Kraft and Mara hug it out

TommyD4207 said:

Mara's not his enemy. Mara's one of the ones he's desperately trying to impress.

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If it was Mara Sr. I'd agree that Kraft was trying to impress him.

RxJock1120 said:

Whomever said that, didn't have too many enemies...

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You know nothing.

(Apologies if you weren't specifically quoting Davos on that ...)

NEPats1 said:

I believe it was PFT who mentioned it was Mara, Jerry Jones, and Steelers owners as some of the "hardcore" owners wanting Goodell to come hard on the Pats.

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I have been a news junkie during this whole think and definitely do not recall this reference. The report was that Bisciotti and Irsay were among the pathetic sore losers. Jerry Jones certainly has acted like a total d1ickwad, though, and I'm thrilled that so many of these outspoken critics are on the schedule this year. I look forward to playing Houston most of all.

Chiuba E. Obele said:

Kraft treats his abusers as if they care about him, and won't hurt his team .... he must be suffering from battered owner's syndrome

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or

Stockholm Syndrome?

Deus Irae said:

All 32, right Bob?

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No, just 19-23.

Kraft would need 19-23 owners to fire Goodell.

People on message boards are notorious for applauding candidates who get 20% of the vote by pissing off 80% of the voters while condemning candidates who actually get 51% of the vote by compromising on their positions.

And so it goes...

I know a lot of people still hate Robert Kraft, and he loses the benefit of the doubt to many now. But it wouldn't surprise me if he's starting a campaign to oust Goodell. He's still incredibly influential, and Mara is one he would need to recruit to get rid of Goodell.

Blank's earlier comments were quickly hated on, but I don't think most posters read the entire thing which is too bad, because it sure sounded like he was firing a warning shot at Goodell. The Falcons have a distinct Patriots foundation with Dimitroff and Pioli. They may not intentionally be working for Kraft or the Patriots on this issue, but their views are probably consistent.

It's also clear the team is starting to push back against the league now (Jonathan floating ideas of re-hiring the Jast and McNally, claiming they were not going to raise the banner on national TV if Brady wasn't there). Whether these things are true or not is irrelevant; before Deflategate, they wouldn't be leaked at all, let alone come from the team president.

Maybe Kraft is gutless like many believe, and maybe he was just hugging an enemy. But it wouldn't surprise me if he had a bigger plan in motion. It'll be interesting to watch him in the next few months. Is he going to meet with Rooney before the season opener? Will he take Jerry Jones out in Dallas before we play the Cowboys and have a few words? Will he punch drunken Jim Irsay in the face? I don't know.

But if he ever wants to redeem himself to Patriots fans, ousting Goodell would be one hell of a way to do it.

Face it Kraft does have the influence or willingness to do anything to Goodell except to receive punishment with a smile.

Ice_Ice_Brady said:

I have been a news junkie during this whole think and definitely do not recall this reference. The report was that Bisciotti and Irsay were among the pathetic sore losers. Jerry Jones certainly has acted like a total d1ickwad, though, and I'm thrilled that so many of these outspoken critics are on the schedule this year. I look forward to playing Houston most of all.

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Mara did say something about Brady and he was asked to join discussions with Goodell.

http://www.nj.com/giants/index.ssf/2015/05/giants_co-owner_john_mara_thinks_tom_bradys_deflat.html

GrogansArmy said:

According to Zolak on the pre-game show, Kraft and Mara spent 20 minutes on the field chatting and then hugged.

I'm sure they weren't talking about how great the weather is and then hugged it out. Don't know about you all, but I really wish Kraft would stop hugging our enemies and giving them more encouragement to screw us over. I know some of you'll say Mara isn't an enema, but he sure wasn't a friend during all this... imo.

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I don't know what to make of this. I hope it's Kraft trying to rally support from the other owners to deal with Goodell once and for all.

Kraft really needs to do a better job protecting the team from this nonsense. SO far, Kraft is every bit as bad at this as Goodell is bad at his job.

He just won a major victory in court. He has an "ace in the hole" with the email chain with Pash refusing to retract a defamatory statement. Maybe he's biding his time while the appeal is pending but I've very discouraged by talks that the Patriots are not demanding the picks back. Are we really so awesome that we can afford to just handicap ourselves by surrendering first round picks?

Whats with all the hugging and kissing?

Does Kraft live in a bubble? It is like he has no idea of PR. His customers like the patriots and hate the nfl.

WTF is so hard about not being seen acting like this in public, All this does to me is affirm the belief that as long as he is making boatloads of money that all is good.

Johnathan should be on national talk shows explaining the idiotic premise that a 55 year old man took and deflated 12 footballs by 2% in 90 seconds because Brady thought that that 2% would make a difference in his performance. And that the NFL believes the ref when he says he checked the balls and that they were all 12.5PSI but not what gage he used. Then hammer the decsion to take the testing from an independent IVY league school, whose findings would be subject to extensive peer review, and award a contract to a firm that is known to give the results that are requested. This was supposedly done to prevent leaks to the media, as if the NFL was so concerned about the truth getting out when they would not correct patently false reports in the media.

McNally is an idiot for doing so in violation of league rules and he should be fired. He was supposed to take the balls directly to the field and his actions resulted in the pats losing a #1 pick. If he did not violate that rule nothing would have happened. not even a $25,000 fine. The calls for the pats to reinstate him as a FU to the league is a FU to Brady as this is a guy who threatened to over-inflate balls just to piss of the qb.

Now Brady is the guy who should go to court on defamation in an attempt to embarrass and expose the witch hunt for what it was. His employer knowingly spoke falsehoods about him to the media/public about him limiting his income and restricting his job mobility. Again I am not a lawyer, but there must be labor laws that apply to this also.

I'm not sure Kraft has much to gain from actively acting like a **** to another powerful owner in public view. Did people think he would start giving these guys the finger and walking away every time he sees them?

Edit:
Whoops!

BradyFTW! said:

I doubt Rooney was in the commissioner's corner. 31 of 32 franchises supported the last CBA. The Steelers were the lone dissenter, because they felt that it afforded too much power to Goodell.

I'm sure the Steelers (ownership and all) have no love for the Pats, and I can't blame them. I would dislike whoever destroys me on an annual basis too. But I'm betting that they have even less for Goodell.

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Don't forget that Kraft had a big role in creating this monster. I wouldn't be surprised if Rooney was pushing it to hammer the point home as to why giving the commissioner such power was a bad thing.

Galeb said:

In Mara's defense, there was a tribute to Brady that ran on the big screen during the game. Since "Vindication" was a big part of that tribute, I suspect it was video that Kraft asked Mara to play. There is much going on that we don't know about.

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Why would Kraft ask Mara to play a video in Gillette? Are you saying his "Battered Owners Syndrome" is much worse than we thought?

Raymond said:

Why would Kraft ask Mara to play a video in Gillette? Are you saying his "Battered Owners Syndrome" is much worse than we thought?

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Whoops, I thought it was an away game. Thanks for pointing that out.

If I were Goodell, I'd stay away from any operas where there were Priests in attendance...

Sicilian said:

I'm not sure Kraft has much to gain from actively acting like a **** to another powerful owner in public view. Did people think he would start giving these guys the finger and walking away every time he sees them?

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No one's saying Kraft has to act like a **** to anyone. But whatever happened to hand-shakes? Why must he constantly rub tummies with those who hate us? It makes Kraft look submissive and makes our enemies think everything is hunky dory. It gives the perception (true or not) that Kraft is a good foot soldier and won't rock the boat. So lets screw him, his team, and fanbase even more!

BradyFTW! said:

I doubt Rooney was in the commissioner's corner. 31 of 32 franchises supported the last CBA. The Steelers were the lone dissenter, because they felt that it afforded too much power to Goodell.

I'm sure the Steelers (ownership and all) have no love for the Pats, and I can't blame them. I would dislike whoever destroys me on an annual basis too. But I'm betting that they have even less for Goodell.

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On opening night, I pray to see the image of Rooney and Kraft sitting on booster chairs together in the owner's suite ignoring the game, as they plot Goodell's demise. Even better, let it be Krafty Jr. and Rooney conspiring....with Senior off to the side helping his "niece" with her homework.