The New England Patriots have remained quiet since Aaron Hernandez’s murder charge but owner Robert Kraft broke his silence for the first time on Monday.
“No one in our organization was aware of any of these kind of connections. If it’s true, I’m just shocked,” Kraft told reporters from his office at Gillette Stadium. “Our whole organization has been duped.”
Kraft, who was believed to be fond of the tight end during his three years with the Patriots, said the team had no choice but to release Hernandez once he was arrested on July 26.
“Let me be clear: We decided the week prior to Aaron’s arrest that if Aaron was arrested in connection with the Lloyd murder case that we would cut him immediately after,” Kraft said.
“The rationale behind that decision was that if any member of the New England Patriots organization is close enough to a murder investigation to actually get arrested — whether it be for obstruction of justice or the crime itself, it is too close to an unthinkable act for that person to be part of this organization going forward.”
Kraft, who was obviously shocked to see Hernandez receive a first-degree murder charge, said he was unaware of any of Hernandez’s actions off the field.
“When he was in our building, we never saw anything where he was not polite. He was always respectful to me. We only know what’s going on inside the building. We don’t put private eyes on people,” Kraft said via Mike Reiss of ESPNBoston.com.
The Patriots owner showed the media a letter Hernandez wrote to the organization just days before the 2010 NFL Draft to address his alleged use of marijuana during his career at the University of Florida.
“Here’s a guy writing a letter, taking responsibility,” Kraft said. “The only thing I ever heard on Aaron Hernandez was he was very young, immature and potentially had problems presented in this letter. Never saw signs of anything else.”
That letter helped the Patriots organization feel comfortable enough to draft the uber-talented Hernandez in the fourth round (113th overall) three years ago.
“I ask you to trust me when I say you have absolutely nothing to worry about when it comes to me and the use of recreational drugs,” Hernandez said in the letter to the Patriots “I have set very high goals for myself in the NFL and am focused 100 per cent on achieving those goals.”
The team signed Hernandez to a five-year, $37.5 million extension that included $16 million in guaranteed money before the start of the 2012 season.
“It obviously wasn’t the correct decision,” he said.
Now the Patriots will take on a salary cap charge of $7.5 million in 2014 after releasing Hernandez, something that was a no-brainer to Kraft.
According to Kraft, they did not consider holding onto to Hernandez to avoid any possible salary cap savings.
“There are big costs, big distractions; everything we don’t want happening,” he said.
The organization did earn some good will when they allowed approximately 2,500 fans to exchange their Hernandez jerseys for another player at the team’s Pro Shop over the weekend that cost the Patriots close to $250,000.
The Patriots said the Hernandez jerseys were going to be “ground up and recycled.”
Kraft said he was “limited” (via Ben Volin of the Boston Globe) in what he say to local reporters because of an “ongoing criminal investigation.”
“The most sad thing is the Lloyd family lost a son, a brother,” Kraft said. “I’m really sorry, and my heart goes out to the Lloyd family.”