At the age of 83, New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft has six Super Bowls to his name and is waiting to hear his name called by the Pro Football Hall of Fame. It has not been a happy wait, according to a story from ESPN’s Don Van Natta Jr.
Over the course of the last decade or so, Kraft’s camp, led by Patriots PR head Stacey James, have been pushing to get Kraft enshrined in Canton, Ohio, with zero success. The 12-person subcommittee determining the final ballot hasn’t even forwarded his name once to the full 50 selectors.
The wait has reportedly left Kraft frustrated, so much so that he had some choice words about the enshrinement of Dallas Cowboys Jerry Jones:
Kraft saw the selection of (Jerry Jones) as an insult, a verdict that Jones is more responsible for the NFL’s astonishing success.
“He hasn’t been to the NFC title game in two decades and he gets in?” Kraft told a confidant. “How does that work?”
Kraft’s Hall of Fame candidacy has a number of things going for it.
There are, of course, his six Super Bowl rings, won over a two-decade reign as the NFL’s top team. Tom Brady and Bill Belichick understandably receive larger credit there, but it’s been an incredible run for a team that was close to moving before Kraft bought the team in 1994. Kraft has also long been one of the most influential owners in the NFL, helping negotiate the end of the 2011 lockout and chairing the owner media committee that recently negotiated $110 billion in television rights deals.
On the other hand, there are the scandals. Kraft’s time owning the team has seen the Spygate scandal, the Deflategate scandal and his own scandal involving a certain massage parlor in Florida. None have helped Kraft’s image, but it’s apparently Spygate that have left voters most bothered:
A small group of anti-Kraft voters told ESPN they have long harbored concerns that Kraft knew far more about Spygate than he has acknowledged. “Some voters believe he was part of the biggest cheating scandal in NFL history,” a veteran Hall voter said. “That’s a very tough one to overcome.”
Said another voter: “Kraft has distanced himself from Spygate, but it did come up — it has to be considered.”
As for Jones, there were certainly some critics of the decision to induct him in 2016 (this was apparently when several owners, not just Kraft, started wondering why they can’t reach Canton, too). Since Jones purchased the team in 1989, it has won three Super Bowls, but also seen Jones make some perplexing decision. “America’s Team” hasn’t reached the Super Bowl, or even the NFC championship game, since 1995.
As one voter reportedly explained it to Kraft, it’s Jones’ role as a marketer that put him over the top:
In August 2017, longtime Hall of Fame voter Jason Cole said he sat down for an interview with Kraft and James in Kraft’s wood-paneled office in Foxborough. A few minutes into the conversation, Kraft asked Cole: “How did Jerry Jones manage to get into the Hall of Fame?”
“He’s P.T. Barnum,” Cole said he replied, echoing a sentiment he said he previously had expressed when James called seeking an explanation. “He’s the greatest marketer in the history of the sport.” Cole recalled that Kraft just laughed.
Since 2000, only five owners have been enshinred: Jones, the Pittsburgh Steelers’ Dan Rooney, the Buffalo Bills’ Ralph Wilson, the San Francisco 49ers’ Eddie DeBartolo and the Denver Broncos’ Pat Bowlen.
The good news for Kraft is a major voting change figures to help his case. For years, the Hall has voted on a coach/contributor class, in which owners have to compete with coaches, league executives and, in 2022, a referee.
That will reportedly change this year, with coaches and contributors being split into different categories. So Kraft will have less competition, but the question is if he’ll be able to overcome other headwinds.