Congratulations Robert Kraft for helping lead this franchise to historic success

PATRIOTS NOW HAVE THE HIGHEST WINNING PERCENTAGE IN MAJOR SPORTS SINCE 1994
With the win over Dallas, the Patriots now have the highest regular-season winning percentage in major American professional sports since 1994 when Robert Kraft purchased the team.

You let the fans down during Deflate Gate, but there's no questioning the success that you've brought to this team. Thank you for your work Mr. Kraft, and I hope you can still restore your credibility with us.

The best thing that I can say about Robert Kraft is that he stays out of the way and allows Bill Belichick to make all football related decisions.

It would be very difficult for him to restore his "credibility", as you say.
He happily sold his own franchise and fan base down the river to be a good team (owners) player.
And its not the first time he's done so either.

Bob Kraft, Protector of the Shield, Lord of the 31, Breaker of Spirits, Father of Dragons

Change the name on the thread title from Krafty Bob to Belichick (or more accurately to Brady),
and then you'll have something.

NYPatsFan said:

The best thing that I can say about Robert Kraft is that he stays out of the way and allows Bill Belichick to make all football related decisions.

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I don't know if that was meant as a diss or not. I feel like it was. But the reality is that it truly is a rare skill for an owner or manager to stay the hell out of the way.

It's not easy to entirely give trust to someone else, and Kraft may have learned that the hard way too. He's talked about his problems with Parcells and how he learned from that experience and how it would have been different if it happened today. If it wasn't for that experience, maybe the BB era isn't as successful as it's been. That trust was certainly tested after Kraft fired Pete for going 8-8, then saw BB go 5-11 in his first year, then drop his first 2 games the next season.

You see it around the league, with Jerruh, Snyder, Irsay, and Woody standing out. Meanwhile, the Krafts, the Maras, the Rooneys hire good people and leave them the hell alone. No surprise that those are some of the most successful franchises in the league.

I know it's fashionable to dump on Kraft, and there's no doubt he made a huge mistake in trusting Goodell. He ****ed up, even he admits it, and there's no changing it. And for some, there's no forgiving it. But that doesn't make every single good thing he does a bad thing, and it doesn't mean every single thing he does from now on should be painted as a bad thing either.

convertedpatsfan said:

I don't know if that was meant as a diss or not. I feel like it was. But the reality is that it truly is a rare skill for an owner or manager to stay the hell out of the way.

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My comment wasn't sarcastic at all. I spent time trying to think of something kind to say after his mishandling of Spygate and Defamegate and this is the best I could come up with, and it's a good one, too.

convertedpatsfan said:

I don't know if that was meant as a diss or not. I feel like it was. But the reality is that it truly is a rare skill for an owner or manager to stay the hell out of the way.

It's not easy to entirely give trust to someone else, and Kraft may have learned that the hard way too. He's talked about his problems with Parcells and how he learned from that experience and how it would have been different if it happened today. If it wasn't for that experience, maybe the BB era isn't as successful as it's been. That trust was certainly tested after Kraft fired Pete for going 8-8, then saw BB go 5-11 in his first year, then drop his first 2 games the next season.

You see it around the league, with Jerruh, Snyder, Irsay, and Woody standing out. Meanwhile, the Krafts, the Maras, the Rooneys hire good people and leave them the hell alone. No surprise that those are some of the most successful franchises in the league.

I know it's fashionable to dump on Kraft, and there's no doubt he made a huge mistake in trusting Goodell. He ****ed up, even he admits it, and there's no changing it. And for some, there's no forgiving it. But that doesn't make every single good thing he does a bad thing, and it doesn't mean every single thing he does from now on should be painted as a bad thing either.

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That's the key...At the end of the day as long as Kraft leaves BB alone and provides him with all the resources and support he needs to be sucesssful is what really matters.

Prior to Bob we had a poor owner, and idiot owner and one who wanted to move the team to STL.

convertedpatsfan said:

I don't know if that was meant as a diss or not. I feel like it was. But the reality is that it truly is a rare skill for an owner or manager to stay the hell out of the way.

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It's actually not that difficult or rare, lots of owners do it. Jacobs/Bruins have done it for 40 years.
Most of those owners aren't lucky enough to hire the world's best coach.

Did Kraft learn the lesson? He was seen hugging Goodell after the punishment came down.

Kraft refused to defend himself in spy gate -- if the team was doing all this shady stuff, they wouldn't have used a camera in plain view.

On deflategate, Kraft put a limit on how much he's willing to go to bat for the team -- he hasn't ever called out Goodell by name -- and 'he'll get fined for it' is a poor excuse, he's a billionaire, the fine would be nothing compared to what he'd gain in fan appreciation -- but he cares more about fellow owner appreciation so he limits how much he's willing to defend himself.

voluntarysaftey said:

It's actually not that difficult or rare, lots of owners do it. Jacobs/Bruins have done it for 40 years.
Most of those owners aren't lucky enough to hire the world's best coach.

Did Kraft learn the lesson? He was seen hugging Goodell after the punishment came down.

Kraft refused to defend himself in spy gate -- if the team was doing all this shady stuff, they wouldn't have used a camera in plain view.

On deflategate, Kraft put a limit on how much he's willing to go to bat for the team -- he hasn't ever called out Goodell by name -- and 'he'll get fined for it' is a poor excuse, he's a billionaire, the fine would be nothing compared to what he'd gain in fan appreciation -- but he cares more about fellow owner appreciation so he limits how much he's willing to defend himself.

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I admit I haven't followed hockey since the 3rd or 4th lockout (I lost count), but wasn't Jacobs universally hated in Boston for being greedy and cheap? I remember him making lists of terrible owners back when I watched hockey. I'm not a Boston guy, so I could totally be wrong, but surprised to see him held up as a sign of good ownership.

And I still think good owners are a pretty rare sight. Recent Boston fans have been incredibly spoiled by Kraft, Jacobs (I guess), Henry, and the Celtics ownership group. How was all of that before the 2000s? I don't think Boston fans would be claiming good owners were pretty common 20 years ago...

As for the NFL, here's a breakdown of categories of owners as I see it based on the past few decades:

The meddlers:
Jerruh, Snyder, Irsay, Ross, Woody, Wilf, and I would include Blank here as well.

Long-time owners who have a history of sucking, but seem to have learned from it and are finally putting together good organizations:
Bidwell, Richardson, Brown, and Benson before his old age kicked in.

New owners who aren't terribly promising:
Martha Ford (whose husband, William, cared greatly for the Lions but was an awful owner), McCaskey, Haslem (investigated by the FBI), Khan, Wilf, the Glazers, the Pegulas, the Davises, the Adams family.

Owners holding their teams hostage right now with the LA gun:
Spanos, Kroenke

I can't tell if they're good or bad:
Bowlen, Hunt, Bisciotti, McNair, Lurie, York

Owners I absolutely think do a good job:
Kraft, Mara/Tisch, the Rooneys, Green Bay Packers Inc, Allen.

Maybe pick 3 of the 6 from the good/bad category, and you still don't hit 1/3 of the teams in the league with quality ownership.

So no, it's not common.

And I have no doubt BB deserves the lion's share of credit for what has happened, especially the Super Bowls. But let's not overlook that Kraft's Patriots pre-BB were 54-42 (.563) with 2 AFC East titles, 4 play-off trips and 1 Super Bowl trip in 6 seasons. Not as dominant as with BB, but hardly an abject failure either.

Let's also not forget that if Kraft didn't step up, there's no New England franchise to talk about. Orthwein had no interest in keeping the team here, yet Kraft wouldn't let him buy out the lease, and it limited interest from other buyers with similar ideas because they knew they would have to deal with Kraft.

And having said all that, I still understand why people are angry. I still get why people resent him. But if he does something right, he does something right. His big mistake doesn't wipe out everything good. And his big mistake doesn't make future good things bad. You can't re-write history.

And quite frankly, I wonder how every hater would feel if their biggest mistake was brought up every single day of their lives and used to judge every single one of their actions. No matter what good they did, there was that one bad day.

And every day, people cave in to pressure. Sometimes it's societal pressures, sometimes it's job pressures, sometimes it's just stupid pressures. Sometimes you don't stand up to the CEO because you're scared you might lose your job. But you don't have millions of people calling you out for your cowardice and lack of balls. Millions of people don't scream at your pathetic lack of character for not calling out your boss out in a meeting when they're clearly lying. Then you come home and bang angry words on your keyboard at others.

It's common to think of people as good or bad, honest or liars, winners or losers. The truth is we are all things. The most honest man can lie, and the worst man can do good. A perennial loser can win (see Manning, Peyton), and a man who does a lot of good can make a massive misjudgment in someone else like Kraft. The truth is, we all have multiple sides to us, and we all can do good and bad and tell the truth and lie and stand up and cower and fight and surrender. There's no constant, just situations, just life. And we all have our good days and bad days.

But I can only hope that if there is an afterlife, it's not staffed by a panel of Patriots fans because nobody will ever get in.

convertedpatsfan said:

I admit I haven't followed hockey since the 3rd or 4th lockout (I lost count), but wasn't Jacobs universally hated in Boston for being greedy and cheap? I remember him making lists of terrible owners back when I watched hockey. I'm not a Boston guy, so I could totally be wrong, but surprised to see him held up as a sign of good ownership.

And I still think good owners are a pretty rare sight. Recent Boston fans have been incredibly spoiled by Kraft, Jacobs (I guess), Henry, and the Celtics ownership group. How was all of that before the 2000s? I don't think Boston fans would be claiming good owners were pretty common 20 years ago...

As for the NFL, here's a breakdown of categories of owners as I see it based on the past few decades:

The meddlers:
Jerruh, Snyder, Irsay, Ross, Woody, Wilf, and I would include Blank here as well.

Long-time owners who have a history of sucking, but seem to have learned from it and are finally putting together good organizations:
Bidwell, Richardson, Brown, and Benson before his old age kicked in.

New owners who aren't terribly promising:
Martha Ford (whose husband, William, cared greatly for the Lions but was an awful owner), McCaskey, Haslem (investigated by the FBI), Khan, Wilf, the Glazers, the Pegulas, the Davises, the Adams family.

Owners holding their teams hostage right now with the LA gun:
Spanos, Kroenke

I can't tell if they're good or bad:
Bowlen, Hunt, Bisciotti, McNair, Lurie, York

Owners I absolutely think do a good job:
Kraft, Mara/Tisch, the Rooneys, Green Bay Packers Inc, Allen.

Maybe pick 3 of the 6 from the good/bad category, and you still don't hit 1/3 of the teams in the league with quality ownership.

So no, it's not common.

And I have no doubt BB deserves the lion's share of credit for what has happened, especially the Super Bowls. But let's not overlook that Kraft's Patriots pre-BB were 54-42 (.563) with 2 AFC East titles, 5 play-off trips and 1 Super Bowl trip in 6 seasons. Not as dominant as with BB, but hardly an abject failure either.

Let's also not forget that if Kraft didn't step up, there's no New England franchise to talk about. Orthwein had no interest in keeping the team here, yet Kraft wouldn't let him buy out the lease, and it limited interest from other buyers with similar ideas because they knew they would have to deal with Kraft.

And having said all that, I still understand why people are angry. I still get why people resent him. But if he does something right, he does something right. His big mistake doesn't wipe out everything good. And his big mistake doesn't make future good things bad. You can't re-write history.

And quite frankly, I wonder how every hater would feel if their biggest mistake was brought up every single day of their lives and used to judge every single one of their actions. No matter what good they did, there was that one bad day.

And every day, people cave in to pressure. Sometimes it's societal pressures, sometimes it's job pressures, sometimes it's just stupid pressures. Sometimes you don't stand up to the CEO because you're scared you might lose your job. But you don't have millions of people calling you out for your cowardice and lack of balls. Millions of people don't scream at your pathetic lack of character for not calling out your boss out in a meeting when they're clearly lying. Then you come home and bang angry words on your keyboard at others.

It's common to think of people as good or bad, honest or liars, winners or losers. The truth is we are all things. The most honest man can lie, and the worst man can do good. A perennial loser can win (see Manning, Peyton), and a man who does a lot of good can make a massive misjudgment in someone else like Kraft. The truth is, we all have multiple sides to us, and we all can do good and bad and tell the truth and lie and stand up and cower and fight and surrender. There's no constant, just situations, just life. And we all have our good days and bad days.

But I can only hope that if there is an afterlife, it's not staffed by a panel of Patriots fans because nobody will ever get in.

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Jeremy Jacobs was a wonderful generous human being. I don't know if he built the Boston Garden, but he kept it a tip top modern facility. He was also an early environmentalist, eschewing artificial air conditioning and a sterile environment, for an earthy atmosphere with it's own wildlife, particularly rodentia, and a natural aroma, reminiscent of an open field in planting season mixed with low tide at Carson Beach.

convertedpatsfan said:

I admit I haven't followed hockey since the 3rd or 4th lockout (I lost count), but wasn't Jacobs universally hated in Boston for being greedy and cheap? I remember him making lists of terrible owners back when I watched hockey. I'm not a Boston guy, so I could totally be wrong, but surprised to see him held up as a sign of good ownership.

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You are not wrong. The person writing that Jacobs was a great owner for 40 + years is waaaay off.

I grew up watching the GREAT Bruins teams of the early to mid 70's get completely gutted by Delaware North.

I'm not exactly sure what movie the poster was watching.

Kraft took a loser and built a champion. Jacobs took a champion and gutted it for 30 years.

RayClay said:

Jeremy Jacobs was a wonderful generous human being. I don't know if he built the Boston Garden, but he kept it a tip top modern facility. He was also an early environmentalist, eschewing artificial air conditioning and a sterile environment, for an earthy atmosphere with it's own wildlife, particularly rodentia, and a natural aroma, reminiscent of an open field in planting season mixed with low tide at Carson Beach.

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Well played!

shmessy said:

Well played!

But I suspect Voluntarysaftey might take it seriously.

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Yeah, Jacobs was a sweetheart. Besides being a slumlord to the Celtics and his own team and a cheap skinflint, he was also very seriously mob connected.

I'll run it down if anyone's interested.

If Jacobs is your idea of a good owner, I hope Kraft keeps getting worse.

NYPatsFan said:

The best thing that I can say about Robert Kraft is that he stays out of the way and allows Bill Belichick to make all football related decisions.

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The anti-Jerruh.

I wasn't saying Jacobs was a great owner.
I was saying Jacobs is another example of 'let your gm/president do their job and be hands off'.
And there's many such owners -- being hands off is Kraft's best trait, but that trait doesn't make someone a great owner.
The only difference with Kraft is Kraft was lucky enough to hire Parcells, then Belichick -- most owners aren't lucky enough to hire the best coach in the sports history, and around the 10th best coach in the sports history.
If he actually defended his coach and qb, then Kraft would truly be a great owner with the other qualities.
A different turn of events, and the Pats would be a mediocre team or in Hartford -- and the same Kraft would be decried as a terrible owner.

voluntarysaftey said:

I wasn't saying Jacobs was a great owner.
I was saying Jacobs is another example of 'let your gm/president do their job and be hands off'.
And there's many such owners -- being hands off is Kraft's best trait, but that trait doesn't make someone a great owner.
The only difference with Kraft is Kraft was lucky enough to hire Parcells, then Belichick -- most owners aren't lucky enough to hire the best coach in the sports history, and around the 10th best coach in the sports history.
If he actually defended his coach and qb, then Kraft would truly be a great owner with the other qualities.
A different turn of events, and the Pats would be a mediocre team or in Hartford -- and the same Kraft would be decried as a terrible owner.

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Orthwein hired Parcells.

voluntarysaftey said:

I wasn't saying Jacobs was a great owner.
I was saying Jacobs is another example of 'let your gm/president do their job and be hands off'.
And there's many such owners -- being hands off is Kraft's best trait, but that trait doesn't make someone a great owner.
The only difference with Kraft is Kraft was lucky enough to hire Parcells, then Belichick -- most owners aren't lucky enough to hire the best coach in the sports history, and around the 10th best coach in the sports history.
If he actually defended his coach and qb, then Kraft would truly be a great owner with the other qualities.
A different turn of events, and the Pats would be a mediocre team or in Hartford -- and the same Kraft would be decried as a terrible owner.

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Again, not a Boston hockey guy, but I heard Jacobs meddled quite a bit in terms of financial restrictions and whatnot. But that's besides the point.

There's two types of hands-off owners: the ones who know enough to stay out of the way, and the ones who don't care so long as the money keeps rolling in. For example, living in Toronto (though not a fan of Toronto teams), we get to see quite a bit of the latter with the MLSE not caring about the product on the ice so long as the games sell out. They're pretty hands-off in the sense that they don't give a ****.

As for luck, every successful person needs some luck. But to attribute everything for Kraft to luck is ridiculous. Kraft didn't hire Parcells. And Kraft actually didn't want to hire BB because of how close he perceived BB to be to Parcells. He overcame that prejudice, which is no small feat.

And it's easy to say how lucky he was to have hired BB, but at the time, we're talking about a coach with a record of 36-44, who was fired after his team, which had some talking Super Bowl in the preseason, finished 5-11 after losing 6 of their last 7 games. A coach who would then start 5-13 for the Patriots. His trust in BB, especially early on, mattered quite a bit. Plus he wrote a massive cheque for Bledsoe, then he swallowed a lot of wasted money when Brady emerged, but didn't complain publicly like Jerruh moaning for Manziel.

Kraft ****ed up the handling of Spygate, and he ****ed up the handling of Deflategate. He admits it. We all know it.

But that doesn't change all the facts. This is an owner who worked hard to keep the team in New England. He's raised millions for local charities. He's won the most games and most Super Bowls during his time here. He paid for 100% of the construction cost of the stadium, without a single dime from local taxpayers. He's built the entire organization, not just from a personnel level but even where they work and play.

There's not a lot of owners who can claim that.

voluntarysaftey said:

I wasn't saying Jacobs was a great owner.
I was saying Jacobs is another example of 'let your gm/president do their job and be hands off'.
And there's many such owners -- being hands off is Kraft's best trait, but that trait doesn't make someone a great owner.
The only difference with Kraft is Kraft was lucky enough to hire Parcells, then Belichick -- most owners aren't lucky enough to hire the best coach in the sports history, and around the 10th best coach in the sports history.
If he actually defended his coach and qb, then Kraft would truly be a great owner with the other qualities.
A different turn of events, and the Pats would be a mediocre team or in Hartford -- and the same Kraft would be decried as a terrible owner.

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Dear Lord, where does one start with replying to this incredible post?

"Lucky enough to hire Parcells".............. Maybe you weren't around back then, but thanks for that one!

Being "lucky" to hire anyone is a hilarious statement. Kraft hired Belichick when he was not a hot commodity at all. Not only that, people thought he was crazy for giving up a 1st round pick for the honor of giving the keys to "duplicitous pond scum" (google it).

Then there's the punchline of "A different turn of events, and the Pats would be a mediocre team or in Hartford".. Classic! Evidently, you don't understand than any other owner on earth would have taken Connecticut's money and ran. Kraft went against every rule of capitalism and gave up that Billion Dollar Plus gift and decided to build in beautiful downtown Foxboro. He created Patriot Place in the middle of miles of junk dealerships and abandoned motels.

I guess people like you see that as luck having fallen into his lap.

.

NYPatsFan said:

My comment wasn't sarcastic at all. I spent time trying to think of something kind to say after his mishandling of Spygate and Defamegate and this is the best I could come up with, and it's a good one, too.

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Odd you would leave out one of the biggies if not the biggest: The extent to which Kraft went to land BB. I doubt many owners, if any, would have given draft picks to their hated rival to land a DC that had achieved at best a modicum of success in his only HC experience -- not to mention the legality issues involved with attempting to land BB. Looking back at it with the cost and effort, it was one very big gamble that few owners would have made given the time/cost. But Kraft did and it quite possibly is the best gamble/decision the Patriot franchise, and quite possibly any franchise of the modern era, ever made.
Now please return to the regularly scheduled 'I hate Kraft' fest.