Patriots owner Robert Kraft met with reporters Wednesday afternoon and of course was asked about his team's newest player, Tim Tebow.
"If you want to win in this league, you need quality depth management," said Kraft. "In the age of the salary cap, whenever you can get a competitive, first-grade person to join your team, you never know what happens.
"But for me personally, having Tim Tebow on this team, he’s someone who believes in spirituality, he’s very competitive and works hard and has a great attitude and he’s a winner.
"Having him as part of our franchise is great but he has to compete just like anyone else. We’re blessed to have a lot of people like that, but the fact that spirituality is so important to him is very appealing to me."
Kraft added that Tebow handles himself in a first-class way and that he's never heard anyone say something about the quarterback that isn't positive.
Speaking after the annual Myra Kraft Community MVP Awards celebration, Kraft tired of all of the Tebow questions, redirecting one about the media frenzy by saying how excited he is to have football back and how excited he is about the team New England is building.
Later, when asked how the Tebow signing came about, Kraft said Tebow is "just one of 90 people right now" and wondered if they hadn't talked about the player enough.
He did stick by his belief -- first voiced in 2009, when Michael Vick was released from prison and was a free agent -- that he sees no reason for Tom Brady to come off the field for an athletic-type quarterback to take a couple of snaps.
"In my mind, we have the greatest quarterback of all-time on our team and every time he has the ball in his hands, we have a chance to do something great. Nothing has changed in that regard for me," Kraft said.
The Patriots owner saw Tebow play a few times when he was at Florida, and his team has faced Tebow a handful of times since Tebow was drafted in 2010, so he has seen him on-field a fair amount.
"I think he’s hard-working and very cooperative," said Kraft. "I don’t think there’s any coach who wouldn’t like to have a team full of people like he is. Like [Tom] Brady, he comes out there and works hard, or Vince Wilfork, Jerod Mayo.
"They come in, they work hard, they prepare hard and they’re all business. You can’t get enough people like that on your team. We’re honored that he’s with us."
On Tuesday, Bill Belichick said signing Tebow was a team decision, and that it included Kraft's input.
"He spoke to me about it," said Kraft. "Look, life is about collecting good people around you who you like to have with you and who want to win. I think he, like many of our other players, fall in that category. You can’t have enough good people around you. He has the added dimension of spirituality being so important to him and that personally appeals to me a lot."
