Area biz chief: Kraft's 'the most honest person'

Robert Kraft (Courtesy photo)

FARMINGTON, N.H. - On the eve of the Super Bowl, a prominent local businessman who has done more than a million dollars' worth of work for New England Patriots' owner Bob Kraft called the Patriots owner one of the most honest men he knows and said that if Kraft came out on the offensive when he arrived in Phoenix, Ariz., it was for good reason.

"He wouldn't have come out demanding an apology from the NFL if he didn't know the team would be exonerated," said Fred Cameron, owner of Cameron's Home and Garden Center of Farmington, N.H.

The NFL has opened an investigation into the possible intentional deflation of 11 of 12 footballs used by the Patriots in their AFC Championship against the Indianapolis Colts two weeks ago, known as Deflate-gate.

Kraft, upon his arrival in Phoenix a week ago, held a news conference in which he categorically denied any involvement by Patriots Coach Bill Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady.

Since the beginning of the probe, the Patriots have been characterized as guilty by a bullying, mob-like media horde, fueling anti-Patriots sentiment nationwide, a fact Cameron finds unfortunate.

Cameron first met Kraft before he bought the Patriots, when Kraft was a co-owner of the former home of the Patriots, Sullivan Stadium. After doing some work with him then, Cameron was asked back to bid on landscaping work on a new stadium after Kraft bought the team in 1974 for a record $174 million.

"We won the bid and redesigned most of the project with OKs from architects," Cameron said on Saturday. "We saved Bob Kraft $160,000 going into the project."

Cameron's sons, Scott, who headed the project; and Steven spent many months in Foxborough completing the job, which included helping to beautify where a river was actually moved to accommodate a rail line that entailed planting 6,000 plants along the tracks.

In fact, Cameron's Home and Garden landscaped everything at the now Gillette Stadium except the ballfield, itself, which required specialized NFL training Cameron decided against doing since such work isn't a major factor in his business's portfolio.

"My sons spent 39 weeks down there working," Cameron said. "We landscaped 960 trees, over 3,000 shrubs, 800 yards of bark mulch, seven acres of sod and 14 acres of seeding. It was a great project.

Cameron said he and his staff, and Kraft and his people got along so famously that the last $200,000 of a $1.2 million dollar project was done without a contract.

Most every year since then, Cameron's has returned to Gillette for ongoing improvement projects.

And while Cameron has only met the man twice - when he negotiated his first contract, and at its conclusion - it was enough to convince Cameron his veracity could never be questioned.

"Bob Kraft was the most honest person we have ever worked for," he said. "I can't see him knowingly lie about anything, including this deflation crap."

Cameron, admittedly no ball inflation expert, believes the balls were in a heated area - plus 75 degrees - and deflated when they hit the cool, damp New England air.

"When you get them out in the cold they deflate," he said.

Cameron is a season ticket holder at Gillette, where he sits just behind the team but under an overhang so he doesn't rained or snowed on.

He also has something else most don't have: two Patriots hats signed personally by Bob Kraft.

He also has one final thing pretty much everyone has: a prediction for tonight's game.

"27-24, Patriots," he said.