Robert Kraft Throws Some Shade At Jerry Jones: No One Is Bigger Than The NFL
By Michael Hurley, CBS Boston
BOSTON (CBS) -- It's been awfully quiet from Jerry Jones in recent weeks, after he reluctantly decided to wave the white flag in his war with the NFL and drop his threats to file a lawsuit against the league and his fellow owners.
And, as Jones' Cowboys prepare for their fourth game without the suspended Ezekiel Elliott, another owner is weighing in what is important for NFL owners.
Without mentioning Jones by name, Patriots owner Robert Kraft offered his thoughts on what an NFL owner should keep in mind during times of turmoil with the league office.
"[It's] important in every league that everyone is a good partner and no one perceives themselves to be bigger than the league itself," Kraft said, via SportsBusiness Journal's Daniel Kaplan (via Pro Football Talk). "It's more important that the people running the league do the right thing for the league than for any one franchise. And, in our case [with 'DeflateGate'], we had a situation where the league really messed up big time, and, you know, we were very disappointed, and we decided to step back because we are in this business for the long term and we tried to be a good partner."
Kraft was on stage along with his son, Jonathan, at the Dealmakers in Sports conference in New York, according to Kaplan. It doesn't seem quite as gleeful as the comments Jones made when Kraft was fighting the Patriots' battle with the NFL, but the words were nevertheless pointed.
The commentary is right on message with what Kraft said back in May 2015, when he dropped his own fire and brimstone quest to take down Roger Goodell and the NFL when he felt as though his team was being treated unfairly. Unlike Jones, Kraft read the room when discussing his problems with fellow owners and found that despite having influence and despite being an important member of the league's small group of owners, the reality of Kraft's situation was that he couldn't lure anyone else into his corner.
Jones took a bit longer to understand that, but eventually he did. And despite referring to the Patriots' owner as a "p---y" this past summer for bowing out of a once-passionate fight with Goodell and the NFL, Jones ultimately traveled the exact same route.
You can email Michael Hurley or find him on Twitter @michaelFhurley.