Bad Decision By Patriots, Kraft Caves To Deflate-gate Punishment
 Robert Kraft at a press conference on Tuesday afternoon, "reluctantly" accepted the league's punishments for Deflate-gate. This ends any chance of the Patriots recouping their draft picks (1st Rd 2016, 4th Rd 2017). (USA TODAY Images) |
After months of rhetoric on both sides concerning one of the sloppier pieces of “independent investigations”, Patriots owner Robert Kraft said that he would “reluctantly accept” the punishment levied by Roger Goodell and the NFL at a press conference on Tuesday afternoon.
You could paint this in a number of different ways, but no matter which way you paint it, this was a bad business decision for a very savvy businessman.
"Although I might disagree what is decided, I do have respect for [commissioner Roger Goodell] and believe that he's doing what he perceives to be in the best interests of [all 32 teams]," Kraft said, at the NFL owners meetings. "So in that spirit, I don't want to continue the rhetoric that's gone on for the last four months.”
The Patriots were docked $1 million dollars, a first-round draft pick in 2016 and a fourth-round draft in 2017 because for the first time in the history of the NFL, someone decided to test the amount of air in a football at halftime.
After months of proclaiming their innocence, holding press conferences, demanding an apology, publishing a web-site that spelled out their grievances, the Patriots blinked first and caved.
Kraft stated that, “This is the best thing for the New England Patriots, the fans and the NFL.”
Maybe for the NFL, most definitely for Roger Goodell, whose leadership can best be described as non-existent. But for the New England Patriots? No, this decision is not.
This is basically a mea culpa, an admission of guilt, no one is going to remember the “reluctantly” part. The public, most of whom are outside New England, will remember just that the team accepted its guilt and moved on.
When talking about the legacy of your team, the Patriots should have gone to the wall, using any and all means at their disposal to fight the one-sided and prejudicial Wells Report and the ridiculous punishments handed over by Goodell in what was a poorly proven case. If the NFL has to take an even bigger bloody nose over this fiasco, then so be it. But you never sell out yourself and never accept punishment for something that you didn’t do. Regardless of trying to protect the brand of the league, Kraft’s first responsibilities are to his team, his players and coaches and the fans that pay their salaries.
You don’t fight for fighting’s sake, you fight the fights that need fighting.
While the case of the Patriots and Tom Brady are looked upon as different, they are most assuredly linked. And while Brady will continue his appeal of his four-game suspension, the league and Goodell now have the ammo to uphold the ban.
With the Patriots “reluctantly” accepting their punishment, this is Goodell’s chance for a complete knockout and set himself up as the league’s unquestioned boss. There’s nothing to stop him now from upholding Brady’s entire suspension. In a schoolyard brawl the toughest kid in the neighborhood just got dropped to the canvas by Urkel.
Some are reporting that this admission by Kraft is a possible precursor to Goodell halving Brady’s suspension to two games. If that is the case, then that is a very bad trade by the Patriots. Losing a potential decade-long impact player to accept a two-game suspension for your quarterback who you believe to be innocent?
Appeasing the league and the commissioner in the best interests of said league over your own brand is not a sound choice.
For such a savvy businessman, this was a very bad business decision.
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