“There’s no box that Bob Kraft doesn’t check to get into the Hall of Fame,” Bill Polian, former Colts GM and Hall of Famer, once lamented. Yet, here we are, with the Patriots‘ bigwig still knocking on Canton’s door. It’s like watching Tom Brady get sacked on every play – unexpected and downright painful.

The whispers in NFL corridors suggest the league’s bigwigs are out for Kraft’s “pound of flesh” before they’ll let him don that coveted gold jacket. And why? Well, it looks like the New England Patriots owner’s loose lips about Jerry Jones might have fumbled his Canton dreams – at least for now.

Tom E. Curran, on Pro Football Talk, hit the nail on the head: “The jumping-off point to me isn’t that, wow, Stacey James is really over the top in his effort to get Robert into the Hall of Fame. The jumping-off point for me is this: This is a guy who everyone acknowledges deserves to be in the Hall of Fame based on the precedent set by the owners who are in, yet he’s not in. What’s keeping him out?”

What indeed? A veteran Hall of Fame voter spilled the beans to ESPN, saying, “Some voters believe he was part of the biggest cheating scandal in NFL history. That’s a very tough one to overcome.” Ouch. Talk about holding a grudge. It seems Spygate’s stench lingers longer than week-old fish in the Foxborough locker room.

But Tom E. Curran has a theory. He feels it was the Patriots‘ ways that people disliked. “So in essence it comes down to the Patriots and the way they did things rubbed people the wrong way for a long time because they had it air about them that they were smarter than everybody else. That they invented a new way of playing football and approaching the game and this is the pound of flesh that’ll be taken, you know, ‘What? You want to get in so bad? Sorry. Wait. You can wait’.”

But let’s rewind a bit. Kraft’s journey to Canton has been longer than a Patriots dynasty. Since 2012, his supporters have been lobbying harder than politicians during election season. They have pitched, prodded, and practically performed interpretive dances to sway voters.

The Jerry Jones saga is a bitter pill for Kraft to swallow

Now, here’s where the plot thickens like clam chowder. In 2017, when Jerry Jones got his Hall nod, Kraft reportedly wasn’t throwing any confetti. Instead, he was steaming madder than Bill Belichick after a failed fourth-down conversion.

“He hasn’t been to the NFC title game in two decades and he gets in?” Kraft supposedly griped to a confidant as per ESPN. “How does that work?” It’s like watching your rival get the last slice of pizza – and you own the joint.

This salty outburst seemed to put Kraft’s Canton dreams on ice. As one Hall voter dished, “The minute he got in, it changed the landscape for some of these owners and made the lobbying even more aggressive. If Jerry’s in, the owners with egos are thinking, why can’t I be in?”

And boy, did Kraft’s crew go into overdrive. His PR chief, Stacey James, has been working the phones harder than a telemarketer on commission. He has even gone as far as sending voters a six-page dossier extolling Kraft’s virtues.

But here’s the kicker: Despite all the schmoozing, Kraft’s name hasn’t even passed the first round of voting. Not once. It’s like he’s stuck in the NFL’s version of purgatory, watching lesser lights get their moment in the sun. So, what did the billionaire team owner do? If you’re Robert Kraft, you greenlight a 10-part docuseries about your dynasty. Because nothing says ‘put me in the Hall of Fame’ like a multi-million dollar humble brag, right?

But even that backfired. The series, aptly titled ‘The Dynasty’, ended up painting Kraft in a less-than-flattering light. He even had to come out and say he was “a little disappointed” with how it turned out. Talk about fumbling at the one-yard line.

As we wait for the next chapter in this football soap opera, one thing’s clear: Robert Kraft’s path to Canton is more twisted than a New England defensive scheme. Will he finally break through? Or will he be left holding the ball like the Falcons in Super Bowl LI? Only time – and maybe a few more strategic ‘donations’ – will tell.