Robert Kraft’s Strong Words against NFL, Roger Goodell Mean Very Little

ByPhil Naegely|

On Tuesday NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell upheld Tom Brady’s four-game suspension for his role in Deflategate. The decision led to many speaking in defense of Brady and in defense of Goodell. A day later New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft had some strong words for the Deflategate appeal decision.

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Kraft made an impromptu appearance at Bill Belichick news conference ahead of the 2015 training camp and quickly stoked the fire. After stating that he was disappointed and regretted taking the penalties back in May because they had no affect on getting Brady a lesser punishment, Kraft stated a zinger that Twitter quickly reacted too.

“I was wrong for putting my faith in the league,” Kraft strongly stated before leaving the podium without taking questions from the media.

If Kraft truly thought the team taking a penalty would reduce Brady’s penalty, he isn’t fully aware of how league punishment works. For this plan to work, the party at fault and allegedly guilty must admit their role and guilt. With Brady feeling he is not guilty, he has ever right to not admit to a incident, but it won’t help get a lesser penalty that Kraft had in mind when he took the penalties.

Kraft has a lack of faith in the league now, but it appears he’s the only owner to think so and has little support on this case from other NFL owners. It’s important to note as if a majority of NFL owners had an issue with the NFL commissioner, then they could elect to fire the current one and hire a new one.

Think Bob Kraft is ready to take out Roger Goodell as commissioner. Don't think he'll have support from many other owners.
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) July 29, 2015

All Kraft’s strong words did were stir the pot further and make this incident uglier. At this point, it’s basically the NFL front office against the NFLPA and the Patriots. While Belichick distances himself from the scandal and focuses on training camp, the NFLPA and Kraft look to be headed for a war. This issue would’ve been solved if not for the agreement by the league and the players’ association that Goodell has the ability to be judge, jury, and executioner.

For Kraft, he will remain friends with the commissioner despite his words on Wednesday. At next week’s owners meeting Kraft and Goodell are both expected to be in attendance and will return to being friends. In addition, Kraft’s strong words and claims don’t seem to have support from the other 29 team owners.

At the end of the day, majority rules and Kraft is not in the majority no matter what he thinks he can do with his strong influence. One thing that did come out of his words at the press conference were his true colors. By not taking the time to take questions by the press, his arrogance and “I’m always right” attitude shined rather than explaining finding a solution to what he considers an issue.

If he truly can no longer put his faith in the NFL, then maybe he should sell the team. Yet until then, nothing will change and his strong words will be nothing than a press conference where he got what was bothering him off his chest. It also appears that Kraft is the only owner who finds a major issue in this, but that will be further seen at next week’s meetings.

Other than Kraft’s strong showing today, there’s nothing to see here except Belichick and company preparing to win back-to-back Superbowls.

Next: NFLPA Has No One to Blame But Themselves

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