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The NFL plot will thicken in Kraft’s case

By Tom King - Staff Writer | Feb 23, 2019

AP photo Patriots owner Robert Kraft could face disciplinary action from the NFL after his involvment in a Florida prostitution sting.

Former New York Jet Bart Scott was blabbering and bellowing on his WFAN radio show in New York on Friday in the wake of the stunning Robert Kraft news:

“I would take their whole draft from them,” he said. “It has to be something that cripples them. This is a black eye.”

Oh please. Not to downplay any of this, but comments like Scott’s are an example of the foolishness that will be created around the country about Kraft, the New England Patriots owner who had an arrest warrant issued in connection with a widespread prostitution investigation in the area around Jupiter, Fla. Kraft only faces misdemeanor solicitation charges, which are embarrassing enough. But the fact this is all part of a human sex trafficking investigation, and that more big names implicated in this are reportedly going to be released, certainly will have an impact on the NFL and the Patriots.

What will be part of this story eventually will be the NFL’s personal conduct policy, that says both players and owners (really, all league personnel) “must refrain from contuct detrimental to the integrity of and public confidence in the NFL.”

The policy also states that owners and front office people “have traditionally been held to a higher standard and will be subject to more significant discipline when violations of the Personal Conduct Policy occur.”

The league’s statement Friday on the matter is what you would expect. We know about it, we’ll see how the investigation plays out, in essence.

“The NFL is aware of the ongoing law enforcement mattr and will continue to monitor developments,” it said, as reported by the NFL Network.

The likely result? Kraft is suspended and his son, Jonathan, will run the team in his absence. Eventually that would have happened years down the road, anyway.

There is certainly history of NFL owners behaving badly. The possible comparable punishment you might look at is when Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay was suspended six games and fined $500,000 in 2014 after being arrested on drug charges.

Unless there is something even more serious involved in this, don’t expect something as catastrophic as when Carolina Panthers owner Jerry Richardson was forced to sell his team after it was revealed there were settlements with former team employees due to so-called inappropriate comments made by the owner.

But other than the fact it is the owner, the this does not impact the Patriots football operations. No draft picks will be forfeited, no football punishment handed out, etc., which is the nonsense a lot of the team’s more vocal critics like Scott from all around the country would lke you to believe. This is an owner conduct issue and will be treated as such.

But it obviously didn’t take long now for the Super Bowl euphoria to disappear. It’s more drama, controversy and at the very least embarrassment the organization certainly doesn’t need. There will be much more ongoing, not the least of which will be the videos the authorities say they have of Kraft, which makes his staunch denial issued Friday through a spokesperson even more curious.

But draft picks? Lost in all this mess was the other news Friday that the Patriots were awarded four compensatory picks for losing free agents last year (Danny Amendola, Malcolm Butler, etc.) – two in the third round, plus one each in the sixth and seventh rounds in this April’s draft. That gives them 12 picks in all.

And they’re going to be able to keep them all, Bart. Sorry.