BOSTON — In a Dedham courtroom Tuesday, lawyers for Robert Kraft will argue that the owner of the New England Patriots and Gillette Stadium is not liable for the deaths of two young women killed in a drunk driving accident in 2008. Both the driver and a passenger had spent the day drinking at a tailgate party during a country music festival at the stadium. Both were underage. Kraft’s attorney will compare him to a teenage girl in an unrelated case, who threw a party while her parents were away. In that case, the high court ruled the parents were not liable because they did not supply the alcohol.

By 2008, the country music festival at Foxborough was gaining a reputation among law enforcement agents as one of the biggest underage binge drinking tailgate parties in New England. The kid drinkers were as conspicuous as their red Solo cups, the drinking games of Beirut or beer pong, the free-for-all — and the mayhem. Houlihan says the three young women drank with their friends for hours, moving between Parking Lots 11 and 13. Within a couple of hours, she says, she was inebriated, and so was the crowd. It was out of control. Witnesses describe people dancing atop buses. She says guys were brawling, guys and girls were fighting, and they were urinating and vomiting in public. “It was like a zoo,” Houlihan said. “It was crazy. It was just like a party going out of control.”But, she says, no one checked their IDs. No one stopped their games of beer pong or drinking jello shots.
So who was to blame? Kraft and his family businesses did not supply alcohol to any of them. The young women brought it with them, they drank it on Kraft property, and chose to drive off while intoxicated.

Both Houlihan and Davis’ parents are suing the Kraft companies, claiming negligence, gross negligence and willful and wanton behavior. Their attorney, Joseph Borsellino, argues that Kraft and his companies are just as liable as if Kraft had sold the three women alcohol. “Supplying alcohol, furnishing, means to allow underage drinking to occur, whether you actually hand the alcohol to the party or sell it to them or not,” Borsellino said. “If you are allowing them to underage drink on your property and you’re not doing enough to prevent, you are now furnishing them alcohol.”

First things first. Obviously it’s a tragedy what happened. There is no denying that. There is also no denying that Countryfest is one giant underage drinking party. Everybody who lives in New England knows that. Bob Kraft knows that. My 97 year old grandmother knows that. The parents of the kids who go must know that. Everybody tailgates. Everybody gets shitfaced all day long. Tons of drunk driving. Tons of mayhem. That’s country fest. But that doesn’t mean the families of the girls who got killed have any right to sue anybody. At some point you have to take responsibility for your own actions. This day of drinking and partying was all premeditated by these girls and everybody who goes to Countryfest . They all made the decision to attend. They all made the decision to drink. They bought the alcohol beforehand. They drove. They got shitfaced. The drove home drunk and risked their lives and the lives of others as well. I just fundamentally have a problem with any lawsuit that essentially says you made it too easy for me to break the law. You should have known I can’t make intelligent decisions for myself. You should have known I’d drink to excess and then drive. Nope. I can’t accept that. There is nobody to blame but the girls themselves. That’s the hard truth. The parents are more to blame than the Krafts for letting their kids attend or not teaching them enough about drinking and driving. You can’t pass the buck here. You just can’t.

Bottomline is that underage kids will always find a way to drink. They do it at concerts, sporting events, in their dorms, in the woods etc. Trying to stop a single event like Countryfest is idiotic. That’s not the issue. That’s not going to stop underage drinking. They’ll just go to Identify Festival instead where 2 people died this year. Or they’ll go to Jason Aldean at Fenway.  Pointing the finger at other people isn’t going to stop it or solve it. The only thing that you can do is educate your kids to make responsible decisions. Get a designated driver. Get dropped off and picked up. Take a party bus. But to say it’s Robert Kraft’s fault for not catching their daughters drinking illegally is insane.

As a sidenote this story just exposes just how hypocritical all the Blackout Tour bullshit is. Again nobody would argue that events like Countryfest and Live Nation’s Identity Festival are way more chaotic, dangerous and out of control than our Blackout parties. These are daylong festivals as opposed to ours which is a 3 hour show with no tailgating. Yet year after year these festivals are allowed to continue relatively unchecked. Meanwhile I can’t even cross the street without the ABCC hassling the shit out of me. Like if there is one fight or one arrest it’s front page news with us and we get the boot. Meanwhile kids literally die consistently at events held at Gillette and you don’t hear a peep. I just don’t get how people can be so concerned with us yet turn the other cheek with events like these.  Like do you think there will be more underage drinking at Jason Aldean which the city approved or our events? It almost makes me think if you grease enough pockets all your problems will go away, but that’s just me thinking out loud.