Kraft boasts to Patriots fans of beating Colts

The New England Patriots held their franchise Hall of Fame induction ceremony on Wednesday in Foxborough. And amid the ongoing DeflateGate saga, the Colts were brought up quite a bit.

According to MassLive's Kevin Dillon, team owner Robert Kraft reminisced about his favorite Willie McGinest moments (with the former Patriots linebacker being inducted), and games against Indianapolis were prominent among them:

Some of my favorite, most memorable McGinest moments came in regular season clashes against the Colts. In the 2004 season-opener, he preserved a three-point win in the final seconds with a 12-yard sack on Peyton Manning, turning a chip shot, game-tying field goal into 48-yard miss by Mike Vanderjagt. Arguably his most iconic moment came in a game at Indy in 2003, when he stopped Edgerrin James at the goal line in the last seconds. ... As a pass rusher, he had the speed to wreak havoc on a quarterback. Just ask our good friend Peyton Manning.

And Kraft didn't stop there:

During Willie's career, there was nothing more satisfying than settling the Colts with a loss — something the Patriots did 16 times in 21 attempts during Willie's 12 seasons with the Patriots.

Kraft wasn't the only one to mention the Colts. Patriots coach Bill Belichick did as well:

Of course, there was the Indianapolis game. We all know the story of that game — the goal line stand, the fourth-and-one, McGinest comes in there and makes the play ...We come into the locker room and I kind of talked to the team after the game and the last thing I told them was, 'Look fellas. It's the Colts. Great win, really enjoy this one but this is a good football team and we are probably going to see these guys again.' And in the back of the room there, I heard Willie say, 'Yeah, but the next time it will be in Foxborough.'

Not mentioned, however, was what occurred with just over a minute left in that 2003 regular season contest. McGinest went to the turf with an alleged injury that stopped play as the Colts' no-huddle offense was churning out yards and advancing down the field for a potential game-winning score. Later, on a 4th-and-1 from the Patriots' 2-yard line, McGinest tackled James with 11 seconds left.

Needless to say, the repeated references to the Colts in the Hall of Fame speeches didn't fly under the radar: