I will assume you are serious and this is not parody, and respond in detail
What has Kraft does for this organization?
Bill Belichick would not be here without Kraft. Considering that fact, Brady would most likely not be here without Kraft either. Without those two, we would not have four Super Bowl championships. Without Kraft, this organization would still be where it was prior to Kraft -- a laughing stock.
If you haven't noticed, we ARE a laughing stock. We are a laughing stock due to a false accusation that if fought could have been won, and Kraft chose to not fight, because while it would be best for the Patriots, challenging the unfair ruling would look bad for the 32. Please show me all the other cases where the other 31 sacrificed their franchise for the good of the 32.
This is ridiculous. Giving Kraft credit for the work of BB and Brady is foolish. He made a great hire.
Assuming that if there was a different owner, it would be the worst of the 32 is just wrong.
How much do you really know about what happened? Imagine this scenario --
Are we really going to play this game? Making up a story to defend putrid actions?
Goodell and Kraft had a talk. Kraft had a talk with his lawyers. It was made clear to him that suing the league would not result in any positive outcome for the patriots, much like it never has for any team vs NFL lawsuit in the past.
Kraft's lawyers wrote a very strong rebuttal that would have won in court.
For a team to sue the league and win is unheard of. It is just not possible, considering Kraft is the one who helped make the rules of the CBA. In this case, Kraft had two options:
1. Fight a meaningless fight in which both the organization and the league that he his a part of loses.
2. Surrender, have the same outcome, save the organization from being spited even more by the League.
Those are far from his only options. What happened to appealing and laying out our case, as if he cared that we were falsely accused and convicted and cared about reputation and legacy?
Given only your 2 choices why would his speech not be defiant? Why would he not get up there and say he is 100% certain we did nothing, he renounces the Wells report, disagrees completely with Goodells punishment, knows he would win in court, but his agreement as an owner says he cannot sue, so he must accept an unjust punishment?
Instead he talked about how Patriots fans support that the team did nothing wrong and a lot of other fans disagree and he can't change their mind, and that he cares less about what is good for the Patriots than what the other owners want the Patriots to accept.
Imagine if you were the owner. Now imagine you were fighting a war you couldn't win.
That is not the case.
It doesn't matter if we think you could win, it doesn't matter if the media thinks you could have one. The professionals (lawyers, inner circle) you are paying millions of dollars to you tell you that you cannot win.
This is fantasy. That simply did not happen. Brady's lawyers know he can win, by the way.
What do you do?
a) fight against the league despite not being able to win, lose money and tarnish the reputation of the league you are a part of.
b) reluctantly accept the penalties and work to ensure that these standards are changed in the future, thus saving your relationships with your partners and not tarnishing the league further.
If he can't win, how does the reputation of the league get tarnished?
The league is tarnished because the public believes cheating happened when it did not.
How does supporting Roger Goodell and saying you know he believes his decision was right work to change anything? Kraft passed on the opportunity to do something to effect change, and you want to give him credit for doing it?
Your whole posts seems to be the opposite of what he actually did, and your hope that he meant to do something else.
As a billionaire running a business, choice B is the logical answer. Choice A is fueled by anger and destruction.
Choice A is fueled by what is right.
Do you support his stabbing Jastremski and McNally in the back to protect the other owners?
So imagine you went with the logical choice... And then heard this anger and hate towards you from fans who aren't even informed of the entire situation. Pretty hurtful right?
He sold out the fans, and he sold out Tom Brady. I hope he is hurt by the reaction.
Would Kraft have backed down if he had been told he had a great chance of winning this?
Yes. Because winning (for the Patriots) would be losing for the league, which is more important to him.
Kraft is a patriots fan who has attended a game every season since the team was formed. He was such a huge fan, in fact, that he bought the team and invested in it to make it was it is. No matter what you've spent on the Patriots, Kraft spent more to make them what they are today.
We owe his something for the billions he has made on his investment?
You have no idea what went on behind closed doors. Sure, he could've fought for his "fans." But maybe this is what was the best of all the crappy options available. Maybe this was the way to do the least damage to the sport.
How do you damage the sport by having an unsubstantiated cheating claim against its Champions fought and overturned.
The sport damaged itself. The lack of integrity of Bob Kraft chose to not stop it, when he could have.
Let's be honest. We're all NFL fans. Without the NFL, the patriots would be nothing. This is indeed bigger than the patriots. You can't say you hate the NFL but then watch NFL games and love an NFL franchise so much.
Being a Patriots fan makes you a fan of the NFL because the patriots are the NFL.
What? You support the other 31 teams crapping on the Patriots because its good for 31 and bad for 1?
Kraft has history with the NFL. He has relationships. He has a responsibility to the Patriots and a love for the Patriots, which is why he was initially so angry.
He calmed down, saw his options, and made the choice.
He was told by the other owners that he must choose between The Elite and The Help.
This is the owner who made the Patriots what they are.
This is the owner who benefitted from Bill Belichick making the Patriots what they are.
This is taking too long, I want to stop the rhetoric, I can extend it or end it, so I am ending it.
Those are not consistent with the attitudes that made the Patriots what they are.
If he says this is what was best for the Patriots AND the NFL, and asks for trust, then I'll trust him. After all, he's been a Patriots fan longer than me and has way more invested in the team than me.
He asked you to trust him in the same speech he sold you out.
EDIT:
Please keep personal insults out of your disagreements with me!
I do not mind having a respectful debate. I have lurked for years and know most of you somewhat well, I would like to keep the respect I have for you guys.
Also, please don't reply unless you have a point to make. For example, simply replying "wall of text" does not add to the discussion but just fills the thread and forum with meaningless spam just because of a disagreeing opinion.
Thank you!
Robert Kraft is an embarrassment to this fan base. It is painfully clear what happened.
The other owners told him they don't care whether the Patriots are guilty or not, they expect him to support Goodell. Kraft challenging Goodell sets a precedent for players to challenge Goodell, and this is all about keeping the players down. Kraft was told to choose between The Elite and The Help.
What makes it even more disgusting is that he thinks we are stupid, wants our money, and now is making comments that he did it for the fans. 90% of the fans completely disagree with what he did, and despise him for it. There is a reason for that. He sold us out.