Robert Kraft talks to Peter King

[SVN]

http://mmqb.si.com/2015/05/18/robert-kraft-patriots-owner-nfl-deflategate/5/

 

[Soul_Survivor88]

Asked whether he might violate NFL bylaws by going to court to try to get the league penalties overturned, Kraft said, “I’m not going to comment on that at this point in time. I’m going to leave it. I won’t say.”

 

[BradyFTW!]

Asked whether he might violate NFL bylaws by going to court to try to get the league penalties overturned, Kraft said, “I’m not going to comment on that at this point in time. I’m going to leave it. I won’t say.”

In other words... yes. It's very much in play. Excellent.

 

[Jlaff]

Patriots don't even take the weekend off, they continue spreading info throughout the media. Every single day we have something new to give us hope, loving this.

 

[Patsfanin Philly]

Asked whether he might violate NFL bylaws by going to court to try to get the league penalties overturned, Kraft said, “I’m not going to comment on that at this point in time. I’m going to leave it. I won’t say.”

Translation- It all depends on what Goodell and the 31 other owners do...

 

[nowayback]

Nesn Kraft says TB said he is innocent....good enough for me. Cant remember any incident with TB college or Pros . Till proved otherwise he is getting the benefit of the doubt, and not wells.

 

[DarrylS]

Seems to be the fruit if "lessons learned" from "Spygate".. Mr. Kraft rolled over then, and will not let it happen again..

Kraft really believes in the veracity of Brady's story and is tired of the shenanigans of Goodell... it is not in character for him to go this far out on the limb..

Here he sounds like a poster from Pats Fans.com...

“Anderson has a pre-game recollection of what gauge he used, and it’s disregarded, and the [Wells] Report just assumes he uses the other gauge,” Kraft said. “Footballs have never been measured at halftime of any other game in NFL history. They have no idea how much footballs go down in cold weather or expand in warm weather. There is just no evidence that tampering with the footballs ever happened.”

 

[PatsFanInLondon]

The messaging is fairly clear - there was evidence against us last time (Spygate), but there's ZERO this time round, so I'm damned if I'm going to roll over...

Hopefully Kraft can converse with NFL officials during the meetings - I suspect the tone of the conversation will be "remove the penalties or we'll see you in court - you've got nothing on us and if you think we're giving up draft picks and suspensions off the back of a sting operation then you're very much mistaken. The ball's in your court, Goodell - and it hasn't been deflated."

Sadly, I can't see Goodell backing down over this - he's far too stubborn to recognise that he's made a big mistake handling this witch hunt. It will have to go to court, surely...

 

[Jackson 2]

It seems to me that Kraft's decision may hinge, at least in part, on how things go this week in SF with the other owners and The Dope.

 

[nowayback]

"Sadly, I can't see Goodell backing down over this - he's far too stubborn to recognise that he's made a big mistake handling this witch hunt. It will have to go to court, surely...

To back down would not be popular with fans, although I don't think there is any fan base that likes him. I was surprised that at draft they booed him every time . The only way he would back down is if the owners had enough.

Back down and clean house, but I am sure he has skeletons in his closet that kensil, vincent and others know. So stuck between a rock and a hard place......just as he deserves.

 

[Rob0729]

The messaging is fairly clear - there was evidence against us last time (Spygate), but there's ZERO this time round, so I'm damned if I'm going to roll over...

Hopefully Kraft can converse with NFL officials during the meetings - I suspect the tone of the conversation will be "remove the penalties or we'll see you in court - you've got nothing on us and if you think we're giving up draft picks and suspensions off the back of a sting operation then you're very much mistaken. The ball's in your court, Goodell - and it hasn't been deflated."

Sadly, I can't see Goodell backing down over this - he's far too stubborn to recognise that he's made a big mistake handling this witch hunt. It will have to go to court, surely...

Goodell can't back down now. I think Brady was scapegoated because once this became national news Goodell had to find the Pats guilty and punish them harshly. If he backtracked now, it will be a bigger black eye for him and the league. He spent $5 million and four months on the Wells investigation. To say expressly or implicitly through his actions that the Wells report was a sham, would be career suicide.

This is why he refuses to let anyone else hear Brady's appeal because he knows that even his puppet, Harold Henderson, might see how much a sham the Wells report is and overturn his suspension of Brady. He would rather risk losing in federal court than willingly let someone else hear the appeal.

 

[JJC]

Asked whether he might violate NFL bylaws by going to court to try to get the league penalties overturned, Kraft said, “I’m not going to comment on that at this point in time. I’m going to leave it. I won’t say.”

 

[NashuaPats]

[QUOTE="Sadly, I can't see Goodell backing down over this - he's far too stubborn to recognise that he's made a big mistake handling this witch hunt. It will have to go to court, surely...

To back down would not be popular with fans, although I don't think there is any fan base that likes him. I was surprised that at draft they booed him every time . The only way he would back down is if the owners had enough.
Back down and clean house, but I am sure he has skeletons in his closet that kensil viincent and others know. So stuck between a rock and a hard place......just as he deserves.

The booing that Goodell heard at the draft is nothing compared to what he will hear if he ever steps foot in Gillette Stadium again.

 

[ANGR89]

The booing that Goodell heard at the draft is nothing compared to what he will hear if he ever steps foot in Gillette Stadium again.

Yes if he has the balls to show up I hope he's unable to speak the boos are so loud!
Sadly I don't see him backing down at all, I mean there's many pats haters that are now praising goddell for punishing the patriots, but I think once this is over, no matter how it ends, his haters will be back in full force but he's too much of a moron to realize that, liking his slight rise in "popularity " lol

 

[Fixit]

In case there are still some people in the "I love the Pats, but they must have done something" camp ... there is zero chance that Brady would hang Kraft out to dry like this if he did anything untoward. None.

 

[#12]

I don't know why the media keeps trying to infer there is strong circumstantial evidence against the Pats. I have heard not one legal opinion outside of Wells "independent" opinion to say there is anything close to inferring something nefarious happened. There isn't ****. They have no case. There is no strong evidence. Those text messages are NOT strong circumstantial evidence. Theyre only strong in the eyes of the mediots BC people hate the Pats and want to believe they've been cheating. There is literally nothing there. I can't for the life of me watch people who have no analyzing ability spin this report as if its damning in any way. It's quite the opposite.

Anyways, good on Kraft for continuing to consider his options. I truly feel like he does not have any other choice at this point but to pursue legal action against these jealous b^tches.

 

[Jim Colclough fan]

The messaging is fairly clear - there was evidence against us last time (Spygate), but there's ZERO this time round, so I'm damned if I'm going to roll over...

Hopefully Kraft can converse with NFL officials during the meetings - I suspect the tone of the conversation will be "remove the penalties or we'll see you in court - you've got nothing on us and if you think we're giving up draft picks and suspensions off the back of a sting operation then you're very much mistaken. The ball's in your court, Goodell - and it hasn't been deflated."

Sadly, I can't see Goodell backing down over this - he's far too stubborn to recognise that he's made a big mistake handling this witch hunt. It will have to go to court, surely...

There are 31 other owners with staff attending this meeting. They will be in Goodell's ear the entire time. Brady and Kraft will not back down - the only thing against them is the arbitration process within the NFL, which they will beat. No doubt Goodell is stubborn - but he has to see this as his Waterloo.

 

[Ross12]

I absolutely love it. Kraft went straight to Goodell's little mouthpiece and used him to hurt Goodell. That's like twisting the knife right there, in addition to the fact that MMQB has a ton of readers and this will likely now get his comments onto ESPN, sports radio etc. Kraft is waging a war on public opinion before he even gets to court...

I love how all his answers about court and consequences against his fellow owners were essentially answered with "we'll see what happens shortly", and even answered a question about staying on all of his various committees with "we'll see in a week or two"... He likely just scared the hell out of most of the owners, and s*** is about to get real at these meetings. He's threatening litigation and other consequences hardcore and will now see where his peers stand.

 

[Big-T]

The owners should be listening now.

What would you do if you owned a team? Go against Kraft and go down the route of "crap what if he goes after the antitrust exemption" or side with him for "we could just side with Robert and get a new commish..."

 

[Jackson 2]

In case there are still some people in the "I love the Pats, but they must have done something" camp ... there is zero chance that Brady would hang Kraft out to dry like this if he did anything untoward. None.

I feel the same way. It just seems as though this whole sordid mess just keeps providing bad news. I'd like some good news for a change.