Curran: Robert Kraft doesn’t expect to be inducted into Hall of Fame at this point originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
A long one Feature article published Wednesday on ESPN.com He detailed Robert Kraft’s years-long quest to be elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, which has so far been unsuccessful.
But the bulk of author Don Van Natta Jr.’s article focuses on the efforts of those around THE New England Patriots owner – and in particular the team’s vice president of media relations, Stacey James – to introduce Kraft to Canton.
While Kraft is obviously in the middle of his own Hall of Fame campaign, it’s worth asking him how he personally feels about repeatedly failing to make the cut in Hall of Fame voting. Our Patriots Insider Tom E. Curran has some interesting insights on that question in an upcoming episode of THE Patriots Talk Podcast.
“When I talked to people after the Hall of Fame vote, whether it was Stacey (James), whether it was Jonathan Kraft (Kraft’s son and Patriots team president) … those people were more devastated than they let on for Robert,” Curran said, as seen in the video player above.
“Robert, when I asked him, ‘So how’s Kraft doing?’ he said he was pretty pleased. He just doesn’t expect to get in now, so he doesn’t have too much hope. He’s had too much hope many times.”
Kraft has been on several Hall of Fame ballots over the years in the “coach/contributor” category, but has failed each time and never got past the semi-final stage. So while it’s clear Kraft would love to be in the Hall of Fame and is irritated that some of his contemporaries have been inducted before him — Kraft considered Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones’ 2017 Hall of Fame induction an “insult,” according to Van Natta — all those years of failure may have eased the pain of being snubbed.
“Kraft is certainly not ambivalent, but he’s had the ball taken away from him too many times for him to get too upset about it,” Curran added.
Kraft would have reason to be frustrated; the Brookline, Mass., native helped transform an NFL doormat into arguably the most successful franchise in professional sports, overseeing six Super Bowl titles and 10 AFC championships since purchasing the Patriots in 1994. He would seem to have more than enough Hall of Fame credentials, and the reasons he was excluded — the team’s connection to scandals like Spygate and Deflategate and Kraft’s personal scandal involving the Orchids of Asia massage parlor — don’t hold much merit given the past transgressions of other NFL owners in Canton.
It seems Kraft has resigned himself to his current fate, or at least is tired of the emotional roller coaster of the annual voting process.
The full episode of the Patriots Talk podcast will be released later Thursday. Listen and subscribe here.
