It’s not a secret that New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft is friends with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. This makes the entire Deflate-gate scandal much more interesting as it relates to potential action the Patriots might take against head coach Bill Belichick.
Now comes this little bit of news from Tom Curran of CSN New England, who pointed out a comment that Kraft made to the Patriots head coach following the Spygate scandal of 2007 (h/t Pro Football Talk).
“How much did this help us on a scale of 1 to 100?” Kraft reportedly asked Belichick, via Gary Myers’ book Coaching Confidential.
“One,” Belichick replied.
“Then you’re a real schmuck,” Kraft replied.
It’s also important to note, as Pro Football Talk pointed out, that Kraft had to go in front of the other 31 league owners following that previous scandal and apologize for the “lack of institutional control” in New England.
There are some that are calling on the NFL to suspend Belichick for the Super Bowl, which is an extreme unlikelihood at this point. Others believe that Kraft should outright fire the head coach.
These are all overreactions based on reports that the Patriots under-inflated footballs during their AFC Championship game victory over the Indianapolis Colts. The NFL has yet to come out and discuss this matter publicly, but is reportedly pretty upset of the entire situation.
If New England didn’t show impropriety under Belichick in the past, this likely wouldn’t be a big deal. However, Fox Sports NFL insider Jay Glazer reported on Wednesday that other owners are not necessarily happy about the latest Patriots scandal.
Interesting info from @JayGlazer about #DeflateGate: https://t.co/qQ6yb6LCUf
— Pat Doney (@PatDoneyNBC5) January 21, 2015
It remains to be seen what action the Patriots or the NFL may take against Belichick, but for now the team prepares for the Super Bowl against the Seattle Seahawks.
Until more information is released, Kraft (like the rest of us) should probably just take a deep breath.
Photo: ESPN.com