Robert Kraft talks ‘haters’ on HBO’s ‘Real Sports’

Robert Deutsch | USA TODAY Sports

New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft takes tremendous pride in his organization, and he’s not afraid to show it.

That’s why it came as no surprise when he defended his team from the ‘haters’ out there, on an episode of HBO’s Real Sports that aired on Tuesday.

“Envy and jealousy are incurable diseases,” Kraft said to HBO’s Andrea Kremer, “The haters still hate. And I understand it, and we’ll do our best to keep them in that position.”

Remembering a lesson he learned from his dad in which ‘the most important thing you can earn in life is a good name,’ Kraft mentioned that the whole Deflategate situation really upset and bothered him.

“That is impacting our good name or our reputation. And it wasn’t something I appreciated,” he said.

Kraft also went on to defend his quarterback, saying that everything Tom Brady went through in Deflategate wasn’t fair and that winning the championship this year felt like justice for him and the whole organization.

“He’s just not the greatest quarterback in the history of the NFL, he’s an amazing human being,” Kraft said of Brady, “And is genuine. And as nice as everybody thinks he is, he’s nicer. And to see anyone attack him as an individual or his integrity. And that just wasn’t fair.”

That’s probably why in the minutes following the Patriots incredible comeback in Super Bowl LI that Kraft had no problem basking in the glory and rubbing it in a bit.

As NFL commissioner Roger Goodell handed him the trophy, the Patriots owner called this win “unequivocally the sweetest.”

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