I’d love to have seen the look on his face
I asked Kraft point-blank about the fact the players did win a $7 million award in the case at that point because the owners, it was found, did try to backdoor them.
In response, Kraft said, “The irony. I worked very hard with the commissioner to extend these contracts when the financial world was falling apart and we realized the main source of our revenue was these media contracts. We went out in a very difficult environment and were able to conclude extensions of these contracts to protect the players income and the owners income. For them to sue over something like that, it just shows you how out of touch . . . there are so many things we can do to create new partnership opportunities and grow and we have to get the lawyers away from the table and get business leaders on both sides.”
By his facial expression and tone, it’s clear Kraft was outraged the players would question what happened with the TV deals in 2008.
But the fact remains that the owners covered their financial backsides and left the players’ exposed. Even though monies paid out to the owners during the lockout were loans and had to be paid back, Doty found that $421 million would not have to be paid back. That’s more than $10 million per team being fronted during the lockout that wouldn’t need to be reimbursed when football returned.
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