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Patriots' Jonathan Kraft: Jerry Jones told us 'take your medicine' during deflate-gate

Mama taught us not to be petty, but sometimes petty is pretty fun.

Case in point: on Sunday, before the New England Patriots played the Oakland Raiders at Azteca Stadium in Mexico City, Patriots president Jonathan Kraft – he’s team owner Robert Kraft’s oldest son – made his usual pregame appearance on WEEI radio.

Kraft was asked about Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, who has been in the headlines in recent days for an ESPN report detailing Jones’ behavior toward NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and other activity since Ezekiel Elliott’s suspension. There have been stories that perhaps the other owners would strip Jones of his ownership, particularly because of his crusade to get in the way of Goodell’s contract extension, and Kraft was asked about the possibility of such a rare move.

New England Patriots president Jonathan Kraft threw a little shade at Jerry Jones on Sunday. (AP)
New England Patriots president Jonathan Kraft threw a little shade at Jerry Jones on Sunday. (AP)

Kraft told a story from the deflate-gate era, and how Jones advised Kraft and his father, Robert, to handle the whole affair.

Here’s how I think I would answer all that,” Kraft said. “Clearly, around Roger’s contract there have been threats of litigation that I have already spent too much of my life in depositions. I want to try and minimize that going forward. I am not going to comment on that process, but what I would say is Jerry back when our fan base and ourselves were going through the whole air pressure thing, Jerry had gone through the salary cap stuff, and he said basically, ‘I think y’all should take your medicine and just focus on winning football games.’

“And when you’re upset and you’re angry it’s not what you want to hear because I don’t think Tom [Brady] was treated fairly. I don’t think any of our fans feel Tom was treated fairly, but we ended up taking that advice and we ended up winning the Super Bowl. I think it was good advice. I think that is probably the way I will answer that.”

Also within the ESPN story was an anecdote from the call Goodell made to Jones in August, to let him know that Elliott would be suspended under the personal conduct policy for accusations of domestic violence.

Jones reportedly told Goodell, “I’m gonna come after you with everything I have … If you think Bob Kraft came after you hard [because of deflate-gate], Bob Kraft is a [expletive] compared to what I’m going to do.’”

To which Jonathan Kraft said, “I guess I don’t know who the source of it was, so I don’t know if the quote was true or not. If Jerry said that, and I don’t know that he did, Robert at the end of the day followed Jerry’s own advice. Our franchise since that investigation started the night of that AFC championship game has won two Super Bowls.”

In other words, Jonathan Kraft thinks Jerry Jones should take his medicine and get his team – at 5-4 headed into Sunday night’s game with NFC East rival Philadelphia – focused on football.

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