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“NFL-Patriots-A Stain That Won’t Go Away”

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Take a look at your aging bathtub some time. What do you see?

Maybe a stain right around the drain. One from years of use. The ring around the tub. What causes it, minerals in the water, the soil from all those bathing?.

No matter how much you scrub, how much Bon Ami Powder Cleaner you use, it’s tough to get the ring, the stain, out of that tub.

The same stain, ring, seems to be developing around all things New England Patriots, especially with what came out of Jupiter, Florida on Friday night.

New England legendary owner Robert Kraft, about to be formally charged, with twice soliciting prostitutes at a massage parlor. That’s him on video tape paying money to enter a so called health spa, that is really a sex spa. That’s him evidently on video in a sex act.

He denies it. The District Attorney’s office says it’s the video does not lie.

The most famous man in the NFL these days, architect of 6-Super Bowl winning New England teams, the tremendously successful entrepreneur in Foxboro, the amazing philanthropist, caught up in this event.

He wasn’t targeted, just part of a sting operation, but was the most famous of the 100 or so men who were video taped frequenting this spa. In all 20-spas were shutdown in a 4-county area, all run for the same purpose. Sex for dollars.

What complicates it are the allegations the owners of the spas were actually importing young women from China, promising them jobs, but turning them into hookers when they got to Florida. No money, no way out, only the demands, sex for dollars would be their existence.

For Robert Kraft, having your named linked to soliciting is bad. Your name being in the same area code with a business in sex trafficking is even worse.

It may be just a cheap misdemeanor charge or two, but it is damaging and damning.

It was shocking, considering who this man is, and what he’s accomplished in New England.

But this comes on top of all the other things his Patriots have been involved in.

The ledger reads Deflategate…..Spygate…..Tampering with other teams employees (coaches-players). There’s just a lot of bad history there.

Fines, loss of draft picks are one thing. But now this, with this owner, that should lead to some form of sanctions from an NFL that has ramped up harsh penalties against players, involved in arrests.

For every Ray Rice- Kareem Hunt, Greg Hardy, Adrian Peterson incident of recent times, there have been penalties.

Only more recently, has the NFL started to deal harshly with owners and front office people who step over the line.

Back in the day, they expelled Eagles owner Leonard Those with a trail of gambling debts left behind.

The most recent was a year ago when Carolina Panthers legendary owner Jerry Richardson was fined (2.7M) and forced to sell. As influential as he was, we found out he was also a ‘dirty old man’ and taken out by a cadre of former female employees, tired of his sexual comments.

The most famous discipline led to the demise and ouster of the very popular owner Eddie DeBartolo, for his involvement in governmental bribery schemes in Louisiana. A 1M fine and the forced transfer of ownership to other members of his family. He never resurfaced in football despite the spectacular things he did with the Super Bowl Niner teams.

Jim Irsay was suspended for a DUI, but more so for his addiction to pain killers, and a league mandated stint in rebab that has probably saved his life.

Discipline too for Arizona Cardinals GM Steve Keim, just this past season, for an acute DUI.

And prior to that, the lengthy suspension to Broncos front office exec Matt Russell for multiple driving-alcohol incidents.

Part of me is shocked that a man of Kraft’s integrity would be involved in something so sleazy.

Part of me feels sadness, for how hard it was on him to see his wife of 43-years die of a bitter battle with cancer.

Part of me cannot figure out why a man of this type of wealth, could be in that building, along with truck drivers, fraternity guys, and farmhands.

Part of me doesn’t understand why a man with his resources, would go to a place like that, in a strip mall, to have that type of relationship, knowing full well the call girl services around the nation operate in better venues.

So now we await to see what is true, untrue, and how they all handle what is just ahead. The NFL, the owner, his organization.

Roger Goodall has been tough on players in terms of discipline. Players answer to him. Goodall works for the owners. How does he handle Kraft going forward?

Just when you thought there was nothing more to dislike about the Patriots, Bill Belichick, Tom Brady, game plans, defiance, dominance, method of business, we now get to deal with Robert Kraft and this series of allegations.

A serious stain, just like the ring around the bathtub, you just cannot ignore, nor get rid of.

A new description of the Patriot Way.

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