Robert Kraft, Mike Vrabel show support to NFL League Office after tragic shooting
"Real quick, before we get started. Just the cadence of this thing, I hadn't talked to you guys yesterday. I want to just send our thoughts and prayers to the League office," Vrabel said. "Been in that building, I've got a lot of friends in that building, and so I just want to make sure that on behalf of our football team, our players, our staff, everybody here, that they know that we're thinking about them."
Patriots owner Robert Kraft also took a moment to talk about this during an appearance on the Up & Adams Show with Kay Adams.
"We're all excited because the beginning of training camp and this week we started in pads, and I've been looking forward to this for months. And to have what we had happen in New York, it was so sad," Kraft said. "And when you look, there's (NYPD officer Didarul Islam), who came from Bangladesh. A good Muslim man who has two kids... His wife is pregnant, and he gets killed. It just creates a whole seriousness."
"We're trying to, with our Blue Square Foundation, push back on this and preach love," Kraft added, mentioning his "Stand Up Against Hate" campaign he began in 2019. "And of course, what the NFL represents, bringing communities together, people of all backgrounds rooting for their team. I know how people are excited about our team, and then we have this dampener because we have a man who's mentally ill come in with a rifle and do what he did and kill innocent people.
"We live in the greatest country in the world," Kraft concluded. "We got to stop that from happening."
On Monday, a gunman killed a New York City police officer and three other people before taking his own life, the Associated Press reported. The gunman was identified as 27-year-old Shane Tamura from Las Vegas, and it was determined he was targeting the NFL headquarters, but entered the wrong elevator. Specifically, a three-page note found in his wallet "suggested he had a grievance against the NFL over a claim that he suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy."
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