Josh Kraft should propose bringing back the Boston Patriots.
Not a joke, as Joe Biden would say.
The name change from the New England Patriots to the old Boston Patriots would shake things up. And it is worth a try since nothing else seems to be working in his campaign to unseat Boston Mayor Michele Wu.
It would jazz up his campaign and show his commitment to the city he loves and wants to run. Right now, he is being trounced in the polls.
It would also put distance between him and the New England Patriots, which is owned by his billionaire father Robert Kraft, the way he has put distance between himself and the senior Kraft’s connection to President Donald Trump.
It would show that Josh Kraft was his own man. And it would shift the conversation from bad bike lanes, the ongoing disaster at Mass and Cass and the cost overruns at White Stadium, all of which Wu has refuted. In the old days the Boston Patriots would have played at the stadium.
Besides, the Boston Patriots was the original name of the team when Billy Sullivan, on a shoestring, first formed the team in the new American Football League back in 1959.
The name celebrated Boston—not New England. Boston is the city where patriots rebelled against the English Crown and began the American Revolution.
We have the Boston Bruins, the Boston Red Sox, and the Boston Celtics, all, at one time or another, are championship teams. We are even going to have the Boston Legacy, the women’s professional soccer team. So why not the Boston Patriots?
If President Donald Trump can rename the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America, why can’t Josh Kraft get his father to rename the Patriots?
It would be sweeping campaign development that Josh Kraft’s political consultants would bill him big time for if they thought of it.
It would also be a proposal that Wu would have difficulty in attacking.
Naming the team the Boston Patriots back then was intended to resound throughout the professional football world, like the team names of the iconic Chicago Bears, the New York Giants, the Cleveland Browns, and other established teams.
Of course, it did not quite work out that way, not at first. The team back then did not even have a stadium but played its games at Harvard Stadium Fenway Park and Boston University’s Nickerson Field.
That was long before the AFL merged with the National Football League to bring about the huge, money-making sports operation that professional football is today.
The name change came in 1971 when the AFL merged with the National Football League and the Patriots moved to its new stadium in Foxborough, which is no reason why it can’ be changed again.
But Robert Kraft, the fourth owner of the team he took over in 1994, is now head of a franchise that is worth $7 billion, so he is not about to change anything.
But it is at least something to talk about in a campaign that is going nowhere.
Josh Kraft, who has the city at heart, would be a fine mayor.
But he is a political novice, dependent on political consultants. He parachuted in and is running against Wu, who, despite her collegiate look, is a seasoned pro who knows how to campaign and how to win. She is a tough campaigner and wiser than Kraft and his political consultants.
In 2013 Wu was elected as an at-large member of the city council and was re-elected three more times before being elected mayor four years ago.
If re-elected, as seems likely, it is doubtful Wu will seek a third term.
Had Kraft run for the city council instead of mayor and won, which is also likely, he would have been a favorite to succeed Wu.
But he had poor game plan. Now he’s one and done.
Go Pats.
_Veteran political reporter Peter Lucas can be reached at: peter.lucas@bostonherald.com_
Robert Kraft gives a thumbs up next to his son, Josh Kraft during an event in Boston. (Staff Photo By Matt Stone/Boston Herald, Boston Herald)
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu speaks during a press conference in Everett last week. (Nancy Lane/Boston Herald)