Robert Kraft asks Goodell to reconsider punishment

New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft has had a change of heart, requesting NFL commissioner Roger Goodell reinstate the team’s first-round draft pick stripped as part of the Deflategate penalties.

The 74-year-old Kraft told reporters Monday at the NFL meetings in Boca Raton, Fla., that he wrote a letter to Goodell over a month ago.

Patriots fans were upset when Kraft accepted the NFL’s punishment last May, although “reluctantly.”

Kraft now wants Goodell to reconsider the penalties of a 2016 first-round pick, 2017 fourth-round pick, four-game suspension of quarterback Tom Brady and a $1 million team fine.

“I don’t think you’ll see any momentum among our peers,” Kraft said about the other NFL owners. “I wish they would, because they could be in a similar position. We have put our best case forward, and that’s in the league’s hands now.

“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. I personally believe 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 observe Tom Brady play with all the rules of whatever the NFL was and make any judgements there. We have laid it out pretty straightforward, and now it’s up to them to decide.”

Kraft was asked if he was disappointed the NFL did not share PSI readings from 2015 as part of the league’s new football testing procedures.

“They did their own testing, they have results, and for whatever reason, they haven’t shared them with any of us,” Kraft told reporters at the Boca Raton Resort. “We actually requested at the beginning of the season that they test every game throughout the league and do that, but they chose to do it their way.”

It seems unlikely Goodell will give the draft picks back to the Patriots. Kraft did not say whether he got a response from Goodell.

“I think since we’ve owned the team, in 22 years, we’ve had three seasons under .500,” Kraft said. “And you do it in this age of parity, everything is the scheduling, the salary cap, it’s very hard to compete without the lifeblood of the draft. We understand the importance, and I assure you we’ve done everything we can do that has a chance of success.”