PHOENIX — After his scrum with reporters on Monday — which we'll get to in a minute — Robert Kraft wanted to address the comment Bill Belichick made after the season about the team's cash spending.
“Our spending in 2020, our spending in 2021 and our spending in 2022, the aggregate of that, was we were 27th in the league in cash spending," Belichick said in reaction to the spending on the 2021 free-agent class. "Couple years we’re low, one year was high, but over a three-year period, we are one of the lowest spending teams in the league. Had we averaged that out in those three years, you would have had the same numbers. Whether it’s two low and one high, two medium, three mediums, two sort of high and one really low, whatever it is, there’s an average that comes. That’s the three-year average, we’re 27th in the league in cash spending.”
A lot of fans and some media took that as a shot at ownership, that they don't want to spend on the team. Even after Belichick clarified that he was not taking a shot at ownership — which he did again today — it still didn't change the thinking.
Kraft went on the record about the comments today.
"Okay, well, I've had the privilege of having Bill as a coach for 24 years. He has never come to me and not gotten everything he wanted from a cash spending (perspective). We have never set limits.
"You know, think about it. We're the only team in America who built a stadium 100% private, no public money. We're even reimbursing for the infrastructure. Bonds were taken out. And we had no personal seat licenses. I remember being a fan and so we've committed tremendous capital just to the stadium.
"The team is more important to me. We have never had a situation where we didn't commit the cash capital needed. And I don't know how that got started. But Bill in 24 years has never come to me and not gotten every dollar he's wanted.
And the other thing and I think maybe was taken out of context, because we spend to the cap every year. I mean, the teams who really spend over the cap are teams who make big capital commitments to players. And so you're cash over cap, it's always got to come out, to balance out. We haven't you know, if you're gonna sign a quarterback, or you do what we did three years ago, where we spent, you know, I believe number one or two, we spent over $120 million and did you ... I don't know that it was worth it. But I'm willing to do it if we're going to win. So just that issue ... ownership has always made the cash available. Think, if we do it in the stadium, and we don't try to charge for seat licenses or anything. This is a project of passion and we want to win. Money spending will never be the issue. I promise you or I'll sell the team.
