned with the bottom line, for the team or the NFL. To be perfectly honest, it took me a long time (until 2007/8) to realize no one else in my circle of friends and acquaintances gave a damn about sports and their respective NFL teams like I did. I alienated quite a few people by going absolutely ballistic on them with facts and stats if they tried to trash talk with me. They honestly did not really care….it was just a way to have some conversation. For me, it was much more. But its not anymore and it hasn't been in a while. For one thing, I'm not even sure football in its current state will even be around in 30-40 years. And if its gone, who gives a **** who the greatest team or QB was? No one. It just doesn't matter. And so why should I care if other fan bases or joe dipshit on Facebook or Felger or anyone else thinks about BB or Brady? I know they are the greatest of all time at what they do and that's enough for me. If others think its "tainted" or whatever, who cares? It's just perception and with the "Oooh, something shiny!" mentality of the news today, perception can change anytime it wants to. So why expend the energy? If we win the Superbowl again, you know who will really care about it in my life? Me. My dad and brother. My son. And absolutely no one else. They'll all be talking about Katy Perry or something the next day.

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So why keep score?

Who cares if they win, in that case Bella*chick? Maybe it is more important to enjoy a well developed defensive play or end around run?

There is a reason why they keep records. There is a reason why they keep the standings.

Let's be honest. There is a reason why 18-1 means something different to me, and yes you, than 19-0 would have. I don't know you, but I have read and enjoyed your posts over the years to know enough that you could write a pretty good sized book on the difference to you personally between the numbers 18-1 and 19-0. What that truly MEANS.

Look, I understand a lot of people try to rationalize. I do plenty of times also. It is a protective mechanism that helps us all get through our days. But to ignore the reality of the outside world doesn't mean that it simply doesn't exist. It does.

shmessy said:

How'd that work out with Cameragate?

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That is a nonsensical response. Every decision is wrong if the standard for wrong is I can find f one dissimilar case where doing that didn't work.

Sicilian said:

For me, it's less about hearing the "they cheated" rhetoric again. What annoys me is I woke up today happy to start reading an analysis of the beat down they put on the Colts, and start previewing what should be a classic Super Bowl. Instead, I get this garbage everywhere.

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This. Woke up this morning for work, and decided to peruse the web for analysis of the game for a few minutes before getting ready, only to find this crap ubiquitous in the media.

The allegations are bogus, which of course means it is being taken seriously by mediots and the NFL.

Ostensibly, it is a vexing situation for many Patriots fans (me included), definitely a distraction at the moment.

I don't know if this will be resolved or cleared anytime soon, although I have heard it could be in as little as a couple/few days (for the sake of rationality and logic, it should be IMHO).

Be that as it may, I am planning to spend the remainder of the week away from football and come back refreshed Monday for X's and O's on the Pats-Seahawks matchup.

shmessy said:

I'm not proposing Kraft come out and just give some speech.

I'm saying he should not accept the NFL's ridiculous plan to take 4+ weeks (through and beyond the Super Bowl) to come up with a report on this. This ensures that the entire SB experience will be under this cloud.

He can and should demand that a full and clear investigation be made and the findings unequivocally published on this within 48 hours. How complex and nationwide is this? Examine the 12 balls, interview the ref and the linesmen, get a full debriefing from the equipment manager and ballboys.

This isn't the Warren Commission. There is no excuse for the timetable put out this afternoon.

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The idea that this will take months is simply a rumor. Rapaport said end of tomorrow or Wednesday. Knee jerk reactions always seem right at the time but in hindsight once the facts are known they usually seem wrong.
If the league announces tomorrow that there was nothing to this do you guys give kraft back the manhood you are taking from him? Is it that bad to reserve judgment on the response until we actually have something resembling a fact?

AndyJohnson said:

The idea that this will take months is simply a rumor. Rapaport said end of tomorrow or Wednesday. Knee jerk reactions always seem right at the time but in hindsight once the facts are known they usually seem wrong.
If the league announces tomorrow that there was nothing to this do you guys give kraft back the manhood you are taking from him? Is it that bad to reserve judgment on the response until we actually have something resembling a fact?

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You bet, Andy. And from your lips to God's ears. I look forward to your scenario playing out tomorrow or Wednesday.

This thread is a plea to Mr. Kraft to do the right thing on this and not act (lie down) as he did in 2007.

Joker said:

man, what I wouldn't give for a good two or three days of new Don Shula rants....

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Shula's nurse is warming him up to "get him back in the game" right now.

meanwhile Peytie has a new commercial venture going ....

Pump Dem Balls!

a reworking of his previous ad campaign (after all, we can't really ascribe any real ingenuity to the Fly LandingStrip Head...

shmessy said:

Shula's nurse is warming him up to "get him back in the game" right now.

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I wonder what the league denotes the proper psi on that to be before going back in?

shmessy said:

1) Your first sentence: You may want to revisit how they handled 2007. Because they did nothing and it blew up into a fireball that still smolders 7.5 years later.

2) This is an easy thing to investigate and report. Delaying it 4+ weeks only keeps it in the news.

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I understand your first point, BUT, the difference is that it's easy to understand why Spygate would have benefited us hence it gained traction (even though those who understood the details realized how trivial it actually was, and many knowledgeable NFL people noted how it wasn't a factor). It's not easy to see how this would have benefited a team that intended to run more than pass against a team that intended to pass more than run. Hence I don't believe it has much chance of gaining traction after the initial kerfuffle. Furthermore, it's something that doesn't particularly benefit one side more than the other.

As to the investigation, I think it serves only to distract the team and coaches during a time they need to be focused on one thing and one thing only.

no question about it, fans...after the Pats thrilling victory over Indy, the whole country is PUMPED AND JACKED...(or is that pimped and sacked?}

One of the main standards of our legal systems is the presumption of innocence, known as the principle of "innocent until proven guilty". With the Patriots, is the exact opposite.

People truly believe that NE filmed the Rams walkthrough on SB 36, stole a copy from the Jets playbook, violate the rules by filing false injury reports, use illegal formations, among others.

Why?
Due to their name being tossed and dragged through the mud so often, with no active response or defense from the owner & FO against the detractors.

If a writer twits about the team purposely 'deflating balls', the immediate conclusion is that the Pats are guilty, with further analysis to come, rather than innocent. Most often than not a particular opinion gets repeated throughout various news mediums and social networking sites, until it creates a false vision where the perceived truth can actually be very far away from the actual truth.

At the end, even if the Pats have been cleaned up for all these accusations through the years, the damage is done. Public perception has worsened after this report, and there will be those who bring it year after year. We have already been judged "by the people".

Most of the fans around the league have already set their mind on "what happened", regardless of the conclusions the league draw on this issue.

I agree and wished he would have been more firm about spygate as well. The one thing I've noticed though is most fans appear to be on our side on this one and calling sour grapes on Indy. I haven't read a ton on it but I saw the article on yahoo and the vast majority of comments are bashing Indy/Kravitz, not us. So unless we are found guilty of this, I don't think it's going to make the Pats look bad. It'll mostly make Irsay look pathetic especially if people are already starting to lean that way without us being cleared of anything yet. It did kind of suck to put a damper on the AFCC but like others said this should just fire the team and BB up even more.

I think in the end the decision to engage or not engage comes down to 2 things
1) Controlling the narrative
2) Net Impact on the business

Controlling the Narrative
Let's face it, the media controls the narrative and it comes down to what story will sell the most to the largest % of the audience. I think it would be worthwhile forthe hometown media to stand up and support the team (even if trying to have a measured reason of objectivity and balance). But, this is the Boston media and while there is a bias it is a rare situation that the loudest people are often time counter-culture tot he fan base that is the New England Patriots.

Robert Kraft will not find enough support within his own town to be able to take on the frenzy that has already ensued. This was the net-net of the Patriots winning championships when we have been told that today's NFL has established such a level of Parity (with draft order/free agents) that continued success should be near impossible.

BB and to a lesser extent the Kraft organization really has no outlet that will support any position they stand. The louder they yell, the more guilty they will look. The more they stay quiet, there will possibly remain some doubt as to what transpires. Any results the NFL reports will be viewed at as either confirmation they circumvented the rules or perceived as a cover-up. Despite, the non-story that many former players have said this issue is about.

Net Impact on the Business
What is the chance that fans will get so sick of hearing the constant nonsense (read as vitriol) being driven by the media. The goal of the media no longer is to report facts, but to work on peoples emotions as that creates a groundswell of turbulence that further promotes their business and hence fills the pockets of news organizations

So let's take a business approach that Kraft might perceive on whether he should get involved enough to defend the brand. What is the net chance that someone pulls their support from the team and cost him money? Let's say there's a .001% chance a person no loner cares to support the team (this includes going to games, watching on TV, buying Patriots merchandise).

That means 1 in 100,000 people will stop watching (which actually seems high in my opinion). how many viewers does this cost him? It might lead to 1 family that stops attending games at the stadium. What is the chance he'll be able to fill those seats...seems likely. This is the same type of rationale that car manufacturers (probably in the past, but still possible) take when realizing a part might have some fault. The cost to repair a potentially defect part is more costly than any insurance settlement/recall they might make.

Thus, it doesn't seem to really drain the business model down as new fans (in the form of agining population) sustains growth or interest in the team (as I'm sure many of your children are Patriot fans because you are a Patriot fan).

With little impact on the business, what does the Organization really stand to lose from this. it would appear little.

Opinion Time
Robert Kraft bought the organization as a fan of the team. Robert Kraft has turned this passion into a successful business with sustained success. Robert Kraft it seems, is more a businessman than a fan of the team. The only caution here is that if fans really start to turn (meaning affect his income), the time to effect change will most likely be over.

A fan will support his team and heck could even make the bond stronger. But it sure would be nice to know that the owner stands with us, those of us who love the team. But, perhaps a part of being a fan is maintaining vigilance despite the eerie quiet from the home office.

Wish it were otherwise, but it seems to be a sound business decision on his part.

and with that, the net-net of any outcome won't change anything. tiem to sit back and enjoy the next 2 weeks.

This thread has to be a joke right? We patriot fans who are so proud of the patriot way.. Want our owner to whine to the media that we are innocent, to plead our case, and make people understand how we are unfairly cast the villain. Give me a break. This has got to be the most ridiculous thread I have ever read on here. I love how the patriots handle negative press. They stick their middle finger to everyone and say the hell to you and what you think. In case you haven't been paying attention for the last 15 years Around here we don't make f@cking excuses.. We don't plead our case to the media so people like us and our fans don't get teased by their friends. And we certainly do not hold press conferences to educate the public of the absurdity of spygate or deflated balls. Around here We win that's what we do. And anything other than that is a waste of our f@cking time. If you want excuses and a cry baby owner.. Go be a Dallas or Baltimore fan and post this loser crap on their forum

Have a hard time denigrating Mr. Kraft, as he has brought this team back from a slow train to St. Louis.. without his efforts most might all Giants or Jets fans...

Without regard this is probably much ado about nothing, Dequel Jackson says it felt funny so he turned it over to the Indy Ball Boy and other such nonsense, maybe it was a bad ball and that is why Brady threw the interception...

Whatever the outcome ESPN and the rest of the idiots on TV will refer to this as cheating or other such nonsense.. even the Indy press is relatively quiet this morning.. the Boston Press has come to the defense of the Patriots..

IMO it is a huge load of shyt.. and means nothing except an another way to criticize our success, this can't be happening there has to be some trickery..

All we fans want is Ol' Bob to stand up for the team instead of grovelling before the POS commissioner like he did in Cameragate. If he can't do that he should turn the team over to his son and take up Bimbo chasing full time.