The New England Patriots Robert Kraft: I Will Not Appeal Punishment Handed Down By The NFL

When the Wells Report first came out Patriots owner Robert Kraft said that he would accept any punishment that the NFL handed down to his team. The team even went as far as to suspend two employees highlighted in the reports as being the people responsible for the actual deflation of footballs. To many observers this signaled that the Patriots knew that there had been some  wrongdoing and they would take their slap on the hand and move along. It was more or less of a "Been here done that!" situation for the Patriots, or so it seemed.

Then came the penalties. Starting quarterback Tom Brady, for his assumed part in having the balls deflated, per the report,  was suspended without pay from playing in the first four games of the 2015 season. In addition the team was hit with a million dollar fine and the loss of two draft picks. The most serious being the loss of the 2016 first round draft pick. The loss of draft picks and the suspension of his star quarterback were the two things that no doubt go the attention and raised the ire of Kraft.

Along with the ire of Kraft and of course Tom Brady came the Patriots rebuttal to the Wells Report even sporting it's very own website. The rebuttal, which was seemingly a list of excuses/explanations for each point made in the report was received with mixed reviews depending on where you fall on the so called scandal. The most famous part of the rebuttal being the excuse/explanation that the man known as the "deflator" was known as that because of weight loss and not because he had removed air from footballs despite being one of the people directly responsible for handling those very footballs.

Following that report Kraft signaled that he would either appeal the penalties handed down to the team or even possibly go in the direction of suing his old buddy Rodger Goodell and the NFL. Now comes the news today that after saying he would not appeal any penalties and then saying he would, he has once again come full circle and will NOT appeal. This of course does not affect the appeal by Tom Brady that is being heard by commissioner Goodell and supported by the players association.

On his decision to not follow through with any sort of appeal, Kraft said today-

"I think I made it clear when the report came out that I didn't think it was fair. There was no hard evidence and everything was circumstantial and at the same time when the discipline came out, I felt it was way over the top, as it was unreasonable and unprecedented in my opinion. Although I might disagree with what is decided I do have respect for the commissioner and believe that he's doing what he perceives to be in the best interest of the full 32."