Deflategate was more about punishing Kraft than Brady

zydecochris said:

Kraft's standing among the owners affects the profitability and worth of a certain business holding called the New England Patriots. Of course he cares about his standing among the owners. For us it is a passion. For him it is a business, IMHO.

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No doubt, his standing cost him a million dollars and a First round pick, and that is just this year. He's so prestigious that the team and coach were exonerated by The Wells Report and the million, first and another 4th rounder were all they did to him.

Great Job Roger

Ivan said:

No doubt, his standing cost him a million dollars and a First round pick, and that is just this year. He's so prestigious that the team and coach were exonerated by The Wells Report and the million, first and another 4th rounder were all they did to him.

Great Job Roger

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Just imagine how bad it would've been if Kraft didn't have such illustrious standing among the owners. Maybe they would've conducted two witch hunts to try to smear him personally, his organization, his coach, and his best player. Maybe they would've stripped the Pats of every draft pick for the next five years, and banned Brady and Belichick for life.

Lucky for us, Kraft has such good standing among ownership.

Ivan said:

No doubt, his standing cost him a million dollars and a First round pick, and that is just this year. He's so prestigious that the team and coach were exonerated by The Wells Report and the million, first and another 4th rounder were all they did to him.

Great Job Roger

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I don't really know how much he cared about the draft picks. I wonder if he cares about it as much as we Patriots fans do. Maybe. Maybe not.

As far as the $1M fine, I'm sure he didn't love that, but I will point out that $1M is o.o7% of the worth of the Patriots ($1.4 billion dollars). It isn't a token amount. But to a guy like him, it is close.

IcyPatriot said:

It has been my contention all along that this was ownership driven ... Goodell is but their puppet.
Nothing about deflategate makes sense ... especially the money spent.
These guys don't care about money ... only power and they took a weed wacker to Kraft.

I mean let's face it ... Kraft could fire Belichick anytime ... but he doesn't and they hate that.
Belichick's brilliant ... he doesn't screw up ... they cannot get to him but Kraft ... he is easy.
Kraft does not deserve the slander tossed his way IMO ...
He continues to support the teams excellence in spite of the league ... he deserves our support.

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Kraft's the one who's been slandered? Seriously?

Brady's the one who's been slandered. Kraft accepted punishment for something Brady didn't do. Kraft is paying his share of the owner's bill for the case against Brady. Kraft has not denounced Goodell in any meaningful way. In fact , he is still saying Goodell is doing a fine job. He supports the team in the most halfhearted way, with only carefully measured and restrained complaints levied against the league. He supports the league more than he supports the team. He put his ambition for power in the NFL above the well being of the team. Not once but twice.

Kraft could fire Belichick but he has no reason to, in fact he would have to be completely insane to do so, so let's not give him credit for that.

He gets fan support by continuing to sell out the stadium with the highest ticket price in sports. Other than that we don't owe him a goddamned thing. He is cold and calculating businessman, like rest of the NFL cabal or the head of a pharmaceutical company or Coca- Cola or any other corporation. Not sure why people feel the need to sanctify the guy. So tired of hearing about the lifetime of unquestioned gratitude he supposedly deserves because he made a business decision that fans happened to benefit from. He has seen a minimum of a 2000% return on his investment so let's not make it out to be he did it out of the goodness of his heart.

He screwed up, and is deserving so being called out on it. End of story.

zydecochris said:

I don't really know how much he cared about the draft picks. I wonder if he cares about it as much as we Patriots fans do. Maybe. Maybe not.

As far as the $1M fine, I'm sure he didn't love that, but I will point out that $1M is o.o7% of the worth of the Patriots ($1.4 billion dollars). It isn't a token amount. But to a guy like him, it is close.

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Regardless of how much the franchise it's worth the constant smearing of it damages the reputation of it. Goodell is responsible for a complete frame of the Patriots and repeatedly endorsing him is bad business imo, not too mention indefensible.

Does it matter anymore? Anyway, I don't buy your theory. This is about the Billionaire Boy's Club getting their way established in a court of law. If they can do that, the BBC & the NFL have won and whatever else took place with the Pats is nothing more than collateral damage, not they they give a **** and it would suit the Jets NFL employees just fine. Unless Brady and the NFLPA wins at the appellate level, the BBC wins.

DefenseRules said:

What a bunch of backstabbers. I would hire some thugs off the street to watch my back and kick some ass. .

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unfortunately his hired thug went rogue after doing some PCP and ended up getting caught in summer 2013

Belichick marches to the beat of his own drummer, always has and always will. He's rubbed a lot of powerful people in the NFL and the media the wrong way and he clearly doesn't give a flying f**k what any of them think. Kraft/Brady/Patriots will always be in the line of fire with Belichick steering the Pats ship. That's just the way it is, and frankly i'm at the point where I could care less about how others view our team. Let's be the heels, let's be the bad guys, let's be the NWO of the NFL. We are the best franchise in sports and I'm happy that it must just tear Goodell and the owners hearts apart every year the Pats get to another AFC Championship or Super Bowl.

Remember Krafty's "Full 32" capitulation speech………..

....“You know, what I’ve learned over the last two decades is that the heart and soul and strength of the NFL is a partnership of 32 teams. And what’s become very clear over those very two decades is at no time should the agenda of one team outweigh the collective good of the full 32. So I have a way of looking at problems that are very strong in my mind, and before I make a final decision, I measure nine times and I cut once. And I think maybe if I had made the decision last week it would be different than it is today. “But believing in the strength of the partnership, and the 32 teams — we have concentrated the power of adjudication of problems in the office of the commissioner. And although I might disagree with what is decided, I do have respect for the commissioner and believe that he’s doing what he perceives to be in the best interests of the full 32. So in that spirit, I don’t want to continue the rhetoric that’s gone on for the last four months. I’m going to accept, reluctantly, what he has given to us, and not continue this dialogue and rhetoric. And we won’t appeal….."

Love that partnership, Bobby.
Knowing what we know now, Deferential Krafty the Statesman was in actuality Indentured Servant Bob the Submissive waiving the surrender flag. Give the man an Oscar for his self-serving portrayal of a selfless act.

Doesn't make sense to me, why should the other owners punish Kraft? Serious question, I can't find an explanation to that.

Tasco said:

Doesn't make sense to me, why should the other owners punish Kraft? Serious question, I can't find an explanation to that.

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Various stories have reported that he was referred to as the assistant commissioner, forcing teams into accepting punishments, they thought he was getting preferential treatment while Goodell's salary skyrocketed under Kraft's watch. They ridiculously thought the Pats got off easy for Spygate, foolishly thought Goodell was protecting the Pats by destroying the tapes.

All the winning couldn't have helped, jealously obviously had a lot to do with it but Kraft clearly must have rubbed people the wrong way.

Any way you look at it. He has alienated his fellow owners, the NFL office and a good amount of the team's fanbase. All that power brokering really paid off, huh?

Nehalem said:

So he took one for the 31 owners that don't like him?

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My impression of b kraft is that its not in him to fight it out, hes like the kid in grade school that everybody picks on and takes it.

Tasco said:

Doesn't make sense to me, why should the other owners punish Kraft? Serious question, I can't find an explanation to that.

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Actually it makes the most sense to me that its a group of owners like the ones that were listed. I can see them hating kraft and the pats for all the winning that they do. The only exception of the owners i saw listed was Mara, because the giants have beaten the pats twice for the SB. The bottom line is money, if your team wins the SB, and wins a lot in general you make more money. the more you win the more money you make.

borg said:

Remember Krafty's "Full 32" capitulation speech………..

....“You know, what I’ve learned over the last two decades is that the heart and soul and strength of the NFL is a partnership of 32 teams. And what’s become very clear over those very two decades is at no time should the agenda of one team outweigh the collective good of the full 32. So I have a way of looking at problems that are very strong in my mind, and before I make a final decision, I measure nine times and I cut once. And I think maybe if I had made the decision last week it would be different than it is today. “But believing in the strength of the partnership, and the 32 teams — we have concentrated the power of adjudication of problems in the office of the commissioner. And although I might disagree with what is decided, I do have respect for the commissioner and believe that he’s doing what he perceives to be in the best interests of the full 32. So in that spirit, I don’t want to continue the rhetoric that’s gone on for the last four months. I’m going to accept, reluctantly, what he has given to us, and not continue this dialogue and rhetoric. And we won’t appeal….."

Love that partnership, Bobby.
Knowing what we know now, Deferential Krafty the Statesman was in actuality Indentured Servant Bob the Submissive waiving the surrender flag. Give the man an Oscar for his self-serving portrayal of a selfless act.

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Could be in that weeks time the other owners told him to go **** himself so he stood down. This whole thing stinks to high heaven. If only some reporter had the gumption to expose the whole rats nest.

One of the few explanations that makes sense to me for Kraft's behavior since 2007 is that he was promised something that he can't buy, a place in Canton with BB and Brady if he just went along with Mara and Rooney in protecting the POS and the Shield. So he has been all in for Goodell and the 31 owners since then instead of his team and fans. The ironic thing is that 31 owner4s hate him and Goodell won't be able to deliver anything.

Brings to mind the pompous crew in the movie Titanic ... where they are dining and discussing old money vs new money ... i.e. being part of the club ... Bob Kraft ... definitely not old money according to the NFL ownership turds.

So many theories and all in a thread that starts with unattributed charges by a group of anonymous owners...

I've noticed lately that Rooney and (especially) Mara seem to be the spokesman for everything NFL ownership related. We're talking old NFL and money. They're families are even intermarried. Maybe they didn't like Kraft taking a seat at the grownup table.

It's a possible explanation of what happened to Kraft, not an excuse for his cowardly behavior.

Irregardless of what the other owners did, Kraft capitulated without as much as a whimper. The only thing he has fought is our (Pat's fans) anger against him fo doing so. All of it, the Wells in Context, the bogus heartfelt letter was an attempt to somehow fool us into thinking that he didn't just lay down and take it.

What I couldn't understand then, and escpecaillay now, when every piece of evidence shows that not only did Brady et al do nothing wrong, is how Kraft has allowed the NFL to tarnish the Patriots and Brady. I frankly don't know how Brady can look him in the face. Kraft owes everything to Brady and he sold him down the river without any protest.

Look at how quickly the NFL is coming out against the NY Times, that is the reaction Kraft should have had. I will give him the fact that the NFL lied to him about the facts, but once the facts came out, he should have fought this set up, and he didn't.

He will never regain the status he once had with the fans, he will always be the guy who sold Brady out.

borg said:

Remember Krafty's "Full 32" capitulation speech………..

....“You know, what I’ve learned over the last two decades is that the heart and soul and strength of the NFL is a partnership of 32 teams. And what’s become very clear over those very two decades is at no time should the agenda of one team outweigh the collective good of the full 32. So I have a way of looking at problems that are very strong in my mind, and before I make a final decision, I measure nine times and I cut once. And I think maybe if I had made the decision last week it would be different than it is today. “But believing in the strength of the partnership, and the 32 teams — we have concentrated the power of adjudication of problems in the office of the commissioner. And although I might disagree with what is decided, I do have respect for the commissioner and believe that he’s doing what he perceives to be in the best interests of the full 32. So in that spirit, I don’t want to continue the rhetoric that’s gone on for the last four months. I’m going to accept, reluctantly, what he has given to us, and not continue this dialogue and rhetoric. And we won’t appeal….."

Love that partnership, Bobby.
Knowing what we know now, Deferential Krafty the Statesman was in actuality Indentured Servant Bob the Submissive waiving the surrender flag. Give the man an Oscar for his self-serving portrayal of a selfless act.

Click to expand...

Interesting choice of words, one of the definitions of the word rhetoric is:

• language designed to have a persuasive or impressive effect on its audience, but often regarded as lacking in sincerity or meaningful content.

rhetoric - Google Search