Patriots owner Robert Kraft leaves Viacom’s board of directors

You may not have known that New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft sat on the board of directors for Viacom Corporation. Well as of this week, he is no longer a member of that board. Kraft told the company that he could no longer fulfill his duties on the board.

In an SEC filing, Viacom noted that Kraft submitted his resignation on Wednesday:

“Robert K. Kraft notified the board of directors of Viacom Inc. that he was stepping down from the board … noting that his obligations elsewhere had increased to the extent that he no longer felt capable of fulfilling his duties as a member of the board.”

As you know, Kraft’s Patriots won Super Bowl XLIX and has been in the midst of the Deflategate controversy which has been ongoing since January.

Viacom owns and operates several television networks including Comedy Central, MTV, Nick at Nite, Spike, TV Land and VH1.

Viacom does not have a relationship with the NFL, but its sister company, CBS Corporation through CBS and Showtime does. Sumner Redstone controls both CBS Corporation and Viacom.

Kraft had been a Viacom director since 2006. According to Multichannel News, Inside Edition anchor Deborah Norville still remains on the Viacom board.

While Kraft is no longer affiliated with Viacom, his team still maintains a relationship with CBS through local rights to preseason TV games on owned-and-operated WBZ-TV, full radio rights to 98.5 The Sports Hub and the CBS Scene restaurant which is located next to Gillette Stadium which is the Patriots home in Foxboro, MA.

[Los Angeles Times]