It’s not often you see full front page apologies like the one that appeared in the Boston Herald over the New England Patriots spygate scandal.

Despite the false allegations that came the day before this year’s Super Bowl, the Patriots have a ton of work to do to get back their brand mojo following a year of tremendous highs and lows. The Pats were certainly owed an apology after the Herald could not substantiate accusations that the team had taped the walkthrough of the St. Louis Rams the day before Super Bowl XXXVI.

Even so, the Pats had been caught illegally taping other teams and were rightly slapped with a major penalty by the NFL. People within the organization dealt the brand a major setback, but there is optimism that spygate may be finally coming to a conclusion.

The Kraft family, which owns the Pats and the Revolution, have been a great asset to the New England region for years and if there is one thing owner Robert Kraft knows is that having a respected brand is priceless. “I must compliment the Boston Herald for doing what is unprecedented in terms of recognizing their error in a major way … (we) had our brand damaged,” Kraft said.

The Kraft family should look start to look at ways to rebuild its brand by connecting with the media and its fans in new ways and reaching beyond traditional marketing and communications to communicate how and why the organization has changed for the better.

Mike Spataro