Robert Kraft Strongly Denies Report About Rejection Of Rob Gronkowski Trade: 'A Bunch Of Hogwash'

BOSTON (CBS) -- It's been a wild offseason for the Patriots, full of wild speculation about the owner, the head coach, the quarterback, and the tight end, among others. There's been so much news that it's been impossible for each person to come out and issue denials.

But on Tuesday, at the Myra Kraft Community MVP Event, Patriots owner Robert Kraft made sure to issue a public denial about the latest report, which suggested he nixed a potential Rob Gronkowski trade to the 49ers or Titans after Tom Brady had threatened retirement over the matter.

"I'll just tell you it's a bunch of hogwash that I vetoed some trade," Kraft told a crowd of reporters. "There was never, that was never in the works. It's just completely made up. And I think we have to be careful in society today that people can't just come out and say things. This bit about us trading Gronk to the 49ers or Tennessee, there's no basis to it and it gets a life of his own. I just want to go on record at today's event to make sure that you all understand that there's no truth to that. People shouldn't be able to do that."

For Kraft, such a situation is not necessarily unusual.

"I guess when your team is good, people are looking for things," he said.

On Saturday, when speaking at a football camp for children, Gronkowski himself called the matter "fake news."

Despite that, the reporter who shared the rumors on Twitter defended his reporting on Monday morning.

"I've gotten confirmation after the fact, in terms of private messages from people," freelance reporter Adam Kurkjian told 98.5 The Sports Hub's Toucher & Rich. "A lot of people have publicly denied what was in the tweet, but I've actually felt a lot better since then because the private things that I've gotten are like, 'Hey man, you got this right.'  In fact somebody that was too afraid to talk to me about something else that I was working on reached out through an intermediary and said 'Yeah, your guy got this one right.'"

Kurkjian added: "I can't tell you why you should take me seriously or not. But the information in there is correct."

As an involved party in the reported rumors, Kraft has made it quite clear that he disagrees with that assessment.

In:
• Robert Kraft
• NFL
• Tom Brady
• Rob Gronkowski