The New England Patriots are no longer the perennial Super Bowl contender they once were ever since the turn of the millennium. Principal owner Robert Kraft assured fans that the down years have not been due to any lack of team spending.
Former Patriots head coach Bill Belichick raised some eyebrows last year when he made some rather pointed comments on the team’s below-average spending. Belichick highlighted the Patriots being “one of the lowest spending teams in the league” during his end-of-season interview back in June.
While Belichick and Kraft have seemingly moved past their rough patch leading up to their amicable divorce, the latter still felt the need to address the concerns of the former almost a year later.
New England Patriots Owner Robert Kraft Promises Fans That The Team Is Ready To Spend
Kraft spoke to reporters at the Wynn in Las Vegas during Super Bowl week to assure fans that money will never be any issue.
“I know there’s a perception that we have held back on spending,” Kraft said. “Let me just say, for our fans, that’s just not true. Look, we were blessed to have a coach in our system who was a great coach and also understood value. He ran a tight ship.”
Kraft didn’t deny that the Patriots have not been the most carefree when it comes to spending in the recent past. But he pointed to the team’s track record during that span. Kraft added that Belichick also spent with the future in mind, which meant responsible spending over short-sighted splurging.
“They say we’ve been low spenders in the last 10 years, and that might be true,” Kraft said Thursday. “But we had a pretty good record. And we won three Super Bowls. But our coaches have always had the ability to spend at whatever level they wanted. I think Bill was always thinking about the future and really understood value. But we never held back with any of the coaches we’ve had over the last 30 years.”
The New England Patriots’ Next Phase May Need To Spend More Than They’re Used To
Kraft assured fans that winning is just as important to him and his family — if not moreso — as it is to the Patriots fans who pay for tickets to watch the games. He even claimed that if he ever felt like he couldn’t spend enough to build a winning roster, then he would “sell the team.”
Of course, the spend-in-moderation Patriots of the past also employed the greatest quarterback of all time. The team has gone 29-38 ever since Brady left for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2020. A new era in New England — one without Brady or Belichick — may require more coal in the furnace than Kraft is used to.