BLOOMINGTON, Minnesota – Robert Kraft's face crinkled, his chin rose and he rocked back defiantly when asked about "dysfunction" in the Patriots organization during a recent interview with veteran journalist Andrea Kremer.
"No, no," Kraft said dismissively. "There's no dysfunction. There's tension. And I think a certain amount of tension helps make great things happen."
The reply was a telling one. Near the end of the season, I wrote a story about the whiff of uncertainty wafting through the organization and the various tensions that were on simmer.
A week later, ESPN released a piece raising the stakes.