FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft conducted a one-on-one interview with Maria Stephanos of WCVB-TV in Boston on Wednesday in advance of the Boys and Girls Club annual dinner. Kraft’s son, Josh, runs the Boys and Girls Club.
Kraft spoke about the exemplary work of the Boys and Girls Club and how it serves 15,000 kids in Boston daily. He also touched on the Patriots’ 2015 season.
Asked how much distractions affected the team, and put a burden on himself, Kraft said, “If you’re running businesses anywhere in the world, people who really do well are the people who have mental toughness. People talk about it, but this team had a lot of distractions, a lot of physical injuries. That whole ‘next man up’ and mental toughness was amazing.
“I think if I have any regret, it’s that the conference championship game wasn’t played here in our hometown.”
The Patriots had a chance to lock up the No. 1 seed and home-field advantage late in the season, but lost their final two games, against the Jets and Dolphins. That led them to have to travel to Denver, where they lost to the Broncos, 20-18, in the AFC Championship Game.
In the interview on WCVB-TV, Kraft went on to call Bill Belichick and Tom Brady “the greatest coach and quarterback of all time.”
A few other soundbites from Kraft in the interview:
On Tom Brady being booed at the Super Bowl. “To us, we didn’t hear it. We just heard loud noise and I just heard cheers everywhere around me. I find out what people [are saying], all this social media chatter. I think there were a lot of Denver fans and Raider fans in the audience, since it was so close. I don’t know, I think they see us as a big rival. But he is such a classy, wonderful guy. He went there representing our team, our coaches, our fans.”
Brady vs. Peyton Manning: “I happened to see Archie [Manning] there. He has two sons who have won two Super Bowls [each]. But with all due respect, we have one son who has won four.”
Safety of football: “I’m very pleased with what we’re doing in the area of equipment, what we’re doing with medical attention, protocols we have. It’s never been safer.”