New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft announced on Tuesday that he is going to accept the Deflategate penalties that have been levied against his team and not take legal action against the NFL. Now, many are left wondering what that means for Tom Brady’s suspension.
Personally, I can’t escape the feeling that Kraft has worked out some sort of handshake agreement with Roger Goodell to either reduce or overturn Brady’s four-game ban. Jason Cole of Bleacher Report disagrees.
“It undermines Brady’s case, essentially, by saying that the Patriots — in a sense — agree with these penalties and will accept them,” Cole said Wednesday. “Brady does not. He’s appealing and may take this all the way to court. Not having the team there fighting a two-front battle for him makes it harder for him to ultimately win this appeal.”
Cole notes that a judge may also use Kraft’s decision to waive the white flag as a reason to reject the case and allow the Collective Bargaining Agreement to be used as intended.
To me, that doesn’t add up. Kraft had his legal team publish a 20,000-word rebuttal to the Ted Wells report, so why would he suddenly change his mind and agree to trust Goodell? Also, Kraft was careful on Tuesday to reiterate that he believes his team did nothing wrong. He said he is simply not pursuing an appeal for the sake of the NFL as a whole.
We know the Patriots’ rebuttal contained one of the most ridiculous excuses you have ever heard, but the NFL still lacks hard evidence against the team. Unless there’s some sort of smoking gun that Kraft fears will be uncovered, I have to assume his little bro hug with Goodell over the weekend indicated that a mutual agreement has been worked out. There would be nothing mutual about the Patriots accepting the team sanctions and having their star quarterback on the bench for four games.
