Patriots restricted free agent guard Logan Mankins said in June that in his dealings with the team, he had learned that he was wrong when he thought a man’s word is his bond — at least if that man is Patriots owner Robert Kraft.
Now Patriots President Jonathan Kraft says Mankins couldn’t be more wrong about his dad.
In a wide-ranging interview with our old friend Tom E. Curran of CSNNE.com, Jonathan Kraft took issue with Mankins’ characterization of his negotiations with the Patriots on a new contract.
“Robert’s never spoken to Logan about his contract,” Jonathan Kraft said. “Logan, in my opinion, seriously misspoke when he said that about Robert because Robert has not spoken with Logan about his contract.”
Kraft seemed to bristle at the suggestion that the Patriots are cheap, but he ultimately took the standard line that the Patriots can only be concerned with the players who are with the team, and not with the players who aren’t there.
“Sometimes when credibility is called into question you have to address it,” Kraft said. “But Logan’s not here. Logan’s not in the building. Logan’s not under contract right now.”
Kraft also addressed the team’s desire to sign Tom Brady to a long-term contract, noting that the uncertainty around the league about the labor situation in 2011 and beyond makes it difficult to get a deal done. But he said that the Patriots are ultimately willing to spend what it takes to win.
Even if Mankins doesn’t believe that.
Sure he mis-spoke just like Andy Pettitte mis-remembered.
Robert Kraft is cheap, he personally has no money, it has always been his wifes families money. Krafts are in the same situation as the Glazers with the Buc’s. They have some serious debt payments on realestate transactions.
Krafts still owe on the Team purchase
Stadium construction debt
The new mall they build on the stadium-debt. They have always been just barely able to get by with her money, funny people are just now noticing how broke they are.
people can complain all they want that the Pats dont pay. But Randy Moss is one of the highest paid WR, Wilfork is one of the highest paid NT, Gostkowski is with kickers too. Seymour was always high paid. They dropped a boat load of money on A Thomas.
They just do it on their terms, usually make the guys play out their initial contracts fully before giving them the new deal.
I’m no Pats fan, and i’m certainly no fan of the Justin Bieber haircut, but these owners uncertainty about the labor agreement crap is getting old. Hell, he’s been one of the top 2 Qb’s in the NFL for a decade, and he won 3 titles, just freakin pay him.
@chris,
Can you really be so clueless ? Twisting everything good the Krafts has done is really pathetic. Of course they should have extorted the stadium out of the taxpayers by your logic just like virtually every other nfl team has screwed the locals doing.
The Pats spend to the cap every year or very near to it. Just because the don’t give stupid and destructively large contracts to individual players does not mean they are cheap, it means they manage their team well.
I’m surprised you’re able to tie your shoes and wipe your own rear end with the intelligence level you’re showing.
Is Brady going to play the season without contract?
chris,
You couldn’t be more wrong. Your Jets whack it.
Chris, get a clue
http://www.forbes.com/lists/2009/10/billionaires-2009-richest-people_Robert-Kraft_GSI4.html
Chris you are a total dbag. Robert Kraft is far from cheap. Furthermore you have no clue what the Krafts finances look like nor any clue whatsoever about how the rest of the Kraft empire is funded. In fact the stadium was financed with the sale of 10-year Club seat contracts. That is public knowledge. The Kraft situation is nothing like the Galzers and the team spending has nothing to do with Kraft debt. Get a clue before you go spouting off about good people.
Chris just likes to throw stuff against the wall hope that it sticks. He forgets that we live in the world of instant information and if someone just does a little fact checking they can find out that his entire post was just full of crap….just like what Mankins thought he heard from Bob Kraft
I don’t see where Mankins specifically said he sat down with Bob one-on-one and heard it dirrectly from him.
“After the 2008 season, me and my agent approached the Patriots about an extension and I was told that Mr. Kraft did not want to do an extension because of the [uncertain collective bargaining agreement],” Mankins told Mike Reiss of ESPNBoston.com. “I was asked to play ’09 out, and that they would address contract after the uncapped year. I’m a team player, I took them at word, and I felt I played out an undervalued contract.”
Sounds like Mankins is actually saying Kraft told his agent that they didn’t want to do an extension.
Calling someone a liar to weasel out of a very clear reality is just pathetic.
.
The Patriots have been unfairly branded as being a cheap organization in my opinion. First, in today’s NFL you can’t sign everyone. Unless you want to be the Redskins ,that is (sorry DC ). Secondly, Bill Belichick tries to assemble the best total roster that he can with the available cap money. As we’re all aware with injuries, the 40th man on your roster might start seeing significant action in week two. Over the last decade NE has survived some very serious injury losses by having capable reserves. By saving some money at the top they are able to perennially have some “luxury ” items (ie Sammy Morris, Fred Taylor ) available off the bench. This philosophy follows what Bob Kraft said when he bought the team. He stated that he wanted to build an organization that is in the “hunt ” every year. By astute cap management and winning the late season “battle of the bench “, the Patriots have been a competitive club for most of the decade.
Chris…you are the exact example of why people dispise New Yorkers! I apologize to the New Yorkers that aren’t really as moronic as Chris. I know there are many …he just makes it look like there’s not any!
Notice how this winnie refers to his dad as ‘Robert’ as if to make you forget he was born with a silver spoon up his butt.
This guy may (or may not) be decent businessman, but listening to him is less interesting than watching paint dry.
So the Jets are cheap for not paying a Revis a ridiculous amount of money because the worst owner in sports set the bar unreasonably high for CB’s
But Kraft is mother theresa for stiffing Brady….arguably the best QB in the last 10 years
you Pats fans are hypocrites and homers of the highest order
who said the Jets are cheap, no one should pay that contract demand.
And how did the Krafts stiff Brady? When he signed his deal he was one of the highest paid QB’s in the league. They are just making him play the contact out. Im sure he will get tons of money from them in the end.
You Pats haters are pathetic to the highest order.
cunninglinguist says:
September 2, 2010 12:31 PM
So the Jets are cheap for not paying a Revis a ridiculous amount of money because the worst owner in sports set the bar unreasonably high for CB’s
But Kraft is mother theresa for stiffing Brady….arguably the best QB in the last 10 years
you Pats fans are hypocrites and homers of the highest order
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You forget the key difference: Brady is playing. Revis is not. That’s why it isn’t stupid to have held off on a Brady contract. Now, if he gets to free-agency, I’ll be the first in line to complain, but that hasn’t happened. Brady is in camp, in uniform, and on the field. Revis is none of those things.
Mankins joined the team after their last Super Bowl win if I’m not mistaken.
They’ve never won with him.
Pass protection sucked in 2007 Super Bowl against the Giants. Sucked against KC when Brady’s knee got blown up and Cassel got sacked 42 times.
Patriots can’t run the ball, so he’s not a terrific blocker.
Who is this guy and why would anyone put him in a conversation with Tom Brady and Peyton Manning?
“Ladies and gentlemen, Logan has LEFT the building.”.
jcjets says:
September 2, 2010 11:14 AM
Is Brady going to play the season without contract?
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He is under contract you know, just in his final year. However they should and will pay him appropriately. And again the Pats offered Mankins a salary that would’ve at the time paid him as the third highest interior lineman. Maybe fourth now that Mangold is set. And no one here in NE is on the Pats side when it comes to Brady’s situation. Pay attention…
@chris…..yeah yeah yeah….i want to be robert kraft poor.god you are stupid.
Why so much attention on Mankins’ and Brady’s contracts… and none on Randy Moss?
Moss is in the last year of his deal too.
benjaminbreeg says:
September 2, 2010 12:25 PM
Notice how this winnie refers to his dad as ‘Robert’ as if to make you forget he was born with a silver spoon up his butt.
This guy may (or may not) be decent businessman, but listening to him is less interesting than watching paint dry.
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Seriously?? Do you really want him to say My dad said this or did not say that? Do you know how unprofessional that sounds for the President of the Patriots to say? And why is it his fault that he was born as a Kraft….jealous much??
Moss and Welker are both in their last year, and all 5 RBs on the Pats are in a contract year. Why aren’t we talking about them?
# FireJerryJones says: September 2, 2010 1:46 PM
Why so much attention on Mankins’ and Brady’s contracts… and none on Randy Moss?
Moss is in the last year of his deal too.
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Possibly because Moss has pretty much put it out there that he expects the Pats not to give him another contract and he will be elsewhere next year.
Glad my fellow Pats fans have taken care of the idiot who thinks Mr. Kraft is cheap. Yeah a stadium without PSLs and taxpayer funding means he’s cheap…riiiight. No it means he’s the best owner in the NFL..he doesn’t stiff the taxpayer for a private facility. I wish more owners were like that.
Bob Kraft, as the fans refer to him, is generous and giving with his money and time. He and his wife are on the front lines of charity in the Boston area.
The players and their wives are encouraged to participate in many area function to raise money. He financed the stadium building with private money. “Thanks Dad” Johnathon Kraft is a Harvard Business School grad who has spent a lot of the family money on new ventures. ( Real Estate, Internet related start ups, expanded paper products) The main source of income used to be packaging from the wifes family company. Bob has done a great job of running the Patriots. A short stint of ownership preceded the Krafts by a member of the Busch family who wanted to take the team to St Louis. Prior to that the team was run on the cheap for 35 years by a family who had no money and no class. This statement is from personal observation and experience.
Although the term of their ownership nearly destroyed the team, Bob Kraft went out of his way to honor the memory of the founding father, Bill Sullivan. This act was a generous extention to the children who many around here did not respect. All in all a nice man.
So Mankins “seriously misspoke”?
Hmmmm………. Mankins made accurate comments about the owner not being a man of his word, and the ownership response is he “seriously misspoke”
When the Patriots were caught cheating, the company line as ordered for Belicheat to state ” rules were misinterpeted”
So Greedy Bobby Kraft tries to deny he is a two faced liar in response to Mankins statement.
But when caught cheating red handed, he orders team employees to lie and say that only “rules were misinterpeted”
Mankins called Shady Krafty out, and he was right. The team owners/coaches are liars, cheaters, and snakes. Hell, they even sue their own season ticket holders if they try to sell the tickets to games they cant make it too, or elderly people that cant afford the outragious prices on their accounts anymore.
Stay classy chowderheads, and keep your fat women on the treadmill.
YourJustJealous – I’ll say what Jonathan Kraft wants to say but is too diplomatic to say – Logan Mankins is a liar. The Patriots offered him a 400% pay increase; Mankins’ gripe is he thought – with NO evidence – that the Patriots would tear up the last year of his previous deal and start from scratch, even though the Patriots have never done business like that because it’s foolish. Mankins thinks Kraft lied to him even though Kraft NEVER talks to players about contract deals – that’s between the players/agents and the front office (Belichick, Floyd Reese, etc.)
This suggests Mankins has been serially lied to by HIS agent.
As for the cheapshots about “Belicheat” and “caught cheating red handed” – you obviously did not real the rule; the rule ALLOWS what Belichick did; the problem was Goodell went off because he was ignorant of his own rulebook and reacting thinking he was being shown up. Belichick was right and the commissioner was flat wrong.
“The team owners/coaches are liars, cheaters, and snakes.” What are you talking about?
YawnFlorio says:
@CliveRush,
Too bad then that the Boston area fans are classless.
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Man, you’re really upset that another idiot got here before you and is stealing all your attention. Did daddy not tell you he loved you enough as a child, 10 years ago?
Eagles, make a deal and get this guy. Andy Reid is trying to coach up career 3rd stringers to be starters, like Max Jean-Gilles, Nick Cole, etc. Just get a legit interior lineman other than Todd Herremans, and the team improves at least 2-3 wins (Assuming they go 8-8 and below)
YawnFlorio – we read the rule; you obviously haven’t. Belichick was right – that’s not an opinion, it’s a fact.
rusH1023 says:
September 2, 2010 7:18 PM
YawnFlorio says:
@CliveRush,
Too bad then that the Boston area fans are classless.
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Man, you’re really upset that another idiot got here before you and is stealing all your attention. Did daddy not tell you he loved you enough as a child, 10 years ago?
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MORE weak sauce from a chump Patsie fan. You and your half-witted brother, Clive, got abandoned by whomever knocked up your mothers, so the only idiots here likely starving for attention would be you two Boston losers.
Terrell Blowens – Mankins has to sign his tender before any deal can be made, and the Patriots will ask for a lot (draft picks and Philly’s best available pass rusher, perhaps?) before they trade him.
Bottom line remains the same -
Logan Mankins is not about principle, he is simply the dumbest businessman in football and his agent is incompetent. Mankins should have signed the original tender and done what he was asked to do, and he’d have gotten paid.
Grow the hell up, Logan.