New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft penned a heartfelt letter to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell earlier this offseason, laying out his argument for why the Deflategate scandal was blown way out of proportion. Kraft pointed to natural gas law and, among other things, asked for the return of the first round pick in the 2016 NFL Draft the Pats were stripped of as part of the league's punishment.
Goodell, speaking at the NFL's owner's meetings on Wednesday, acknowledged that he received Kraft's letter, but added that it didn't sway him.
In short, the Patriots won't be seeing the return of that first round pick or the fourth rounder they were also stripped of.
Goodell told reporters that he received the letter and "considered" Kraft's views, but ultimately concluded that there wasn't any new information contained in it.
"There will be no change to the penalty," Goodell said, adding that he responded to Kraft in kind.
Kraft told reporters earlier in the week that he wrote the letter in the hopes that new information would sway Goodell to see reason.
"They had a full year of being able to observe Tom Brady play with all the rules of whatever the NFL was and make any judgments. We laid it out pretty straight forward and now it's up to them to decide," Kraft said. "We've done everything we can do and actually I want our fans to know that I empathize with the way they feel. We have put our best case forward and that's in the league's hands now."
But here's the thing - the NFL is still dug in on this issue. In fact, it was only a few weeks ago that the league and Patriots quarterback Tom Brady's NFLPA reps met in a New York courtroom to put forth arguments regarding Brady's appealed four-game suspension.
Why would the NFL and Goodell hand back the picks at the same time as they're attempting to see Brady's suspension reinstated? It would essentially be an admission that they were wrong on all accounts, and it certainly seems like that's not in Goodell or the league's best interests at this point.
For the Patriots, missing that first round pick is painful. But through shrewd maneuvering the team still has 11 picks, four in the first 100 selections, come late April.
Add that to the bevy of first round talents on cut-rate deals that Belichick has signed this offseason - Shea McClellin, Jonathan Cooper, Donald Brown to name a few - and it's likely New England won't suffer too badly from the loss.
Still, NFL coaches and owners are just as greedy for talent and wins as the fans who pay their salaries, so it's no surprise that Kraft would at least try.
