Has Kraft ever said anything about Victor Kiam?

[TheGodInAGreyHoodie]

Bob Kraft first and foremost is a huge fan of the New England Patriots.

Victor Kiam was the owner of the NEP from 1988 - 1991 and is most famously known as the owner of Remington Products and the phrase line ""I liked it so much, I bought the company!" So famous in fact that the phrase "Doing a Victor Kiam" has now become a term for a customer who becomes the owner of a company. It woud be accurate to say Kraft "did a Victor Kiam" when he purchased the NEP.

Not long after Kiam died. The NEP moved into Gillette stadium, named after a competing razor company, and Gillette appears on the team's practice uniforms.

Did Kraft ever say anything about this? If it is a personal dig against an ower he thought mismanged the team or anything like that?

 

[RobertWeathers]

Bob Kraft first and foremost is a huge fan of the New England Patriots.

Victor Kiam was the owner of the NEP from 1988 - 1991 and is most famously known as the owner of Remington Products and the phrase line ""I liked it so much, I bought the company!" So famous in fact that the phrase "Doing a Victor Kiam" has now become a term for a customer who becomes the owner of a company. It woud be accurate to say Kraft "did a Victor Kiam" when he purchased the NEP.

Not long after Kiam died. The NEP moved into Gillette stadium, named after a competing razor company, and Gillette appears on the team's practice uniforms.

Did Kraft ever say anything about this? If it is a personal dig against an ower he thought mismanged the team or anything like that?

Thats an interesting theory that I think would be wrong to easily dismiss. After all, Kraft outbid Kiam for the stadium so there may have been a little Gordon Gekko/Sir Larry Wilder thing going (Wall Street).

IMO I dont think the Gillette naming deal had anything to do with Kiam. CMGI went in the tank and Gillette swooped in and dished out $11m or something like that..

 

[Patsfanin Philly]

Did Kraft ever say anything about this? If it is a personal dig against an ower he thought mismanged the team or anything like that?

As Don Corleone would say, "nothing personal, strictly business" Gillette came up with a better offer wrt naming rights......

 

[Rob0729]

Many companies were approached to buy the naming rights after CMGI backed out including Monster.com, Fidelity, and other companies both nationally and locally. Gillette just offered the most money for the naming rights. Kraft is a businessman. He isn't going to sacrifice millions for a grudge.

Kraft did do business with Kiam when Kraft owned the stadium and Kiam owned the team, but I don't think there was any anamosity between the two. Kraft bought the team from Jim Orthwein and not Kiam who lost it to Orthwein. If Kiam didn't go bankrupt, Kraft would have never bought the team. He actually owes Kiam in a weird way.

I think there is nothing there.

 

[363839]

Many companies were approached to buy the naming rights after CMGI backed out including Monster.com, Fidelity, and other companies both nationally and locally. Gillette just offered the most money for the naming rights. Kraft is a businessman. He isn't going to sacrifice millions for a grudge.

Not that I'm unhappy with the name of Gillette but how cool would Monster.com field sound?! In fact, just take away the .com part...
Welcome to Monster Field. Home of the New England Patriots.

 

[Pats Fanatic]

I'm glad that Remington is not part of the name. I reminds me how bad the Pats were under Victor Kiam. He was the worst owner in the teams history by a long ways. He might have been the worst in New England pro sports history.

 

[efin98]

Not that I'm unhappy with the name of Gillette but how cool would Monster.com field sound?! In fact, just take away the .com part...
Welcome to Monster Field. Home of the New England Patriots.

Would have beat the 49ers to the punch by a couple of years, they had their stadium renamed "Monster Park" for five years..

 

[Tunescribe]

Did Kraft ever say anything about this? If it is a personal dig against an ower he thought mismanged the team or anything like that?

As I recall, Kraft had this to say about Kiam: "That goddamn f*cking sonuvab!tch screwed this team over like a %$@!&*!!!!! I hate that motherf*cking ^$%&**^%!!!"