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By Steve Silva
Boston.com Staff | 05.20.15 | 12:59 PM
Matt Light thinks there’s a very good reason Robert Kraft gave up his fight with the NFL.
And most of Patriots Nation hope he’s right.
On Wednesday, Light reacted to Kraft’s decision to stand down in his battle with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell over Deflategate penalties, and said he thinks Kraft struck a deal with Goodell to get Tom Brady’s suspension eliminated.
“Overall, I don’t think the punishment to the Patriots is a big deal,”
Light said Wednesday on Boston Herald radio. “The punishment and how Tommy’s reputation has been tarnished and everything has been called into question, that’s a big deal. So, I would imagine, in the interest of what’s best for the NFL, they looked at each other and said ‘OK let’s hug it out for the camera, let’s go ahead and make this deal that Tommy is going to get nothing,’ because I can’t see it happening any other way. I would be very upset if he had any kind of punishment.”
As you might expect, the former Patriots left tackle
has been ripping the NFL, the Wells report, and so-called Patriots Haters in making the media rounds in recent days.
“We’re in the middle of the Patriots Deflategate chaos scandal weirdness and of course with the announcement yesterday from Mr. Kraft and how the organization is going to take the high road, it’s added a little bit more to the confusion and people are very polarized on each end of it,” the former Pro Bowler and three-time Super Bowl champ told the
Herald, adding, “but we’re going to get through this. We’re going to make it.”
Light is also of the belief that Brady’s hiring of venerable attorney Jeffrey Kessler will ensure that the NFL’s 4-game suspension gets overturned.
“I’ll tell you this much, he’s got Jeffrey Kessler, I know him very well from my time on the executive committee with the NFLPA, I know the job that he’s done, I don’t know if they guy has ever lost and he sure as heck when he walks into a courtroom and he’s representing the interest of the player he’s got a heck of a reputation and he’s got a lot of knowledge and lot of background knowledge,” Light said.
ProFootballTalk.com’s Mike Florio also believes Kraft struck a deal with Goodell, although it may not necessarily be tied to Brady’s suspension.
“Whether it’s just for future considerations, whether it’s for a Super Bowl in Foxborough at some point in the next decade, whether it’s a wink/nod, ‘Don’t breathe a word of it to anybody but maybe Roger Goodell’s going to reduce Tom Brady‘s suspension’ type of a promise, there’s got to be something,”
Florio said on WEEI’s “Dennis and Callahan show” Wednesday. Because you don’t pivot that quickly.
“Robert Kraft said yesterday you measure nine times and you cut once, and that same mindset applied when they issued the 20,000-word manifesto just six days ago, the 50-minute angry interview with Peter King. These are things that even though emotional on the surface were not the product of anything but careful and deliberate thought. Strategy went into both of those two things, and strategy went into what we saw yesterday. He’s not going to fold the tents simply in exchange for nothing.”
Florio also told “Dennis and Callahan” that he’s not sure Goodell and the NFL would be willing to eliminate Brady’s suspension entirely, as the public outside of New England would take issue with such a move. “For now they’re dealing with one very angry fan base,” Florio said. “If they would cut it to zero, they would be dealing with somewhere between one and 31 other angry fan bases. I don’t think it’s going to be cut to zero for that reason.”
