Robert Kraft is the chairman and CEO of the Patriots. His family owns the team. But during a back-and-forth with reporters during this week's league meetings in Orlando, he said he's a fan like anyone else. When something happens in the Super Bowl, like when Malcolm Butler remains on the sidelines, he wonders why.
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But as a fan who happens to be an owner of the team who happens to own businesses all over the world, Kraft understands what it means to trust your managers -- or in the case of his football team its head coach.
"Here’s the deal: We in New England are, I believe, privileged to have the greatest coach in the history of coaching," Kraft said. "We are involved in a number of businesses in our family, and we are in 95 countries in the world. We try to encourage to have good managers. We want them to be bold. We want them to take risks.
"Sometimes they work out. Sometimes they don’t. But I have faith in Bill as a coach. I don’t think there’s anyone who has the football knowledge and expertise combined with understanding personnel. No one can merge those two worlds [like him]. And he’s done pretty well for us over the last 18 years.
"As a fan, I can question someone of the moves. As someone who is privileged to own this team, I encourage him to keep going with his instincts and do what he thinks is right. There’s no doubt in my mind, even if he made an error -- and this is true with any of our managers -- if they’re doing it for the right reason, then I support it 100 percent. And I've never had one instance in the 18 years where Bill hasn't done what he believes is in the best interests of our team to help us win games."
Unwavering as Kraft's faith in Belichick may be, he did note that he was disappointed Butler's stay in New England didn't last.
"Putting my fan hat on, which is on most of the time when I’m watching games, the fact that we lost and we lost the way we did, I still haven’t gotten over it," Kraft said. "When it comes to Malcolm I have a spot for him. I had hoped that he would be a Patriot for all his days. I think that play at the end of the Seattle Super Bowl is iconic, and I think he'll have a place in our fans' memory bank for the next 50 years. He's such a humble and nice young man. I was thinking about it, he was making, what, $8.50 an hour at Popeyes and then seven months later he’s making the biggest play in the history of the Super Bowl, in my opinion?
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"He’s a great guy. I’m sorry it didn’t work out for him with us. But I’m happy he got the contract he got, and he’s doing it with some Patriots-related people in Tennessee -- [Mike] Vrabel and the GM [Jon Robinson]. I wish him well. I’m going to miss him."