Patriots Owner Robert Kraft’s Balancing Act

In January of 1997, the New England Patriots were set to face the Green Bay Packers in the Super Bowl. Up to that point in the franchise’s thirty-seven history, the Patriots had been an often maligned and mostly irrelevant team, and the week leading up to the game should have been an opportunity to bask in the elusive national spotlight. Instead, the days were dominated by news of an ugly feud between the Patriots’ owner, Robert Kraft, who bought the team in 1994, and his head coach, Bill Parcells, a holdover from the previous regime. The Patriots lost badly to the Packers, and after the game, Parcells didn’t fly home with the team. A few weeks later, the N.F.L. negotiated a deal letting Parcells out of his contract. The issue between Kraft and Parcells had been control; Parcells wanted to be in charge of drafting and trading players, not just coaching them. After the split, Parcells explained the tension by saying, “If they want you to cook the dinner, at least they ought to let you shop for some of the groceries.” Years later, Kraft blamed the rift, in part, on his desire to micromanage the team, telling USA Today, “Look, I was a new owner. I had a lot of debt. I had stardust in my eyes.”