Patriots owner Robert Kraft made a surprising statement at the start of Super Bowl week, demanding that the NFL apologize if it turns out that the Deflategate story is a bunch of hot air. Kraft now says that statement was a matter of his anger boiling over.
“I was really upset,” Kraft said, via the Boston Herald. “I was trying to take the heat off our guys . . . it really ticked me off. Jonathan [Kraft, his son and the team’s president] and I were flying out there and chatting about it. I just decided, it was back and forth and back and forth, and I just decided [to say something]. My friend who owns the Chargers, Dean Spanos, he said, ‘I’ve known you 21 years and I’ve never known you to be [like that]. You’re so calm.’”
We still don’t know whether the NFL will find that the Patriots cheated or not, but Kraft is now looking forward to a year from now — when he hopes to hoist the Lombardi Trophy again.
“Next year is the 50th [Super Bowl],” he said. “Our objective is that we want to make the playoffs, but in the end, once you make the playoffs . . . if we were somehow fortunate [to win the Super Bowl] that would allow us to win 10 percent of all Super Bowls. We’re hungry as an organization, and we’ll do whatever we can to put our team in position to do that.”
A Super Bowl next year would give the Patriots 10 percent of all Super Bowls, and 33 percent of all Super Bowls since Tom Brady became the starting quarterback in 2001. That would be quite a legacy for the Patriots. Even if Spygate and Deflategate is part of the Patriots’ legacy, too.