Prior to the whole Deflategate mess, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell had a very loyal supporter in Patriots owner Robert Kraft.
From the time that Goodell first took office as commissioner, Kraft was among his most vocal proponents:
“He is ready for this job,” New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft said. “It’s nice to know, you give 25 years to an organization, you’re trained hard, you work hard and you wake up in the middle of the night worrying about things, and your dream comes true, sort of like me buying the Patriots. Roger becoming commissioner is pretty special.”
Kraft’s position on Goodell didn’t waver over the years (even after the Patriots brush with Spygate), as the Patriots owner stated in 2013 that the NFL “lucked out with him as commissioner.”
However, the two appeared to have a very public split after the past AFC Championship Game when the NFL began to investigate Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and the Patriots over the under-inflated footballs that were used by the Patriots during the AFC Championship Game against the Indianapolis Colts.
After the story first broke, Kraft boldly stood in defiance against the league for suspecting that foul play was involved in “Deflategate.”
“If the [Ted] Wells investigation is not able to definitively determine that our organization tampered with the air pressure on the footballs, I would expect and hope that the league would apologize to our entire team, and in particular, Coach Belichick and Tom Brady, for what they have had to endure this past week,” Kraft said.
After the Wells Report indicated that Tom Brady and a couple of Patriots employees were responsible for deflating footballs, Kraft issued a statement calling the investigation and the resulting punishment (a four game suspension for Brady, a $1 million fine, and a loss of a first and a fourth round draft pick) “just not fair.” Tensions seemed to be at an all-time high between Goodell and Kraft.
However, on Tuesday morning, Adam Schefter reported that it appears that Goodell and Kraft have kinda, sorta made up in an elementary school kind of way.
Roger Goodell and Patriots owner Robert Kraft already have met, spoke and even hugged, per an industry source who witnessed it.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) May 19, 2015
Goodell-Kraft attended Sean McManus’ 60th birthday Sat in NYC; they were spotted “on a couch, talking by themselves for quite a long time."
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) May 19, 2015
Aw, isn’t that cute. Hugging and quality private time on a couch? Let this be a lesson; don’t let small things like deflated footballs get in the way of making a shit ton of money.
