Sports

Patriots owner Kraft says team was ‘duped’ by murder suspect Hernandez

Robert Kraft hasn’t made many mistakes as owner of the Patriots. But he says drafting tight end and murder suspect Aaron Hernandez was one of them.

“No one in our organization was aware of any of these kind of connections,” Kraft told the Boston Globe yesterday at Gillette Stadium. “If it’s true, I’m just shocked. Our whole organization has been duped.”

Kraft was on vacation in Europe and returned on Saturday, and commented for the first time regarding the charges against Hernandez for the murder of Odin Lloyd. Though he would not get into specifics due to the fact the investigation is ongoing, Kraft made it clear the Patriots never knew how bad Hernandez’s off-the-field problems were.

In 2010, Hernandez, who had some off-the-field issues as a collegian at Florida, admitted to the Patriots he used drugs but said if they drafted him, he would submit to drug tests. That was enough for Kraft to give him a chance.

“Here’s a guy writing a letter, taking responsibility,” Kraft said. “The only thing I ever heard on Aaron Hernandez was he was very young, immature and potentially had problems presented in this letter. Never saw signs of anything else.”

Hernandez donated $50,000 to Kraft’s foundation, the Myra Kraft Giving Back Fund — established in memory of the owner’s late wife — after signing a five-year, $40 million contract in 2012.

“He wanted to be a role model for the Hispanic community,” Kraft said. “He said that when he signed his contract. He said, ‘You gave me a second chance,’ and I believed him.”

Kraft went on to say Hernandez did everything the Patriots asked during practices and games. Kraft said Patriots brass agreed they would cut Hernandez from the roster if he were arrested for having any involvement in Lloyd’s murder.

“If any member of the New England Patriots organization is close enough to a murder investigation to actually get arrested — whether it be for obstruction of justice or the crime itself — it is too close to an unthinkable act for that person to be part of this organization going forward,” Kraft told the Globe.

Video game company EA Sports decided to remove Hernandez from its “Madden NFL 25” and “NCAA Football 14,” according to a report published yesterday.