Mr. Kraft Promises 'We're Gonna Have Fun' After 'the Worst Years' of His Ownership

Boston Globe. Getty Images.

Boston Globe. Getty Images.

As hard as this may be to believe, I sometimes get accused of being a little too pro-Patriots. No, seriously. I mean it. I've heard the accusations. I've read the comments. I've been derided and ridiculed by some of the anti-Patriots extremists in the media. Even when things were at their very best in the mid-2010s. Why, a fill-in host on WEEI said on the air they shouldn't have hired me because I'm not critical enough. So I had to point out to him that since I'd gotten the job, they'd only lost one game (a close one at Green Bay) and won the Super Bowl. So there wasn't exactly ample opportunity to break bad against them. 

I bring this up because these last few years, I've been anything but Mr. Positivity. Hopeful at times. But those times have been few and far between. It got so bad the Krafts made the drastic move of firing the greatest coach to ever stroll a practice field in ill-fitting shorts. And still, things only got worse. I've admitted all of this, every step of the way. Painful though it has been. My relationship with you is still built on a foundation of honesty, integrity, and trust. 

That said, this year has been completely different from the past few. I've gotten everything I wanted, from the coach to his assistants, from the free agent class to the draft class. It's been 10/10, no notes. And what is bringing me comfort in this, the Summer of Hope, is hearing from the man who's been at the epicenter of all these seismic events. Because he confirms what I assumed was true, but couldn't be sure of. 

It turns out Mr. Kraft has been suffering worse than all of us. And vows that the suffering will be over, starting immediately. He's promising that all these changes will Make Patriots Football Fun Again:

“The last two years were the worst years of my 31 years of ownership. We have to change that. We have a new coach in Mike Vrable who is really connected with the players, who is doing great work. We have a young quarterback and a lot of great veterans — free agent veterans who came in. A great draft class. We’re gonna have fun this year, I promise.”

This is significant in ways that go so far beyond just the team Mr. Kraft bought for $175 million of his own money. Without telling Mrs. Kraft, it should be mentioned. This should speak to everyone in New England and our other three ownership groups. 

Take a look around us. Look at the three Boston teams. The Celtics just got sold and are trading away pieces of last year's championship team to cut payroll. The Bruins are circling the drain, dumped their biggest fan favorite, and watched him play out of his mind on his way to winning the Stanley Cup elsewhere. The Red Sox are a laughingstock:

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… with an absentee owner in the truest sense of the word. Financially cannibalizing his baseball team to help improve his British soccer team and other assets no one in the region gives a Tuppenny fuck about. 

And what has RKK been doing all this time? Agonizing over everything. Suffering the way we've been suffering. As he goes onto mention, he is that guy who saw one home playoff game in the 34 seasons before he made that multi-million dollar impulse purchase in 1994. And watched his team get its brakes beaten off by the Houston Oilers. He knows what these last two years are doing to his customers because he is one of his customers. 

Always has been. 

The major difference being, 31 years ago he put himself in a position to do something about it. With a financial gamble that most analysts said was insane. And so he has. He made the tough call to fire the coach he had put his faith in just 12 months earlier. Hired the head coach he wanted. And gave him all the latitude he needed to improve the culture, the roster, the methods, and hopefully the fortunes of his franchise. 

Success has to come back to One Patriots Place because it's beginning to feel like it's getting further away every day on Causeway Street and Yawkey Way Jersey Street. But for now, "fun" will be a major upgrade. And if nothing else, we've got an ownership who wants it just as badly as their fans do.