The expected summit of the New England Patriots’ Big Three did indeed take place, team owner Robert Kraft confirmed Monday.
Kraft told reporters Monday at the NFL Annual Meeting in Orlando, Fla., that he sat down with Patriots head coach Bill Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady in the weeks following the team’s Super Bowl LII loss to the Philadelphia Eagles. He downplayed the significance of the meeting, however.
“Yes, we’ve had the meeting,” Kraft said, via the Providence Journal. “Just to be clear … we have meetings all the time. We’re not a big bureaucratic organization. We’re a private company. We don’t have boards. We answer to the fans the best we can. We’ve met. And I meet individually with each of them. But the thing I don’t know if it’s completely understood, Bill and Tom communicate and meet a lot and spend a lot of time communicating.”
In January, ESPN’s Seth Wickersham published a story detailing reported unrest between Kraft, Belichick and Brady, who have worked together in New England since 2000. In a subsequent interview with NFL Media’s Andrea Kremer, Kraft acknowledged there had been “tension” between the three organizational pillars but no “dysfunction.”
Monday’s chat with reporters was Kraft’s first since the Super Bowl, which the Patriots lost 41-33. It was New England’s third Super Bowl loss of the Brady/Belichick era and the fourth since Kraft bought the team in 1994.
“I think the residual of this loss was really hard on everyone,” Kraft told reporters. “But I sort of see that as a high-class problem. I sat in the stands when we were never in the playoffs at home for 20-odd years.”
Kraft also addressed tight end Rob Gronkowski’s future and Belichick’s controversial decision to sit cornerback Malcolm Butler against the Eagles.
