Robert Kraft on Tom Brady: ‘We hope he prevails’

The NFL owners’ meetings in Charlotte on Tuesday were brief, and the biggest news to come out of the event was the deciding of the host cities for Super Bowls LIII, LIV and LV plus some minor changes to instant replay.

And there were of course some smaller things as well. To wit: NFL Network’s Judy Battista caught up with New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft for a brief interview; Battista asked Kraft about the prospect of the Oakland Raiders moving to Las Vegas, which Kraft expressed support for, and also about Tom Brady, who filed another appeal in his federal case against the NFL in the deflate-gate case on Monday.

“Look, we’ve been behind him and he’s [pause] the whole thing has been mishandled in my opinion and it’s unfortunate and we hope he prevails,” Kraft said.

It’s obviously good for business if the Patriots don’t have to play without Brady for four games, but Kraft and Brady are very close after 16 years, and the owner has been behind the quarterback from Day One in deflate-gate.