National Football League

Kraft says Putin took Super Bowl ring

Published Jun. 15, 2013 1:00 a.m. ET

share

facebookxredditlink

foxsports

Wonder if this move is covered by the Patriot Act.

New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft unveiled international intrigue and perhaps a covert cover-up on Thursday when he claimed Russian President Vladimir Putin actually stole his 2005 Super Bowl ring.

According to the New York Post’s Page 6 column, during Thursday night’s Carnegie Hall Medal of Excellence gala at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York, Kraft contradicted his own previous take when he claimed that Putin took the ring.

Although he wanted it back, the White House got involved – and Putin kept it. Putin has since refuted this claim.

The article explains that Kraft said the incident involving the $25,000, diamond-encrusted ring took place in 2005 when several business executives were in St. Petersburg.

“I took out the ring and showed it to [Putin], and he put it on and he goes, ‘I can kill someone with this ring,’ ” Kraft reportedly said. “I put my hand out and he put it in his pocket, and three KGB guys got around him and walked out.”

Although he issued a statement at the time saying that he had given Putin the ring “as a symbol of the respect and admiration that I have for the Russian people and [his] leadership,” Kraft diverged from that on Thursday.

According to the Page 6 report, at the time he had an interaction with the George W. Bush-led White House over the incident.

He was told by the White House, “‘It would really be in the best interest of US-Soviet relations if you meant to give the ring as a present.”

“I really didn’t [want to]. I had an emotional tie to the ring, it has my name on it,” Kraft said. “I don’t want to see it on eBay. There was a pause on the other end of the line, and the voice repeated, ‘It would really be in the best interest if you meant to give the ring as a present.’ ”

The ring is now reportedly kept in the Kremlin library.

It’s a good thing Kraft did not hand Putin the Lombardi Trophy.
 

share

Get more from National Football League Follow your favorites to get information about games, news and more

in this topic

National Football League