Hire Bob Kraft: Lockout Ender

Did Kraft save the day?

The NFL lockout was bad publicity for both players and owners as a whole, but it seems one figure emerged from the debacle as something of a hero: Patriots owner Robert Kraft.

According to various reports, the league would not be in free agency overdrive at this very moment had it not been for Kraft. Colts C Jeff Saturday said: "Without [Kraft], this deal does not get done. ... He's a man who helped us save football." Players union head DeMaurice Smith was a bit less hyperbolic: "We couldn't have done this without you," he told Kraft.

Exactly what role Kraft played is speculative at this point (we may never know exactly how he helped), but he must have done something right if he's the only owner singled as helping the process along. We certainly know the likes of Dan Snyder, Al Davis and Mike Brown didn't get this deal done.

Perhaps Kraft was not so much instrumental in ironing out the details, but in realizing that lawyers were killing the process and dragging negotiations out indefinitely. At one point, he said: "We need to get the lawyers out of the way." He was right, and once that happened, progress happened. Hats off to Kraft for a job well done and giving us reason to spend entire Sundays on the couch this fall.