Robert Kraft reportedly wants to know why Jerry Jones is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame and he isn’t

At 83, New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft has six Super Bowls to his name and is waiting to have his name called by the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The wait hasn’t been a happy one, according to a story by ESPN’s Don Van Natta Jr.

For the past decade or so, Kraft’s camp, led by Patriots PR chief Stacey James, has pushed to have Kraft anchored in Canton, Ohio, with little success. The 12-person subcommittee that makes the final vote has not even forwarded his name to the full 50 selectors.

The wait reportedly left Kraft so frustrated that he had some pointed words to say about Dallas Cowboys’ Jerry Jones’ inclusion:

Kraft’s candidacy for the Hall of Fame has several advantages.

Sure, there are his six Super Bowl rings, won over two decades as the NFL’s best team. Tom Brady and Bill Belichick understandably get more credit for that, but it’s been an incredible run for a team that nearly moved before Kraft bought the team in 1994. Kraft has also long been one of the NFL’s most influential owners, helping to negotiate an end to the 2011 lockout and chairing the owners’ media committee that recently negotiated a $110 billion television rights deal.

On the other hand, there are the scandals. Kraft’s tenure as team owner has seen the Spygate scandal, the Deflategate scandal, and his own scandal involving a certain massage parlor in Florida. None of these have helped Kraft’s image, but it’s apparently Spygate that bothers voters the most:

As for Jones, there were certainly critics of the decision to hire him in 2016 (apparently this was when several owners, not just Kraft, wondered why they couldn’t reach Canton). Since Jones bought the team in 1989, it has won three Super Bowls, but Jones has also made some confusing decisions. “America’s Team” hasn’t reached the Super Bowl, or even the NFC championship game, since 1995.

As one voter explained to Kraft, it was Jones’ role as a marketer that propelled him to the top:

Since 2000, only five owners have signed: Jones, Dan Rooney of the Pittsburgh Steelers, Ralph Wilson of the Buffalo Bills, Eddie DeBartolo of the San Francisco 49ers and Pat Bowlen of the Denver Broncos.

The good news for Kraft is that a major change in voting could help his cause. For years, the Hall has voted on a coach/contributor class, which pits owners against coaches, league executives and, in 2022, an umpire.

That will reportedly change this year, with coaches and contributors being divided into different categories. Kraft will have less competition, but the question is whether he can overcome other headwinds.