The 32 NFL owners are doing their best to present a united front to the players’ union, and New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft is speaking in superlatives when describing just how united the owners are.
“Probably the most important thing about this league meeting that’s different than other years is that we continue to have a very united ownership,” Kraft told Albert Breer of the Boston Globe. “This is my 17th season, and I’ve never seen ownership as united on any issue as we are on this issue. We have a great sport, and we have to be smart enough to allow the league to grow for the players and the fans.”
Kraft also summarized the owners’ public message in explaining its side of the ongoing negotiations with the players: The NFL is a great league, and the owners are just trying to keep it great.
“I just think everyone understands we have something special,” Kraft said. “We’ve got to get it right, so it works long-term. And it’s amazing now, the small-market teams, the big-market teams, the middle range, there’s a consistency in thought.
“I’ve never seen that kind of unity. That’s good for the game. We’re not together for confrontation. We want what’s best for the NFL.”
Kraft another greedy owner. Correct me if I’m wrong but doesn’t the Pats have the highest ticket prices in the NFL.
Yes the players make millions but the owners make hundreds of millions. Good luck with your united front owners. I don’t see the players making consessions and were probably headed for a lockout if the owners press the issue.
“Kraft says owners are as united as he’s ever seen”
It’s called greed.
Robert Kraft also thought that Vladimir Putin was a nice guy until ol’ Vlad asked to see that superbowl ring.
I realize they have to say it, but it would be refreshing to not have our intelligence continually insulted.
It isn’t for the fans or the players or even the other owners. It’s for money. And the exponential growth that the NFL has undergone is causing more and more greed.
That’s fine. But I’d rather they just say it.
Also, Kraft should just say, we are so united, you could say we could agree or collude on any issue.
Glad to hear they know they’ve got a good thing. Don’t blow it NFL. Nobody wants to see a league of “Haves” and “Have-nots” like Baseball. Keep the salary cap maximum attainable by small market teams. End of story. You’ll rule sports forever.
To players and owners: Please don’t let football morph into baseball. Those myopic jerks have ruined what was once a sport known as the “pastime.”
Can someone comment on the chances / ability for DeSmith to be fired?
First two commenters: What’s your definition of greed? And what would your world be like if you owned the Patriots?
cbatchel says:
March 21, 2010 10:08 AM
Kraft another greedy owner. Correct me if I’m wrong but doesn’t the Pats have the highest ticket prices in the NFL.
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Yes. Do the Pats have PSLs? NO. Do the Pats have a taxpayer funded stadium? Again…NO. Kraft pays ALL the bills. Kraft puts his money where his mouth is at least. He’s also replacing the surface of Gillette with the latest Field Turf to benefit his soccer and football franchises. Say what you want to about the man but he sinks money into his team and facilities. Players like to concentrate on just their salaries (I personally would like to know another endeavor where employee salary budget made up 60% of gross profits, I can’t think of one). What they don’t take into consideration is that anything owners do to make their facilities better benefits the players as well either safety wise or helping them get better (better weight rooms, etc).
To all you clowns trashing Kraft, he did an poutstanding interview on The Big Show last week saying that both sides need to realize they share a great product, and find a deal they can both live with. He said his goal on getting involved is to bring his business experience to bear and ensure that a deal IS reached and a work stoppage is avoided at all costs. His creating unity among the owners is a good thing, it makes negotiating with the union an easier task.
Anyone who doubts Kraft’s ability to bring a roomful of people to a common consensus needs only to look at what he did with a ramshackle organization like the Patriots were. Kraft may single-handedly bring every one of these morons to a fair agreement.
Kraft is one of the great schemers of the NFL. He has reamed the Pats fans by riding (3) meager 3 point SB wins to continuously rising prices and fees for several years. It’s owners like Kraft that has precipitated the obsessive greed of the other owners who follow his lead to maximize profits and minimize expenses. The NFL used to be a sport for fans. Now its a sport for marketing opportunities and financial ROI. Kraft might be an icon for other owners, but how different would the NFL be if the Patriots had remained irrelevant but for Adam Vinatieri’s ‘toe’.
Robert and Myra Kraft are pillars in the community. Yes they paid the most for a franchise back in 1994 at $180 million dollars and kept James Busch Orthwein from moving the team to St Louis. And thank god we had a iron clad lease for the stadium that Kraft bought out of foreclosure years earlier.
We have NO PSL’s and we have a season ticket base that rivals the Packers, Redskins, and Giants. He also cleaned up Route 1 with a new mall, movie theatre, hotel and make Patriots Place a destination and not a drunking pit.
Yes my seats are $3600 a yr plus playoffs for my 3 seats plus $40 a game for parking but it you want to enjoy the experience, you need to pony up the money. Kraft took the risk when he bought this team and another $300 million for the new stadium. I know with CMGI and Gillette naming rights plus the NFL chipping in a loan and the state paying for the road work on route 1 that the stadium is not paid for in full and he had a stiff note on the mall project. But you also have to think of how bad off Foxboro would be with tax revenue without the Patriots.
Therefore I am convinced that if anyone Robert and Jonathan Kraft “his son” will be the owner that will get this collective bargain agreement done and not Dan Snyder or Jerry Jones or Woody Johnson or The Mara’s or the Rooney’s.
I love the ninja commenters, like the first two dullards. They make their stupid little points, and when pressed, run away.
“csaber2007 says:
I love the ninja commenters, like the first two dullards. They make their stupid little points, and when pressed, run away. ”
I don’t owe you an explanation.
Don’t like it?
Don’t read it.
…Besides, if I owned a professional football team, I sure wouldn’t want it to be the single most disgraced franchise in recorded sports history, and that includes the 1919 White Sox.
Then, only a handful of players were involved, in Spygate your entire slimy organization was aware of it, from the owner on down.
Wow – is there some sort of disease that makes people bash everything Pats? As far as owners go, you have to give props to Kraft, who was a lifelong fan when the team was crap, and bought the team and the stadium for a lot of money when it didn’t seem like the greatest investment.
Bell63 says:
March 21, 2010 1:57 PM
Wow – is there some sort of disease that makes people bash everything Pats?
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yeah. It’s called bill bilechick (too lazy to check the spelling).
You nailed it PatsFan54.
And to the rest of you haters, just stick it! Assnecks!
We cheer for laundry. Anyone can put on the gear, and if they win, we will love them.
Don’t ever forget that.
The players better get in line. Baseball needs to be this hard. They are merely the actors in the big screen play that is NFL. There is alwasys an understudy ready to take over. When the players run the operations and take the financial risks they can bump their gums. Until then, take what you get or play in Canada.
Most of these guys get full scholarships to fine schools where they can get a superior education. Then they get drafted with a chance to make a lot of money. If they don’t take advantage of either of those situations to provide themselves security and comfort in the current environment, it’s on them. Sorry, no pity from me.
The Patriots will win regardless who puts on that nautical blue and that is because we have the best owner in the league. Kraft is strong, resourceful and a visionary.
I am not interested in anything the players have to say.
Bell63 its called the old green eyed monster known as jealousy.
He has reamed the Pats fans by riding (3) meager 3 point SB wins
You’re either joking or the dumbest mf’er I’ve seen here yet.
And that’s saying a lot.
# ampats says:
Bell63 its called the old green eyed monster known as jealousy.”
Try contempt.
“csaber2007 says:
I love the ninja commenters, like the first two dullards. They make their stupid little points, and when pressed, run away. ”
What are we supposed to just sit in front of our ‘puter waiting for someone to make a smart ass comment about our comment??? Come on its starting to get nice outside! **PooF** (Popped Ninja Smoke)
You ALL keep on holding a grudge against the Patriots for SPYGATE. GET OVER IT.
Kraft and Belichick went before the NFL owners and coaches in a meeting and admitted they were wrong and they got a standing ovation.
Even Tony Dungy even claimed that this was a closed issue. PERIOD
Belichick was given a record fine and the team was sanctioned a 1st rd pick penalty. You all need to grow up.
IT”S OVER FLORIOHAIRHAT and to anyone else who needs to complain about our Boston sport teams.
Success breeds jealous people and inmature ones as well. And if this SPYGATE is so critical then why after the fact we were 1 fluke of a play away from going undefeated for the 1st time since the 72 Dolphins. AND THAT WAS AFTER SPYGATE.
SO GET OVER IT
cbatchel says:
Correct me if I’m wrong but doesn’t the Pats have the highest ticket prices in the NFL.
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No, Dallas has the Pats beat by $40 per game.
The owners are quite greedy, no doubt
The players are not any less greedy though so I don’t feel bad for them one bit.
I am not sure how anyone could really pick one side in this argument and claim that the other is 100% wrong.
Kraft and Belichick went before the NFL owners and coaches in a meeting and admitted they were wrong and they got a standing ovation.
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just because they got a standing ovation doesn’t mean they didn’t cheat their way to 3 supe bowls.
Just because dingy says it’s over DOESN’T mean that they didn’t cheat their way to 3 super bowls
just because they ha 250k in fines and a draft pick taken away DOESN’T mean they didn’t cheat their way to 3 super bowls.
All it means I that they got caught. They were punished. And that some one they cheated against and probably robbed a couple of super bowl appearances from forgave them.
They still cheated the entire league and all NFL fans of all the other 31 teams of 8 years of fairly played football. Considering, at the time, it was over 20% of the superbowl years, that’s a fairly big amount of time to have been screwed out of watching fair football.
And THAT is why I will never forget and will always harp on the patriots cheating. Especially since the media fails to acknowledge it. Most likely because they don’t want to be blackballed by the NFL.
whatdiga, I’m not a fan of the Pats and all I can say is that the only thing that they did diffeent from the other teams was get outed by a former assistant. They’re not the first to do what they did and the fans of the other teams are either naive or disingenuous when they talk about the Cheatriots or whatever name that they came up for them.
What happens with Spygate was also done by almost every other team in the NFL and they got caught after Mangini ratted them out and look what happened, the Jets fired him and he had to swallow his pride and kiss Holgren butt to keep his job in Cleveland.
It’s over. what are you going to say about Mark McGuire, Sammy Sosa, Barry Bonds and any other player in MLB who has taken performance inhancing drugs. Should there records be removed?
You never see MLB do that so this crap about the Patriots. ENOUGH. GET OVER IT.
It’s like someone going to jail and they paid there time and now want to move on and people never let it go.
The severity of the crime does make a difference YES but this is just a GAME.
“I’m not a fan of the Pats and all I can say is that the only thing that they did diffeent from the other teams was get outed by a former assistant.”
“What happens with Spygate was also done by almost every other team in the NFL and they got caught after Mangini ratted them out”
agenice says:
I hope you guys have proof of this…
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Ok, genius, do you think that the NFL is all knowing and all seeing and that they think 30 or 40 years into the future and they wrote the rule in anticipation of Belichick getting a job as a head coaching and doing this OR that they passed the rule AFTER it was so blatantly abused by EVERYONE (Before you step on your privates, remember that they’re only just NOW trying to deal with OT and it’s been 35 years)?
Over the years, they have to write rules that REQUIRED these guys to give up film because it was being withheld, either partially or in its entirety. They’ve came up with the rule that the Pats broke because every one was doing it. You can believe that the NFL was Candy Land before Belichick took over the Pats and that no coach in the history of the game outside of him or you can read what Jimmy Johnson had to say about it, “This is exactly how I was told to do it 18 years ago by a Kansas City Chiefs scout. I tried it, but I didn’t think it helped us.” Johnson also said, “Bill Belichick was wrong because he videotaped signals after a memo was sent out to all of the teams saying not to do it. But what irritates me is hearing some reactions from players and coaches. These players don’t know what their coaches are doing. And some of the coaches have selective amnesia because I know for a fact there were various teams doing this. That’s why the memo was sent to everybody. That doesn’t make [Belichick] right, but a lot of teams are doing this.”
As I said, I’m NOT a fan of the Pats (Ironically, the Cowboys are my team) so I’m not saying this in defense of my team but I am saying this as a long time observer of the league.