New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft didn't miss the chance to roast the New York Jets when given the opportunity recently.
Speaking at Boston's branding event for the 2026 World Cup last week, Kraft spoke about the comradery the prestigious soccer tournament brings around the world. He compared that feeling to the feeling of when the Patriots beat a certain rival of theirs.
“The world we’re living in now, we need the World Cup more than ever, because seeing all of the communities from different parts of the world gather together and celebrate and really be excited in a way— that I guess only when the Patriots are kicking butt on the Jets, that’s the same feeling.” Kraft said.
The Patriots and Jets have been division rivals ever since both teams entered the league in 1960, but the rivalry really only heated up after Kraft became the owner of the Patriots in 1994. Just a few years later, the Jets poached head coach Bill Parcells from New England in the wake of their Super Bowl XXXI loss to the Green Bay Packers as there's been some speculation that Parcells had already decided he was coaching the Jets prior to that game.
Kraft decided to poach from the Jets a few years later in 2000, nabbing Bill Belichick, who was the head coach of the Jets for a day because Parcells announced his retirement. Belichick was still under contract with the Jets when he resigned from his brief post as head coach of the team and after a legal dispute, the Patriots gave the Jets a first-round pick.
Obviously, that move paid off for the Patriots as they've won six Super Bowls since then. But there were some heated moments with the Jets afterward. The Jets hired Patriots assistant Eric Mangini to be their head coach in 2006. A year later, Mangini and the Jets alleged that the Patriots were illegally taping their signals during a game, which caused the Patriots to lose a first-round pick while Belichick was fined $500,000.
The rivalry heated up even more in 2009, when the New York Jets hired Rex Ryan to become their head coach. Ryan set the tone for the rivalry, saying he wasn't going to kiss the Patriots' rings. The teams split their four regular-season battles over the first two seasons before the Jets upset the Patriots in playoffs in 2010.
But ever since then, New England has had the Jets' number. New England hasn't lost to New York since 2015, winning 14 straight matchups against its division rival.
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