My Unpopular thoughts about Kraft.

JJC said:

I'd like to make a distinction between bravery and courage. Bravery is the ability to confront without feeling fear, and I agree not everyone has that capability. Courage, on the other hand, is the ability to do so in spite of the fear that one feels.

I think what upsets many of us is that Kraft didn't exhibit courage. We stand in awe of men and women who exhibit bravery, because it is so unusual. We give respect to those who exhibit courage, because we can identify with them more easily. What we saw at that press conference was a man whose body language showed neither bravery, nor courage. It showed defeat. No one wants to see their general quit in the face of adversity. And worst of all, we feel like he didn't even try!

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I don't think bravery and courage are Bob's problems. He has an army of lawyers and a net worth of $4.3b to battle for a long time. If he had done so the NFL and his team would have left fractured and weakened financially.

Bob's blood runs green. Once people reconsile themselves to that notion, it is crystal clear why he did what he did.

sambam94 said:

fighting with no chance of winning is what irrational fools do..I'm glad the pats owner is not a fool.

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I learned an important lesson one day when it was 98 degrees with 98 percent humidity. High school double sessions in August and we were doing one on one drills. The head coach was standing over us with his whistle. I had the bad luck to draw Scott, who was easily 235 lbs compared to my 135 lbs. My job was to get by him and tackle the dummy. I got pancaked. Over and over again. The coach would blow the whistle and scream "do it again!" After about four times, he said, "This isn't over until you beat him, so don't quit." I don't know if it was the eighth or ninth time, but I caught my opponent tired, off balance, and exposed and used my leverage, will, and stamina to get by him.

After the second time, I was embarrassed and mentally defeated, but the coach pushed me through that. Instead of being the kid that got beaten easily, I came out of it as the kid that didn't quit in the face of adversity. There is always a chance of winning, as long as you are in the game long enough and you find a way to navigate or change the terms of the competition.

JJC said:

I learned an important lesson one day when it was 98 degrees with 98 percent humidity. High school double sessions in August and we were doing one on one drills. The head coach was standing over us with his whistle. I had the bad luck to draw Scott, who was easily 235 lbs compared to my 135 lbs. My job was to get by him and tackle the dummy. I got pancaked. Over and over again. The coach would blow the whistle and scream "do it again!" After about four times, he said, "This isn't over until you beat him, so don't quit." I don't know if it was the eighth or ninth time, but I caught my opponent tired, off balance, and exposed and used my leverage, will, and stamina to get by him.

After the second time, I was embarrassed and mentally defeated, but the coach pushed me through that. Instead of being the kid that got beaten easily, I came out of it as the kid that didn't quit in the face of adversity. There is always a chance of winning, as long as you are in the game long enough and you find a way to navigate or change the terms of the competition.

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Go get 'em Rudy, you can be the next Warren Buffet!

I'm just as pissed as anyone at Kraft for this capitulation (and the corporate end zone ****tail lounge he is installing this year at Gillette to make it even more of a quiet country club).

But some of these analogies are hilarious to read.

supafly said:

That was pretty much the way I felt, until I realized that he actually hugged Roger Goodell. To me, that's where I started to get pissed.

I still don't feel that he had much opportunity to do anything, particularly since Goodell would've been the one to hear the appeal, but it would've been much better to see him go through with the process--even if it proved to be futile.

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I'm with you supa on the man hug. I exchange them with real friends and people I both like and admire. If Bob Kraft thinks Goodell is a real friend and he both likes and admires him, then he's a bad judge of character, at least in my opinion. Goodell strikes me as a duplicitous, conceited scumbag who's intellectually and morally in way over his head. He was fact more deserving of the middle finger than a hug.

Hate the guy? No.

There are plenty of reasons to like Kraft and his association with the Pats. I suspect most fans want to respect the guy for what he has done right. But life presents us with opportunities, and our individual decisions become the basis for how others judge us as a man. This is one of those opportunities. Spygate was another opportunity. At present, I respect his approach in neither case.

The story here with the Patriots is not yet written, so I will keep an open mind and judge him by how it unfolds and its impact on Brady. Being spineless is not a sin. It just isn't worthy of respect. If turtling costs another member of the organization in any significant way, then he will bear the cost of that sin, and becomes that much more worthless in my eyes. Liked him before. Not liking him so much right now. But I will remain open-minded until I hear the full story, and will then judge him accordingly.

We lost draft picks cuz science.

Kraft accepted.

When it comes to **** like football that really doesn't amount to a hill of beans in the bigger picture, I don't truly hate anyone. Even Jets fans, if anything I despise them and laugh at them all at once but to truly hate someone is way off base. For the moment, I am extremely disappointed and have no respect for the man, but that is to be expected after the throat punch he gave all of us after pumping us up. I will forever be a Pats fan.

I think a lot of us Pats fans may have accepted "reluctantly" what Fredo Shaft did if he had chosen to put things differently in his statement. He needed to be a lot more explicit and emphatic about the innocence of his franchise and GOAT player, and avoid the BS about the other 31 teams and his goosebumps. Wouldn't have been hard or cost him anything to send the message the way most of us here would probably have done if we realized the futility of the fight.

The fact that this schmuck (to use one of his own words) with his team of lawyers and PR hacks chose the words be did tells me all I need to know about Fredo an why be doesn't deserve a pass on this.

What we need to do is send him a message with our dollars and also with our attitude towards him. He will be a lot more hurt by rescinding the adulation he has become accustomed to from us than he will by a few less if our bucks. He proved this week that he never deserved the amount of butt kissing he got from us the past 22 years. Let him chew on that for a good long while.

Sorry, I still feel this is the lowest point in our franchise history. It is a betrayal of the basic dedication that the fans feel for the team. All the years of caring and support for the team were completely diminished by his refusal to fight. Sometimes you can't win. The opponent is too powerful and you have no chance. The early days (decades) of our team showed that was true. But, you fight because it's your job, you fight because of your pride. If you cave, fear wins and you are a loser.
When you are right and the opponent is wrong, you must fight even if you can't win, because not fighting is allowing a basic wrong to go unchallenged. In fighting and losing, there is a dignity that cowards never will know. Kraft made his decision and his shame will be his legacy, not the Championships won, not the winning seasons. Shame will follow him to the grave and beyond.

More than anything, Kraft has shown himself to NOT be who I thought he was. I've said this before but during cameraplacementgate he was in a tough spot, the league had the smoking gun and Goodell had pledged to come down hard on teams, this was his first whiff of scandal and while he showed himself to be inept and blow with the winds of public perception Kraft played the good owner and took his medicine without issue. I hated it, but I understood his position and that he didn't want to make waves with a new commissioner who he had backed.

Now, eight years later, Goodell has shown that he hasn't learned from those first missteps, that he's just a bumbling idiot and a draconian enforcer with no consistency, still blowing with the winds of public perception. With no smoking gun and a QB under attack who told him he didn't do anything I expected Kraft to fight this one out.

No, I don't hate Kraft...but I no longer respect him. He's not who I thought he was, he's just 'one of 32' and the bottom line is more important to him than the team and its legacy. I'll never support him or back him again, I'm not gonna wish ill on the guy but he's not the owner we all thought we had, so more than anything I'm angry and disappointed.

Prior to this year folks could argue that 2007 Spygate was a rookie mistake by the new Commish and the new owner. Many made a good case for that.
No longer.

sambam94 said:

fighting with no chance of winning is what irrational fools do..I'm glad the pats owner is not a fool.

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Fighting with no chance of winning is also what honorable people do. The vast majority of people on the planet understand that. You're apparently not in that camp.

Joey007 said:

Well, looks like it's cooled down a little bit. Had you posted this a few days ago you would've been shredded.

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Posting something at 12:30 am on a Saturday morning isn't the same as posting during peak hours.

Why the fcuk would he not have a chance to win? Is there some piece of evidence that I don't know of?

The appeal process was going to be moot (specially if Gooddell presided), but to say that ANY impartial arbitrator would side with the NFL here is DUMB. They have no case!!!!

BTW, I am still angry, but like someone said here, this has been falling on apathy lately. I was already on the proccess of eliminating soccer of my life, now I have to go trough this s***.

I was betrayed by someone I trusted( I wasn't an avid Patriots' fan during the Spygate frenzy, so I don't have any problem with that). Trust is not something I'll give back easily. Once is gone, there will be a freaking lot to make up for it.

Kraft badly miscalculated and he will never recover.

He didn't seem to understand that he has wiped away 20 years of history. He immortalized the cheating charges.

He needed to fight them. He didn't.

This will not end well. Kraft likes being liked, and he will never ever ever be liked by Patriots fans ever again.

In other words, he badly badly badly miscalculated.

Kraft should have said -

The process of the NFLPA's appeal of the Brady suspension may well reveal some uncomfortable things about the behavior of Goodell and his overpaid brainless lackies. I think Kraft could have taken a low-key approach while still preserving all of his rights and legal options, and then simply waited for Roger to screw it up. No need to be angry, no need for a scorched-earth approach. Just buy time to let the NFLPA appeal play out and then see what happens.

chicowalker said:

I don't think he had any realistic options. I have no problem with his decision.

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i would rather fight and lose then not fight at all. even if we never got the picks back kraft could have helped expose goodell and the nfl and there bias unfair treatment of his team. instead he extended his butt and said thank you may i have another.

Deus Irae said:

Fighting with no chance of winning is also what honorable people do. The vast majority of people on the planet understand that. You're apparently not in that camp.

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Not to be confused with "fighting out of principle" when priority number 1 for the claimant is something like money or property. Dumb civil cases are ones people refuse reasonable settlement offers to terminate the suit when it is in the end all about the money and they end up with squat when the claims are weak. This ain't that.

This scandal is about so much more than money for the Patriots and Brady. It is about legacy/reputation, respect and power/influence, at the very least. Money is likely the least of the issues in terms of costs (maybe not to Kraft, who may have profited on his own from the decision), so there really is no balancing of probability of success and money. The mere fact there is a fight has value.

hambone1818 said:

More than anything, Kraft has shown himself to NOT be who I thought he was.

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They say behind every great man is a great woman. I now have renewed respect for Myra Kraft. It appears to me that she was the moral backbone and touchstone of the franchise. I think that Robert is truly lost without her. I wonder if the hints of frustration we've seen from Jonathan indicate that he inherited her traits in is in conflict with what Robert has done? My gut instinct is that Myra would not have let him roll over so easily.