If you were expecting Patriots owner Robert Kraft to publicly go against his coach, Bill Belichick, you aren't familiar with how the organization works.
On Monday, Belichick defended his decision to put Gronkowski in the game for the team's 59th point simply saying that, "football players play football."
Belichick has 100-percent support of the Kraft family, and that didn't change when Kraft was asked if he agreed with Belichick leaving Gronkowski in the game.
Stay in the game with the latest updates on your beloved Boston sports teams! Sign up here for our All Access Daily newsletter.
From ESPN:
He does make a good point, Kraft said of Belichick in a Tuesday interview with Mike Lupica on ESPN New York Radio (listen to it here, around the 9-minute mark). Ive had this discussion (with Belichick) previous years, taking (Tom) Brady out or whatever, and he says, and I think its a valid point, when you start taking players out -- and youre saying this guy stays in, hes not as important as the other guy -- remember going back to that 01 Super Bowl, weve always put team first and trying to treat everybody -- no matter where they stand on the pecking order -- the same, you cant do it differently. I now accept that even though it hurts to see what happened to Gronk.
We always hear players -- no matter what their role is -- say that they've never experienced playing in an organization like the Patriots. Perhaps that idea of "we're all equals" goes further than we think.
