Reports: 'Zero chance' Patriots get their first-round pick back
Two reports citing anonymous sources with the same wording? Yep, sounds like the decision has already been made.
By
Jared Dubin
•
1 min read
Last year, the NFL stripped the New England Patriots of their 2016 first-round draft pick as part of the punishment for Deflategate. Patriots owner Robert Kraft accepted the penalty last May, but the events that transpired since then led to Kraft sending a letter to Roger Goodell in an attempt to get the pick back.
"We have put our best case forward, and that's in the league's hands now," Kraft said, per CBS Boston. "I personally wrote a letter to the commissioner, responding to his comment that if any new facts came up he would take them into consideration. And I personally believe that when the league made their decision, they did not factor in the Ideal Gas Law. They admitted that publicly. They've had a full year of being able to observe Tom Brady play with all the rules of whatever the NFL was and make any judgments there. We have laid it out pretty straightforward, and now it's up to them to decide."
Hours after Kraft announced that he had sent the letter, the leaks about the NFL's decision on the matter started:
Source familiar with NFL's inner workings: "No chance, zero chance" of Patriots being given back their first-round draft pick.
— MarkMaske (@MarkMaske) March 21, 2016
An NFL source on Patriots request to get draft pick back. "Zero chance."
— Judy Battista (@judybattista) March 21, 2016
Two reports citing anonymous sources with the same wording? Yep, sounds like the decision has already been made. And it's not exactly a shocking one, given how far dug in the NFL is on Deflategate.
