Kraft: Gronk trade veto ‘hogwash’

Patriots owner Robert Kraft yesterday denied a report that he put the kibosh on a trade involving Rob Gronkowski.

Kraft, who was at Gillette Stadium for the annual Myra Kraft Community MVP awards celebrating volunteerism, wasn’t asked a question. Unprompted, he addressed the issue with reporters.

“When your team is good, people are looking for things. I’ll just tell you it’s a bunch of hogwash that I vetoed some trade,” Kraft said with respect to an alleged Gronkowski trade proposal. “That was never in the works. It’s just completely made up and I think we have to be careful in society, people just can’t come out and say things. This bit about us trading Gronk to the 49ers or Tennessee, there’s no basis to it and it gets a life of its own. I just want to go on record to make sure you all understand there’s no truth to that.”

The Kraft family and the New England Patriots Foundation honored 26 winners with MVP awards during a special luncheon. Given he addressed it right away after the event, it seemed important for Kraft to clear the air on the issue.

Kraft also said the rest of the organized team activities, which were scheduled for tomorrow and Friday, were canceled by Patriots coach Bill Belichick. The team is now off and won’t get together again until training camp in July.

Kraft didn’t seem bothered by the turmoil that’s been reported. He told reporters that he likes his team and the prospects for this season, no matter what people are saying about it.

“The new young players we have here, the free agents, I’m really excited about this team,” Kraft said. “We’re going to have a lot of fun this year. I understand sometimes people in the media have to work things up a little bit. But I’m just going to tell you, I and my family are very excited about the upcoming season.”