Robert Kraft hadn’t spoken publicly for a long time prior to Wednesday.
In fact, it was the first time since Super Bowl LIII, so a lot had gone on with the franchise, including losing quarterback Tom Brady and then him going on to win the Super Bowl in his first year with the Buccaneers.
“I would have loved for him to retire as a Patriot,” Kraft said. “Everybody knew that but in life things just happen in a way that you have to balance a lot of things. After 20 years, I thought he was entitled to make a decision that was what he thought was best for him and where he was at. We gave him the ability to do that. It’s like marriages sometime – no one knows on the outside everything going on and you try to balance a lot and it is what it is.”
Does Kraft have any regrets allowing him to walk away?
“Well, after 20 years with any player, I’ll make this commitment to any player in the future. Anyone who spends 20 years with us and helps us win six Super Bowls… look, we could have, contract-wise, kept him in our camp, but it’s just not the right thing,” he said. “Naturally, we want to win, but who knows what would have happened if he stayed here. Look what happened at the end of his last season here.”
Some connected to the Patriots’ big spending this offseason as a reaction to Brady winning in Tampa Bay, but Kraft assured that was not the case.
“Look, I love Tom Brady and he’s great, but he’s moved on,” he said. “What happened here last year was not something to our liking. We had to make the corrections. In all businesses we’re involved in, we try to take advantage of inefficiencies in the market – in the paper business and anything. We were in a unique cap situation this coming year going forward and it allowed us to try things. We missed, to a certain extent in the draft, so this was our best opportunity. I don’t ever think the market over the next decade will be like unless, God forbid, there’s another pandemic. We lost $4 billion dollars of revenue last year and the cap went down. That hasn’t really happened since I bought the team. We just happen to be in a unique situation.
“So to be frank, no, this was about what’s doing right for our team.”
The Patriots had the third-most cap space in the NFL this offseason and certainly made good use of it.