tom444
Veteran Starter w/Big Long Term Deal
- Joined
- Apr 11, 2015
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- 8,800
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I admire that you have a different opinion and aren't afraid to be the in the minority here in this thread. In fact, I suspect a lot of people who don't agree with my post gave it an eye roll long ago and that was the end of their involvement.
I do think that your reasoning here is flawed, though. Hey, where would the USSR have been had Stalin not fought off Germany in WWII? Where would the German economy have been in the late 1930s had there not been a great ruler who came in and restored national pride and financial independence? In both cases, these countries were greatly indebted and eternally grateful that their nations had been restored, and their citizens wrongly offered little resistance in giving those ruling parties unchecked power going forward.
I realize how trite and overboard it is comparing events to WWII, but I think we do so because they are very emotional, vivid examples that most people can relate to. In both cases, I make the point just to illustrate that just because a leader may be responsible for great feats, or even the survival of a nation in the past, does mean they should be immune from any criticism in subsequent dealings. Absolutely the same can be applied to businesses all across the world today; CEOs who have saved companies or been instrumental in their ascent may not necessarily be worthy of praise today, nor does their past achievements excuse them for decisions that negatively effect company employees or shareholders today.
In addition to that, the criticism of Kraft here has little to do with Kraft as a business owner or Kraft as a savior who kept the team from relocating in the 1990s; in fact, it doesn't even have anything to do with Kraft as a savvy owner, even if we are to take the most optimistic view possible at his involvement in player development and influence over the team, being a key reason for their success. Even if we believe that, what is fundamentally wrong with his Deflategate dealings are just in another category altogether. This has to do with something much more visceral to so many fans. The idea that what you've watched over the last fifteen years was the result of cheating, in the wake of many legitimate scandals like Lance Armstrong and the baseball steroids stuff...well, it's beyond comprehension how an owner could care so little about his own fans and the way they'd like to be perceived, and that he would seemingly roll over like such a spineless coward...it's kind of disgusting.
Than don't buy his product.