New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft testifies during the murder trial of former Patriots football player Aaron Hernandez, Tuesday, March 31, 2015, at Bristol County Superior Court in Fall River, Mass. Hernandez is accused of killing Odin Lloyd in June 2013. (AP Photo/The Boston Globe, Aram Boghosian, Pool) The words uttered by New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft regarding Deflategate during the days leading up to the team's Feb. 1 Super Bowl win over Seattle haven't gotten much attention of late.
Hard news has topped harsh words ever since Ted Wells released his somewhat ambiguous 243-page report on whether New England purposely deflated footballs below NFL guidelines during the team's AFC title game win over Indianapolis - especially with Wells' conclusion that it was "more probable than not" that Kraft's club altered footballs in a "deliberate effort to circumvent the rules."
And with that, Kraft's words from late January got lost in the NFL's decision to suspend quarterback Tom Brady for four games, fine the Pats $1 million and strip them of a first-round draft pick.
But all that symbolic finger wagging and arrogance might be worth revisiting now that Kraft has told the world he'll accept the league's punishments, though Brady still plans to sue individually with the help of the NFL Players Association.
Said the owner with a billionaire's bluster before the Super Bowl: "If the Wells investigation is not able to definitively determine that our organization tampered with the air pressure in the footballs, I would expect and hope that the league would apologize to our entire team and in particular, Coach Belichick and Tom Brady for what they have had to endure this past week."
As of Wednesday night, there's been no apology. There's only been Kraft's surrender. Oh, how the mighty have fallen.
This doesn't mean the Wells report is bulletproof. It doesn't mean the Patriots may not have been a bit picked on this time around for past sins. Too bad. So sad.
And so what? If they were completely innocent, they surely would have been found as such.
Instead, in those gray areas where too many of us have come to live our lives either professionally or personally, the Patriots almost certainly sought an edge that was at least against the spirit of a rule if not a complete disregard for a rule. Probably doesn't make them all that different from most of the rest of the NFL, or any other sports power at any level.
In fact, while working on this column, a colleague told me of a high school football game in this area between two old rivals in which the referees removed a ball found to be underinflated, presumably to help one team's quarterback, who had small hands.
That quarterback's coach walked by our writer after the football was banned, winked and said with a smile, "It was worth a try."
Given that, the Patriots' actions against the Colts were quite possibly - and regrettably - far more the norm than we'd like to admit.
What makes New England different from its peers is its narcissistic, self-righteous indignation after being caught. It's Bill Clinton arguing he did not commit an adulterous act with Monica Lewinsky. It's Richard Nixon proclaiming "I am not a crook." In those years before A-Rod became A-Fraud, it's Alex Rodriguez responding to Katie Couric's 2007 question about steroids in the locker room: "I never saw anything. I never had raw evidence. And, quite frankly, I was probably a little bit too nave when I first came up to understand the magnitude of all this."
So Kraft took the offensive a few days before the Super Bowl to let the air out of Deflategate with such non-denial denial phrases as "definitively determine" and "circumstantial leaked evidence."
It would surprise no one if it's later discovered that Lance Armstrong wrote every word out of Kraft's mouth, then handed him a "Livestrong" bracelet with the "V" rubbed out.
It's just what professional liars and cheaters do. It's what the posturing, parsing Pats have always done, or at least since Bill Beli-cheat became their coach, Brady their quarterback and the cunning Kraft their owner. Strike back first with disappointment and defiance. The louder the better.
Even now, the general consensus - whether true or not, whether fair or not - is that Kraft swallowed his considerable pride Tuesday not out of contrition or embarrassment, but rather in hopes that not challenging the fine or loss of draft picks might lessen Brady's four-game suspension.
Is that perception fair? Is it correct? We don't know. But until or unless proven different by NFL commish Roger Goodell, that perception is the reality of how New England and its owner are viewed nationally. Once granted the same lovable loser status as the Chicago Cubs, the Pats have somehow become the franchise everyone loves to hate. Call them Da Raidas 2.0.
Or as one NFL owner told the Boston Globe after Kraft's no mas: "There isn't much support for the Patriots. I've been hearing all the claims of Patriot fans and folks poking holes in the Wells Report, so I read it again last night. You know what? The league has enough on them.''
If only Kraft had enough decency to apologize to the rest of the league's owners and fans for what they've had to endure the past four months because of Deflategate.
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com