Robert Kraft will invite Roger Goodell to New England if Patriots win
HOUSTON – Robert Kraft can’t wait for Roger Goodell to return to Foxborough.
And the New England Patriots owner – whose relationship with the NFL Commissioner was strained by the Deflategate investigation and punishment – envisions the ideal scenario.
“A lot of our fans have asked me about Roger coming back to our stadium,” Kraft told USA TODAY Sports. “If we win Sunday, I think people would like to see him in Foxborough.
“If we win on Sunday, I’m inviting him formally to come to our opener next season.”
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Goodell hasn’t attended a Patriots game at Gillette Stadium since January 2015 when New England defeated the Indianapolis Colts in the AFC Championship Game that sparked the Deflategate saga that resulted in unprecedented penalties against Kraft’s franchise and the four-game suspension that star quarterback Tom Brady served at the start of this season.
After the Patriots won Super Bowl XLIX, they hosted the Pittsburgh Steelers in the NFL’s showcase Thursday night opener to christen the next season by raising their latest championship banner.
That Goodell missed that event infuriated the Patriots’ fan base, which widely interpreted the commissioner’s absence as a snub – less than a week after a federal judge issued a stay that allowed Brady to continuing playing during the 2015 season amid a lengthy court battle.
Brady ultimately lost in court, and the bad blood remains.
"I really believe the league messed it up badly,” said Kraft, alluding to $1 million fine and the loss of first- and fourth-round draft picks on top of Brady’s suspension.
The NFL contended that the Patriots deflated footballs for that AFC Championship Game and a lengthy investigation headed by Ted Wells concluded that it was more likely than not that Brady had knowledge of a scheme for doctoring the footballs that was allegedly carried out by an assistant equipment manager and a game-day locker room attendant.
Although the NFL maintains that the Patriots’ heavy punishment was based on factors that included Brady obstructing the investigation by destroying a cellphone that may have contained evidence and the franchise’s violations from a videotaping scandal in 2007 known as “Spygate,” Kraft contends that the matter was at least partially motivated by competitors urging the league to come down hard on the most successful franchise of this era.
The Patriots are in their seventh Super Bowl since Belichick became coach in 2000, and Brady can become the first quarterback to win five Super Bowls with a victory against the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday in Super Bowl LI.
Said Kraft, “Jealousy and envy are incurable diseases.”
Before Deflategate, Kraft was considered one of Goodell’s most staunch supporters. Yet with Kraft publicly slamming the league on multiple occasions and the franchise even executing measures such as the establishing a website to refute the science linked to deflating footballs, the rift was apparent.
Goodell, though, maintained during his state of the league press conference on Wednesday that he has moved on from Deflategate – while the prospect of him handing Kraft another Lombardi Trophy looms to cap a season that has been widely described as the “Revenge Tour.”
Kraft insists that he didn’t quickly leave Goodell’s press conference at the George R. Brown Convention Center on Wednesday as a statement, nor to avoid questions from reporters, but merely to hustle to the team’s practice at the nearby University of Houston. The practice began at 1 p.m. local time, which is when Goodell’s press conference began.
Kraft doesn't disagree that the relationship between him and Goodell has been improving, if for no other reason it’s necessary to have a working relationship with Goodell on many league matters.
“Look, I’m privileged to be the owner of a team in my hometown,” said Kraft, who purchased the Patriots in 1994 and opened the privately-financed Gillette Stadium in 2002.
He’s also chairman of the NFL’s powerful broadcast committee, which paces the negotiations for the massive national TV contracts that formulate the biggest chunks of league revenues that now exceed $14 billion per year.
In weighing his relations with Goodell versus other league issues, Kraft says, “I try to compartmentalize.”
Still, it’s a stretch to think that Kraft’s relationship with Goodell will be as tight as it once was – at least not any time soon.
Goodell doesn’t always attend the Thursday night kickoff games, and during the recent conference title games he opted to go to Atlanta for the NFC Championship Game.
But it sure seems like he’s avoiding Foxborough.
Kraft wants Goodell to come back to Gillette Stadium to improve the optics and hopefully for Patriots fans, mark the occasion of another crown.
