Mr. Kraft,
This is on you. You own the organization that has a reputation for cheating. You may argue to what extent, but you cannot deny your team has cheated. This reputation is damaging to both your organization and to the integrity of the NFL. Denial is not going to resolve this. Winning is not going to resolve this. You need a change in culture within your organization, and that falls on you. It begins with you apologizing to the league.
Back in January when the news about the NFL investigation regarding your team’s involvement in using under inflated footballs in the AFC Championship game – you demanded that the NFL apologize to the Patriots organization when the investigation found no wrong doing. Well, the investigation did find wrong doing on the part of your organization, and fined you both financially and by loss of future draft picks. How did you respond? You begrudgingly accepted the punishment, and proclaimed this was for the good of the league. Not good enough! You need to own up to this. Your team cheated and got caught. The response from you as the owner of the team needs to be that 'this is unacceptable'. There needs to be a strong message from you that cheating will not be tolerated. You should be setting a higher standard for your organization to abide by. This is step one in repairing your team’s reputation.
You also need to wake up regarding Tom Brady. Tom lied to you about his involvement in deflating these footballs. Tom lied to everyone. Did he deflate the balls himself? No. Did he know the equipment guys were removing air from the balls after they were inspected by the game officials? Most likely. Did he fully cooperate with the investigation? No. Did he deserve a 4 game suspension for his role in deflating footballs? Maybe not. Does everyone besides you and some die-hard Pats fans think he is guilty? Yes. So regardless to what level of involvement Brady had in under inflated balls, his reputation is now tarnished.
Regardless of the recent court ruling lifting Brady’s suspension, most people believe that Tom cheated. The fact that he got away with no punishment just makes people who believe he cheated dislike him more. It’s too late for Tom to fix this. His lack of cooperation and denial of all knowledge is history. This is on you now. How will you react the next time your organization is accused of cheating? Are you going to blindly trust Brady & Belichek? Or will you demand transparency and truth? Your team already knows winning is important. You need to drive your organization to win with integrity.
You are the owner. This is on you.