The NFL's Annual Meeting officially adjourns today (although most attendees took off last night), yet there are still some newsworthy items to be gleaned from it.
We'll start with CSNNE.com, which caught up with Patriots president Jonathan Kraft. Among other topics, Kraft was asked about New England’s attempts to get back its first-round pick from the NFL this year, and he gave an answer that acknowledged the team's enormous fan base.
"We empathize greatly with their feelings and I can tell you that we are extremely angry, disappointed, confused," Kraft told CSNNE. "At some point you have to realize it's not going to happen and the best revenge will be putting the best team on the field next year and hopefully having a very successful season."
The Boston Globe provides an opinion column about Kraft's father, team owner Robert Kraft, and his challenging relationship with the NFL Commissioner.
"Kraft is like a senator who must satisfy his constituents back home while maintaining his carefully cultivated influence and power with his colleagues," the author proclaims. "He must project being strident to the Patriotologists who feel he betrayed them by standing down, while at the same time being a billionaire team player with NFL owners."
There's a lot being written about head coach Bill Belichick today, following his appearance at the AFC Coaches Breakfast Tuesday. We have all that covered in written and video form here on patriots.com, so, you need go no further for those details… except maybe to an ESPN blog post about Belichick’s philosophy toward building his coaching staffs.
"We'll develop from within, teach coaches our system and develop them from within so we didn't have to change philosophies when coaches changed," Belichick told us yesterday. Most of us already knew that by simply observing the way his assistants have been hired over the years, but the ESPN post expands on it a bit more.
Elsewhere at the Annual Meeting down in Florida, Bills head coach Rex Ryan told reporters he has “no idea” how to defend New England’s two-headed tight end monster of Rob Gronkowski and Martellus Bennett, as the *Boston Herald *recounts.
ESPN also offers a blog post with contract details for two of the newest Patriots, DE Chris Long and LB Shea McClellin.
Meanwhile, another Globe story stresses that the Patriots need to deal with the current contract situations of two other players, LBs Jamie Collins and Don't'a Hightower.
Finally today, WR Calvin Johnson has officially retired from the NFL, but a former teammate is still urging him to join the Patriots at some point, as WEEI.com points out.
