Patriots owner opens up his playbook

Michael Holley has watched the relationship closely as a Boston sports radio host and author of the book Patriot Reign.

HOLLEY: Before Belichick got here, you read some of the clips in the paper — one of the lines from a Boston columnist — they called him Amos Alonzo Kraft thinking that, he’s the football guy, he’s out there with the stopwatch, looking at players.

CNBC: How would you describe his relationship with Bill Belichick?

HOLLEY: Ideal. They both have an understanding of the salary cap. They understand business, and they both have an appreciation for football. Bill Belichick is a master at football but Kraft is a big football fan. So they have really connected on a business level and they’ve connected on the best way to run an NFL franchise.

Kraft’s instincts to hire Belichick proved right. Just two seasons later, only months after the Sept. 11 attacks, the Patriots, then 14-point  underdogs to the St. Louis Rams, pulled off one of the greatest upsets in NFL history to win Super Bowl XXXVI.

“The hard work, the perseverance, the mental toughness overcoming obstacles —  those are the ingredients to being successful in any business,” said Kraft. “And hanging in there.  And believing in the power of will.  So all those emotions were encompassed — on that day and that season."

It would be the Patriots first-ever title, but the winning wouldn’t stop there — with back-to-back championships again in 2004 and 2005.

By capturing three Super Bowls in four years, Kraft’s Patriots had cemented their place in NFL history.

“For us, any business we're in, we don't want to be good just one year,” Kraft told CNBC. “We want to be the best we can be every year.  We want to try to sustain what we consider excellence. And you want to sustain excellence, you also have to be thinking about next year and the year after.  How you do contracts.  How you draft people.  How you keep everybody together in an organization where things are very visible.”

Entering the 2007 season, all eyes were once again on the New England Patriots. After falling a step short of the Super Bowl, the team had re-tooled, trading for superstar receiver Randy Moss. Moss was a great talent on the field, but had numerous problems off it, with a reputation for being difficult to handle.

But to Kraft, the vision of quarterback Tom Brady throwing touchdowns to Moss convinced him to take a chance few other owners would.

CNBC: How do you maintain this level of excellence that you've built?

KRAFT: Well, in the football industry, it's complicated. Any business we go into, we always look for how we can differentiate ourselves. We try to do the things the other people don’t want to do or can’t do, and we try to figure out how we get a competitive advantage.

But in their first game of the season against the New York Jets, the Patriots may have taken that desire for a competitive advantage too far. They were caught videotaping signals from Jets coaches during the second week of the season, a flagrant violation of NFL policy and a case of corporate espionage that the media dubbed Spygate.

The league fined coach Belichick $500,000 and the team an additional $250,000. The Patriots also were forced to forfeit a future first round draft pick, and Kraft was left to defend his team to the country. In September,  Kraft told NBC sportscaster Al Michaels that he first heard about the practice after the Jets game was over.

“Before last Sunday's game, I had no knowledge of this practice,” Kraft said during the a telecast the week following the Jets game. “I must tell you, it was really disappointing, especially after such a great game. What made it particularly disheartening, in our group of companies, we hold people to very high standards and this isn't what we're about. I've discussed that with coach Belichick.”

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