Long before the Patriots got their quarterback back, they threw up their hands and accepted their own punishment for what happened in #DeflateGate.
But even though their quarterback scored a technical knockout in court today (though something far less than being found innocent), they’re not trying to reverse their own penalty.
According to Ben Volin of the Boston Globe, Patriots president Jonathan Kraft said that fans “are not the only ones” who want their forfeited draft picks back, “but as we sit here today, it’s not our intention” to fight penalties.
The Patriots were fined a record $1 million, and the league took their first-round pick in 2016 and their fourth-rounder in 2017. Owner Robert Kraft said in May that he wouldn’t fight the team’s penalties for the good of the league.
But that doesn’t mean the Patriots are in full forgive-and-forget mode.
Jonathan Kraft said the league’s disciplinary process “probably needs to be re-thought, for the good of the game.”
It’s unlikely that the Patriots are going to get any satisfaction (beyond handing the league another loss in court and getting one of the best players in league history back on the field for the opener). But they are clearly willing to look for a way to change the league’s method of punishment, and can appear magnanimous in the process when the league decides to go after another team the way it did them and the Saints.