New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft originally accepted a stiff punishment for his team's role in Deflategate in hopes of appeasing the NFL to the point of getting Tom Brady off the hook.
Now it appears his attempts to rescind his acceptance of the punishment to appease Patriots fans to the point of letting him off the hook.
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Kraft revealed to media at the NFL Annual Meeting that he sent Commissioner Roger Goodell a letter asking him to reconsider the team's 2016 first-round draft choice that it forfeited in the disciplinary action against the team for Deflategate," according to NESN.com.
"There is 'zero chance' of the Patriots recovering their pick, an NFL source told NFL Media's Judy Battista," NESN.com reported.
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Kraft knew as much, NESN.com added, and wrote the letter to satisfy Patriots fans that were angry that he accepted the Deflategate punishment in the first place.
"This, of course, should come as no surprise," NESN.com added. "Kraft gave up any chance of recouping the first-round pick when he accepted the NFL's punishment last May. Kraft surely made good points in his letter, but he even seemed resigned to the fact that nothing was going to come of it, and there's no doubt he knew that while penning it, as well.
"Kraft revealing he wrote this letter seemed to be an attempt to curry favor with Patriots fans. He made sure to recite his team's accomplishments in his 10-minute session with the media at the NFL Annual Meeting, and anger from Patriots fans over the loss of the pick likely will build over the next month as the draft approaches. This appears to be an attempt to shift all blame to the NFL. Patriots fans were angry in May when Kraft chose not to fight for the first- and fourth-round picks."
New England also lost its fourth-round pick in 2017, was hit with a $1 million fine and Brady was suspended four games. A judge overturned the suspension but the case is in the hands of an appeals court, in which preliminary indications suggest a reinstatement of the suspension.
"I personally believe that when the league made their decision, they did not factor in the Ideal Gas Law," Kraft said, according to ESPN. "They admitted that publicly. They had a full year of being able to observe Tom Brady play with all the rules of whatever the NFL was, and make any judgments there," Kraft told reporters at the Boca Raton Resort. "We have laid it out pretty straightforward. And now it's up for them to decide."
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