Robert Kraft blasts Welker's agent

[FCB02062]

Krafty bob damage control! Hey krafty, isn't it about time you raise ticket prices again or hold the states taxpayers hostage for improvements to Jonathan City down on rt 1? CHISEL THAT ONE ON MY GRAVESTONE!

 

[Ivan]

Shouldn't you be on the Bronco's forums railing about how they dont appreciate Welker enough?

Im sorry. I will and always will believe Kraft over any sports agent. Always. Worst case scenario is that he believes he is telling the truth but is mistaken or misled.

If you believe that Welker only has 2 years left then it would be possible to believe that Kraft wasn't lying when he said they wanted Kraft to be a Patriot "for life," other than that it is clear who is the liar and it isn't the agent.


I'm starting to believe they should change the spelling of sycophant to sycofant

 

[Ivan]

Shouldn't you be on the Bronco's forums railing about how they dont appreciate Welker enough?

Im sorry. I will and always will believe Kraft over any sports agent. Always. Worst case scenario is that he believes he is telling the truth but is mistaken or misled.

Actually i need to stay here so I can participate in your upcoming thread about Ocho>Welker

 

[Deus Irae]

If one side relies on the words of Kraft while the other side relies on Borges and Felger,

my opinion is that Kraft's words are less nonsensical by a whole lot.

I'm not any KoolAid drinker and I'm still steamed that Wes is gone, but guys like Borges and Felger are proven agenda-driven liars.

The Patriots had years to get this done right, and they chose not to. Kraft is just trying to put lipstick on the pig.

 

[PatsWickedPissah]

I still agree with Bedard that the truth is somewhere between the Pats and Welker's position on what went down. My guess is that both sides did a lot of right and a lot of wrong.

People will come down on whatever side they usually come in on when it comes to whether you side with the Pats or the player. Unfortunately, none of us are going to know what really went down. We will just believe who we want to believe.

One thing I do know for sure is that Kraft feels pretty burned. He clearly put himself on the line on wanting to bring Welker back and he feels the agent screwed up the process. He typically doesn't talk about failed negotiations like this personally. Now the question is whether he just doesn't know the whole situation or his side of the story has more truth than some want to believe.

I personally believe that for the most part, Kraft's side of the story is what he believed happened. The one thing I don't know is that what happened or what his perception of what happened is. I doubt he was actively involved in the entire process.

Normally I disregard Kraft's pronouncements as corporate speak. However your point that this frank outburst is atypical of Kraft's business negotiation style and behavior indicates to me that he (Kraft) is sincerely upset and wicked pissed at Wes' agent. I believe that the best evidence is that Dunn badly misread the market for Wes. There was no big guaranteed beyond 2 year contract out there as Wes was led to believe. I'll even agree that borg might have a point (God help me) that uber conciliator Kraft having done the corporate speak "Wes is a Patriot for life" probably owed Wes a call right before the DA deal got consummated. It's a Greek tragedy with the incompetence of the agent bringing down the heroes.

 

[RhodyPatriot]

Patriots wanted Welker over Amendola???

That's what Bob Kraft wants you to believe. If only Wes Welker had called them on Tuesday and not Wednesday then Kraft/BB would have gladly given Welker the 2/12 Denver contract.

This is called Kraftwork, i.e. revisionist history


If the Patriots believed THEY gauged the FA market correctly and there was no big contract out there for Wes Welker and they very much wanted to keep Wes Welker according to Kraft himself then why did the Patriots rush to sign Amendola on day 1 of the FA period thus closing the door on Welker's return??
What, they were afraid Amendola was in huge demand and was going to be scooped up by someone else so they had to lock him up immediately??
Come on Robert.

 

[JackBauer]

If you believe that Welker only has 2 years left then it would be possible to believe that Kraft wasn't lying when he said they wanted Kraft to be a Patriot "for life," other than that it is clear who is the liar and it isn't the agent.

Are you saying it would have been impossible for Kraft to re-sign Welker two years from now?

 

[JackBauer]

Re: Patriots wanted Welker over Amendola???

Does this really deserve its own thread?

 

[Sicilian]

Welker's production was off the charts but they wanted to pay him like Chad 16 REC Ochocinco.

I hate this argument. Albert Haynesworth got a $100m dollar contract, and did jack squat for Washington. So when Julius Peppers got a $96m contract, was that an insult to him? I mean, if Albert "quit on his team" Haynesworth got $100m, Peppers with his production should have gotten at least $200m right?

Or maybe it's that Ocho never should have gotten $6m. You don't set the market with the worst player and work your way UP.

 

[Run DMC]

Listening to Kraft audio...
So Kraft says we had to free up money to "improve our D, which we know we have to do".
Oh really? And how have we improved? Wilson, seriously? Other than that we have the same team, thus far. Mind you this was a guy that was benched as a coverage liability. Underwhelmed...

 

[Sicilian]

Listening to Kraft audio...
So Kraft says we had to free up money to "improve our D, which we know we have to do".
Oh really? And how have we improved? Wilson, seriously? Other than that we have the same team, thus far. Mind you this was a guy that was benched as a coverage liability. Underwhelmed...

Too bad FA is over, the draft is already done, and we're past the trading deadline. They really should expand the offseason in the next CBA to longer than one week.

 

[Run DMC]

Too bad FA is over, the draft is already done, and we're past the trading deadline. They really should expand the offseason in the next CBA to longer than one week.

Are you at all familiar with the english language term, "thus far"?

 

[Bruins29]

Re: Patriots wanted Welker over Amendola???

Jack, ya know maybe we get use this thread to get all the little spoiled children in one place. I am not talking about the ones that are disappointed on how the WW thing was handled which people have a right to moan about...or even Krafts recent response which is a bit of damage control.

I am talking about the Kraft is cheap guys who seem to think this guy is all about lining his pockets with their money.

 

[JackBauer]

Are you at all familiar with the english language term, "thus far"?

So why are you whining about what Kraft said if, by your own admission, the process isn't nearly complete?

 

[RhodyPatriot]

The Patriots had years to get this done right, and they chose not to. Kraft is just trying to put lipstick on the pig.

You got it!!!!

 

[Danger Zone]

Actually i need to stay here so I can participate in your upcoming thread about Ocho>Welker

First.

Quote us a single anti-Welker sentence in this entire thread. You can't.

Dont pretend your dysfunction here is only in defending Welkers honor.

Take a poll of Patriot fans, then take a poll of Patsfan.com posters. The amount of actual Welker haters are a tiny, tiny percentage of what you think it is.

That said. Your definition what what construes hating or disrespecting Welker is miles beyond what is considered the normal common day usage by us non-fanatical English language users.

Second.

Quote me as ever having anything but the highest respect for Welker (by normal/sane person standards). You cant.

Third.

I personally think the Patriots are absolute idiots for letting Welker go for anything less than 8 or even 9 million.

 

[Sicilian]

Are you at all familiar with the english language term, "thus far"?

Your implication was that Kraft was disingenuous with his comments on improving the defense, and your evidence was that the defense had only added a few pieces after the first week of free agency. I don't think my language skills are the problem here.

 

[mgcolby]

Re: Patriots wanted Welker over Amendola???

apparently his drivel wasn't getting enough attention in the Welker thread.

 

[Sicilian]

Re: Patriots wanted Welker over Amendola???

Sometimes I wish there was a way to anti-bump a thread, as in push it down off the first page faster.

And yes, I am fully aware of the hypocrisy of this post.

 

[BSR]

As I said, I had moved on from this and was focused on next years team,and anyone who has read my posts over the last week knows that, it is the Welker haters who are keeping this going. They want to talk sh.t and then scream and cry when there is any rebuttal to their bullsh.t. In the two plus years this has been going on i haven't started a single thread on it, on the other hand the Welker haters have started dozens and dozens. If you guys want it to stop then simply shut up about it and move on.

Nobody is hating on Welker. If there is any hating, it is on Dunn. Afterall, he is the one that brought it up again. I think we had all moved on before that before he started up the whole "no offer" thing. I think that is clearly semantics as you don't go years without talking contract numbers as he implied without saying something earlier. If anyone is hating on a Patriot, past or present, it is you.