The Owner's Meetings: Kraft's chance to Dethrone Goodell?

fourhour said:

What makes you say that? I've only heard about two owners, Boys and Skins, and possibly the Browns, not supportive of Robert Kraft. The owners, while not getting the big wins, benefit financially from Robert Kraft's success too, in the form of NFL related gear/clothing. Why not support him? Never know when you might need him.

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How many have you heard publicly support him? That's what I thought. Zero.

Mother of God, it must be nice to live in the Magic Kingdom. No one, I repeat NO ONE on this board respects Bob Kraft more than I do. I believe he's been the best owner in the NFL for 20 years, hands down. He's still a great owner, but he's been emasculated by Goodell and the other owners. If Kraft had any support whatsoever, there's no way Goodell names himself the arbitrator in Brady's appeal. Bob Kraft is on an island by himself.

Terrible idea. Kraft should play it calm and deliberate at the owners meetings. If some try to push him to drop it he should make it clear he will do what is best for the Patriots. He should no longer support Goodell on any matter and allow him to hang himself in the future. If Goodell tries to talk to him he should hand him his lawyers business card and face palm him.

I would think this is the time for Kraft to make sure all the other owners are aware of the ridiculously poor way the league office handled framegate and gauge the remaining support for Rodge. Is Rodge going to be there? I would love the see the pleasantries exchanged between Kraft/Irsay/Goodell.

Put on a good face, but start to undermine where he can. Kraft does hold a lot of power. He has the best team, coach, quarterback and automatic sell outs. He owns his own stadium and has an entertainment complex attached.

Just starting trouble about other teams that have to beg their cities to support them would shake some people up, plus he is secure in his fortune and a lot smarter than some of these owners, and has a son waiting to make his mark too.

A meeting like this is a great time to corner some of these other owners and play on their insecurities.

Jackson 2 said:

Because the rest of the owners are orgasmic over Goodell's ruling. Why do people continue to pretend that Kraft is powerful? Sorry, but he's been de-nutted...

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Scared to think that you might be right. But let's hope not.

I do believe there is enough hubris here on Goodell's part to offend the gods.
His best defence has been a good offence but I believe that will catch up with him. The "system" currently props him up because it is designed to discourage domination by any one team....The draft is designed towards parity, as is salary cap etc.

The Pats have become the outlier. Our management and quarterback/coach combination have simply been smarter and better than anyone else for 15 years. It's that simple. 31 other teams are sickened by it. Should we be surprised that we're getting cooked in the NFLs crucible?

This is the nature of man. We are so predictable.

This sound familiar?....The playing in the forest, accusations by some of the players, the witch hunt, the trials, the seething mob mentality, the tables turn, the crisis/climax...and the denouement...
Bet you thought you can't make this stuff up....wait a second, one can!

If Arthur Miller's The Crucible were written today it might involve the NFL. The question is, would it be a drama or a farce?

Is this going to get bloody? I hope so!

Let's face it, Roger is a classic self righteous ****. We're Patriots from Massachusetts, let's at least turn tables hang that ****sucker!

It's only fair.

I'm not so sure the owners are fully behind Goodell. Yes, they have been making lots of money under Goody due to the TV deal and labor agreement but........ the TV deal was lead by Kraft and the labor deal was another Kraft production. I think the other owners know who the real brain behind their success, and it ain't Goody.

The owners may be happy with the piles of money they have.. but they don't need Goodell to continue that. I'm sure plenty of them are not happy with the fact that every issue this asshat has touched has turned to ****.

Kraft runs an empire.... Why wouldn't he chose to just confront Goodell directly and take him to Court?

I can't think of a better example of a situation where people should not believe anything put out there for public consumption. I wouldn't put any stock whatsoever in anything any owner says about this situation, either in the past couple of weeks, this coming week, or the weeks that follow. There is zero possible benefit to them of even seeming to the public like they are not in line with the Commissioner right now. For those that will ultimately be with Kraft, putting themselves out there now will only hurt them until they know for sure what will come of it, and I'm quite convinced that even Kraft doesn't know for sure what move he will make and when. If he decides to make a move, whether to go after Goodell or to take this to court, Kraft will know whom he can count on and whom he can't, without public statements being made.

I've been scratching my head since the penalties came out thinking about what leverage Kraft may have with his fellow owners. I'm not sure what it may be, but given the positions he has had in the ownership group for the past 20 years or so, I can't believe he doesn't have some leverage to utilize. If nothing else, he can make it very uncomfortable for all of them with a court case and the associated discovery process. I think it could very well be worth it to a lot of the owners to find a way to mollify him to avoid that happening. I very much doubt that any of them (other than ludicrous types like Irsay and Johnson) are so intent on maintaining the punishments that they would be willing to get themselves under any microscopes. Lots of skeletons in lots of closets among that group, no doubt.

If there were any doubts about Robert Kraft not attending the owners meetings in San Fran, Ben Volin just ran into him at the hotel.

Can't wait for tomorrow's rumors and news

The problem is that if Kraft gets Goodell removed it will be seen as a power play to undermine justice. It's probably best to have him lose in court then get ousted for incompetence. Then it will look more like he had nothing and conducted a witch hunt to the detriment of the league, and less like he was forced out for fighting the "man."

Chiuba E. Obele said:

If there were any doubts about Robert Kraft not attending the owners meetings in San Fran, Ben Volin just ran into him at the hotel.

Can't wait for tomorrow's rumors and news

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Unfortunately your post also confirms Volin's presence there, and that sucks!

AQPE said:

I can't think of a better example of a situation where people should not believe anything put out there for public consumption. I wouldn't put any stock whatsoever in anything any owner says about this situation, either in the past couple of weeks, this coming week, or the weeks that follow.

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Preach on!

Chiuba E. Obele said:

If there were any doubts about Robert Kraft not attending the owners meetings in San Fran, Ben Volin just ran into him at the hotel.

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Did Kraft knock him on his ass?

Tunescribe said:

Did Kraft knock him on his ass?

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Hate to go off topic but why is Ben Volin employed again? He brings zero value. He's an average writer, his best skills as a reporter are hijacking real reporters' breaking news tweets and tweeting that he "can confirm" said news 30 minutes after it's been all over Twitter confirmed by about a million different reporters. Does he work for free or something? Maybe some incriminating sexual pictures of John Henry? I really don't get it

Tom Wolfe's next book will be out soon..

BONFIRE OF THE INSANITIES

Goodell works for 32 NFL Oligarchs. If you exclude two inept owners from Jets and Indy, I believe the rest of the owners (including Ravens) must be privately troubled about the goings on over the last two weeks, especially the group who have become owners through their own hard work (as opposed to those who inherited the ownerships). The NFL brand has taken a huge hit with this scandal. The hits will keep coming because the Patriots and Tom are putting up a fight, unlike in the past when punished teams bent over and allowed themselves to be lubed up. I am willing to bet that there are at least 25 owners out there who are really pissed off with the commissioner over the handling of the Deflategate affair.

Unfortunately, the situation does not allow for Goodell to back off (by totally rescinding the league punishment). That' would be suicide both for Goodell and the league. My feeling is that owners will privately try to cool down Kraft and get him to go along with the punishments on the team (and let Tom carry on the fight on his own). The tenor of news coming out of owners meetings should give us an indication which way the wind is blowing. What Kraft decides to do will define his legacy in New England.

My own feeling is that Goodell will be made to survive this crisis by the ownership, if they can get Kraft to back off. However, I do not think they will renew Goodell's contract.

My guess is the owners care more about their franchises than the integrity of the game, and by the that I mean the unpredictable behavior that seems to correlate more to how close Goodell is at a given time to losing his job than any sense of fairness. I believe they'll go along with this as it's creating an artificial form of parity for them. What are the odds any of their franchises will get to Patriots' tier? Maybe one more team will accomplish that feat in our lifetimes, but probably not? All the owners must see how outrageous this is but in the end as long the injustices benefit them now, and don't cause a risk to them later, my feeling is they'll keep their hands in their pockets, unfortunately.

Gotta be patient. We're months out from getting any real conclusion.