Hurley: Patriots' DeflateGate Fight Appears To Be Dying With A Whimper
By Michael Hurley, CBS Boston
BOSTON (CBS) -- A letter.
A piece of correspondence, either transmitted electronically or transported in the satchel of a New York City letter carrier.
A written request.
That's it.
That's how the Patriots hoped to convince Roger Goodell that his own transgressions over the past year violated the basic understanding between clubs and the commissioner. That's how the Patriots sought to inform the NFL that the lack of control by league executives made a mountain out of a molehill. That's how the Patriots hoped to lambaste the commissioner and the league for continuing its litigation in a federal appeals court, and that's how the Patriots envisioned they'd convince Goodell to reconsider the unprecedented punishment a year after the fact and then decide to erase it from the record.
All from a letter.
Really?
Please.
Look, there was a moment on Monday when quotes began to trickle through on Twitter that made it seem as though the flames had been reignited in the ever-burning fire pit between Kraft and Goodell. The early message, that Kraft wrote to the commissioner because he wanted his picks back, was exactly what so many people wanted to hear. We've seen and heard the NFL lie and manipulate so much of the story over the past year, that it's well within the Patriots' rights to fight back, point out the deceit, and remind the league and the commissioner that for all the suspicion and all of the botched halftime science projects, they failed to catch the Patriots red-handed. A letter, surely, was the first step in what would be an all-out effort to get that pick returned before next month's draft.
It was, as they say, on.
That was, until the full audio became available. Then, it was most certainly anything but on.
Instead of a roar, the message was delivered with a resigned sense of defeat.
Kraft chose his words carefully when discussing his letter to Goodell. The Patriots owner wouldn't even criticize the league for refusing to disclose data which it announced prior to the season it would be recording. Instead, he opted for a passive-aggressive barb, which has become the native language of the Wells Report In Context. And when given the chance to say even one negative thing about the commissioner, Kraft chose instead to speak of the health of the league, referring to the avalanche of money that continues to cascade down atop all owners' heads year after year.
The message there was clear: Amid these calm seas, it's best to not rock the boat.
Life is certainly good for the Patriots owner, even though he took some heat from fans last May for accepting Goodell's punishments without a fight. As the months wore on, and more information came out exposing the NFL for a rigged process, this seemed to be a decision which Kraft grew to regret. He spoke angrily at the start of training camp about being wrong to put his trust in the NFL. It seemed at that time that Kraft was ready to don his robe and gloves and head to the ring with Goodell for a Pay-Per-View bout.
And when the team continued to host and update a website which allowed fans to navigate from "Patriots.com" to stories ripping Goodell for dishonesty and fraud in a matter of just two clicks of the mouse, it felt like Kraft was at least tacitly allowing the embers to remain red, just waiting for the can of gasoline to come pouring down at the right moment.
But what happened on Monday was anything but incendiary. It was at best a symbolic gesture of defiance, but really, all it was ... was a letter.
The second part of Kraft's message was not exactly hidden, either. He spoke of how over the past 22 years, a stretch in which eight teams have made zero conference title games, the Patriots have made 11 conference championships in 22 years.
"One every other year," he noted.
And the eight teams that haven't even made one?
"25 percent of the league," he calculated.
He said the team has made it to seven Super Bowls and has won the division 15 times.
"I just say," Kraft said, "you think of the 34 years before we bought the team, and now we just finished 22 years. ... I don't think anyone can doubt that we're not trying to do everything we can to put ourselves in the best position to win and have the Patriots franchise be very strong."
The message: Hey, fans. We are good. We are competitive. We've been better than almost everybody since I bought the team. So are we cool? Cool.
In that sense, sure. From a football standpoint, Patriots fans have little to complain about. The team has been a legitimate threat to win the Super Bowl every year since 2001. They employ the best head coach and quarterback tandem in the history of the sport, they host fans in a fine stadium with fine amenities, and they remain relevant in the sports world 24 hours a day, seven days a week. There's little reason to reasonably begrudge the team owner for the place of the Patriots compared to their peers.
But, on the topic of sports history's most bizarre and mostly unfounded attacks on the credibility of an entire franchise, in a time when his team has been compared to the 1919 Black Sox and when his quarterback has been likened to a steroid user, and even when handed a wealth of evidence to build his case both behind the scenes and in public, there's plenty of reason to question Kraft's commitment to the cause.
"I pray and desire," Kraft said Monday when asked of his hopes to get the picks back. He also spoke of the "partnership" and the rules that govern all NFL member clubs.
Again: You can pray, you can desire, but by no means can you ever rock the boat.
As exciting as it may be to play "Please Mr. Postman" on repeat on the home stereo every day, if the plan is to sit back and wait for Goodell to admit that he and his executives acted improperly, Kraft might as well be waiting for Godot.
Essentially, Kraft has chosen not to really fight for his draft picks but to try to convince fans that he tried. And it sure seems as though he'll come up short on both fronts.
You can email Michael Hurley or find him on Twitter @michaelFhurley.
