Bob Kraft's HOF Legacy

[DarrylS]

Well you'd lose that bet, at least in my case. I went to games at Schaefer Stadium in the 70's. I appreciate what Kraft has done to help bring the Pats franchise up to the level it's at today, as I'm sure everyone does who follows the team. When it comes to running the business of the Patriots, I think he's done (and continues to do) an outstanding job.

This is a discussion about putting him in the HOF. It's fair to discuss both sides of his legacy, don't you think? This is a guy who came from those metal bleachers and shared the values of the fans. But today he's the biggest supporter of the fans' public enemy #1. Don't you see an issue there?

There are always anomalies in any issue, my point was that many long term fans seem more tolerant of what Kraft has done for this franchise..

Do not like some of the choices, but every businessman makes some unpopular choices.. ..

Not sure in the organization known as the NFL he has much of a choice.. as much as many of you want him to go against the flow of the NFL not sure that is part of his DNA..

Not sure his decision not to fight harder on "Cameragate"or "Deflategate" would have any bearing at all on his selection to the NFL HOF.. also have never seen any evidence to show that if he did fight harder on either one of these issues it would have made any difference in the outcome..

Article 46 is the culprit here, and hopefully in the next round of contract negotiations that will be modified and somehow a better form of justice will ensue..

 

[DarrylS]

Except the problem is that shmessy's percentages, as has been pointed out, are generous. Football as a whole has changed drastically in the last 10 years... and not for the better. Kraft's support of that process and the man who is spearheading that process make Kraft one to blame. This is on top of everything else I've listed. The problem with maybe some of the old timers, if the "issue" is what you say it is, is that they've been so blinded by something good (and something that Kraft had little to do with outside of simply getting out of the way) that they're going to make efforts to excuse him for anything. And this is all while freely admitting that he's made some very massive errors in judgement to the detriment of the league, franchise, and team itself.

Yet every team has not followed the path of Kraft, his strength is knowing what he is not able to accomplish and deferring to those more knowledgeable specific areas..

If your premise has a modicum of truth to it, fielding a SB team 5 times in the past 14 years would be easy.. and none of it was done with public financing for his business venture...

Kraft was part of a negotiating team, he then approved it along with 30 other owners. so to suggest that he is responsible for the outcome is a tad disingenuous.. having been involved in both sides of union contract negotiations, sometimes things are approved which have an unintended consequence that which seems fair and equitable is often not how it is interpreted.. often the monetary issues overshadow the subtleties of the contract, and Goodell's grab of and then misuse of his power as dictated by Article 46 has caused major issues for the Patriots..

The NFLPA "unanimously" agreed to this contract.. DeMarice Smith called it a "fair deal".. then the players followed along.

Article 46 has been in effect since the early days of NFL contracts, so it is not something that Kraft just put into the contract.. usually provisions such as this that have been long standing are considered "boilerplate" and usually are not negotiated, just passed on. However as there has been abuse by Goodell I suspect that provision may be modified in future negotiations..