Mr. Kraft Calls the Gronk Trade Rumor 'Hogwash' as Belichick Cancels OTAs

Mr. Kraft on last week’s Rob Gronkowski trade rumors: “I guess when your team is good, people are looking for things. I’ll just tell you, it’s a bunch of hogwash that I vetoed some trade. That was never in the works. It’s just completely made up and I think we have to be careful in society today that people just can’t come out and say things and this bit about us trading Gronk to the 49ers, or Tennessee — there’s just no basis to it and it gets a life of it’s own. I just want to go on record at today’s event that you all understand there’s no truth to that and people shouldn’t be able to do that.”

Mr. Kraft on Bill Belichick canceling the final two days of OTAs: “Part of that is I think great things that happened last week having everyone here and then I think yesterday they had a team-building activity that was really good and the new, young players we have here, the free agents — I am excited about this team.”

Well alright then. That settles that. Friday was a Bizarro day, with me hearing whispers about a trade of Gronk that Dave amplified up to 11. A subsequent report by some lesser known Kurkjian with a blue check mark that two deals were on the table but Brady threatened to quit if Belichick pulled the trigger which caused Kraft to veto the deal in a super secret meeting behind closed doors that only some lesser known Kurkjian with a blue check mark knew about. Followed by this from Linda Holliday:

… which made you wonder whether the closed door meeting took place in the snack bar or the reptile house.

Then today we got the most unBelichickian move of all time, canceling the last two practices before training camp begins the last week in July. Which might be enough to make you think the most hyper prepared man in the history of organized human group activities is disgustedly throwing up his hands in frustration at the utter futility of trying to get his team ready without Brady and Gronk. But nope. The owner says everything is just swell.

The trade rumors? Hogwash. I would’ve also accepted malarkey, poppycock, balderdash and bullhockey. But hogwash will do just fine. The canceled practices? It had nothing to do with Brady and Gronk’s status as Conscientious Objectors. It’s just that the team just did too darn well last week. Everyone is so excited that they might be peaking too early or something. So instead they took a field trip to Fenway yesterday and now it’s time to send them off to summer vacation. See you in a month and a half. It makes all the sense in the world.

Just once though, before this cruel summer leaves me here on my own any more than it already has, it would be nice to just get some straight talk. Not half measures. The time for lowkey, rational discussion has long since past. It it too much to ask to just get the Holy Trinity to just come out and talk frankly about what – if anything – on God’s green Earth has been going on with them. Maybe admit that yes, there have been some beefs this year that weren’t there in the past, and they’re ironing them out. Or a total, blanket denial that this talk of tension is complete (looking for a word like hogwash) horsefeathers. But whatever the situation, answer it with a united front instead of these underwhelming semi-denials.

After six months of this, I think Pats fans deserve to have mom and dad tell us if they’re really breaking up instead of just saying they’re having a discussion.