Colin Cowherd blames non-existent Patriots’ figure ‘Stephen Kraft’ for Bill Belichick’s power

Fox Sports host Colin Cowherd made quite the slipup on his national television and radio show The Herd Friday. As part of a discussion of New England Patriots’ coach Bill Belichick being out there, Cowherd went off on not just Belichick and his supposed refusal to adapt. He also tossed in blame for the Patriots’ owners, the Kraft family, for allowing Belichick to not just be the team’s head coach, but also run their personnel side. But Cowherd specifically cited “Robert and Stephen Kraft” there, and there is no “Stephen Kraft” with the Patriots:

As part of a monologue on Bill Belichick, Colin Cowherd said "But the Kraft family, Robert and Stephen, deserves some blame too." There is no "Stephen Kraft" with the Patriots, Colin. (H/T @BackAftaThis: https://t.co/gdXTftifse pic.twitter.com/LCpA3xG7VG

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) January 12, 2024

“Last year’s draft, symbolized the issues. Slowest offense in the league, drafted three interior o-lineman and two  kickers. They are now embarrassingly slow. No Pro Bowlers, offensively tone-deaf, out of touch, and inept. But the Kraft family, Robert and Stephen, deserves some blame too. They gave Kraft too much power.”

“I’ve seen athletic directors do it to coaches. Being a NFL head coach is a 24/7 job. Being a NFL GM, similarly, an exhausting, relentless occupation. Bill basically was both. You can’t do both well. Bill’s drafting unraveled his coaching. And for anybody in any field, it really comes down to this: stay current.”

Look, some of Cowherd’s point there is probably reasonable. Overseeing both coaching and personnel in a detailed way is incredibly difficult, and many have been unable to balance the demands of both roles. And the “stay current” advice is good advice. But Cowherd thoroughly undermined both his point and his advice by getting a name wrong here. (And he then further muddled the waters with “They gave Kraft too much power,” seemingly meaning Belichick there.)

Mistakes happen, and that’s a somewhat-understandable slip. Robert Kraft does have his son Jonathan, president of the Kraft Group, involved in Patriots’ ownership. And Cowherd seems to have mixed up Jonathan’s name with Stephen Jones, Dallas Cowboys’ owner and GM Jerry’s son who’s that team’s CEO and director of player personnel.

It’s possible to see how Cowherd got there. But he certainly did undermine his point with this error. Especially with that coming in a prepared monologue. But this does tie back to his point to his audience on past errors that “You have never punished me for being wrong. You punish me when I am uninteresting and when I choose topics that you don’t give a rip about.” So this was another case of him being potentially interesting, but definitely not correct.

[Funhouse on Twitter]