Putin stole his superbowl ring

[uk.eurosport.yahoo.com]




mage - Robert Kraft shakes hands with Vladimir Putin (AFP)
The Super Bowl ring is one of the greatest symbols of athletic triumph.

NFL players have been known to break down when they can finally fit that particular bit of jewelry on their fingers, and I've met enough former players, coaches, and executives who would never be separated from their rings to know that the buzz lasts forever.

New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft has three such rings from his team's wins in 2001, 2003 and 2004.

The ring Kraft won for that last Super Bowl, at the end of the 2004 season, went missing in a very unusual way.

As the story goes, Kraft met Russian President Vladimir Putin at a gathering of business and political leaders at Konstantinovsky Palace near St Petersburg, Russia, in June of 2005. Kraft and Putin talked a while, Kraft took off his ring to show it to Putin, and Putin promptly put the ring in his pocket and walked off.

"I showed the president my most recent Super Bowl ring," Kraft said in a subsequent statement. Putin "was clearly taken with its uniqueness."

"At that point, I decided to give him the ring as a symbol of the respect and admiration that I have for the Russian people and the leadership of President Putin."

But as Kraft said recently, per the New York Post, that's not what really happened.

"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 said during the Carnegie Hall's Medal of Excellence gala in New York City. "I put my hand out, and he put it in his pocket, and three KGB guys got around him and walked out."

Were it not for the intervention of the White House, this could have gotten ugly. Kraft wanted his ring back, obviously not intimidated by Putin's alleged ability to kill somebody with it. The ring came in at 4.94 carats and was worth over $25,000 (£16,000), and Kraft was not amused. He said that he got a call from the George W. Bush-led White House, telling him that it would really be in the best interests of relations between the two countries if Kraft would change the story and say the ring was a gift.

Kraft, though, was unmoved.

“I really didn’t [want to]. I had an emotional tie to the ring, it has my name on it. 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.’”

According to the Post, the ring is now kept in the Kremlin library - presumably in the "Ill-Gotten Booty" section.

Russian President Vladimir Putin says he did not swipe New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft’s Super Bowl ring, but Putin's spokesman said the Russian leader will reimburse him with another ring.

Kraft said at the Carnegie Hall's Medal of Excellence gala in New York on Thursday that Putin took the 124-diamond ring -- valued at $25,000 -- during a 2005 meeting 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 said, according to the New York Post. “I put my hand out and he put it in his pocket, and three KGB guys got around him and walked out.”

Kraft's new version of the story differs from the one he gave eight years ago when he claimed he handed the ring over as a gift.

Kraft said at the time he hadn’t meant to give the ring away, but said the White House urged him to treat it as a gift in the interest of international diplomacy, according to the New York Post.

But when he resurrected his objections, starting a new firestorm, Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said his boss will make things right.

"At the same time, I am aware that this gentleman (Kraft) is feeling such a horrible pain about the 2005 loss," Peskov said in London on Sunday, where Putin met with British Prime Minister David Cameron. "The president will be ready to send him another ring as a gift, which he (Putin) can buy with his own money."

Peskov reiterated Sunday that Kraft gave the ring willingly and witnessed the presentation with his own eyes. He dismissed Kraft’s story as “weird.”

"Back in 2005, I stood behind the president's back and I saw how that ring was presented to him,” Peskov told The Associated Press. “All that talk about some kind of pressure that was exerted on him (Kraft) should be the subject of a detailed talk with psychoanalysts, I think."


The Super Bowl ring is now on display in the Kremlin library along with other gifts to Putin, according to Peskov.

Stacey James, a spokesperson for the Kraft Group, the holding company for Kraft's business ventures, including the Patriots, said Sunday that the Post article shouldn't be taken too seriously.

"It's a humorous, anecdotal story that Robert retells for laughs," James said in a statement. "He loves that his ring is at the Kremlin, and, as he stated back in 2005, he continues to have great respect for Russia and the leadership of President Putin. In particular, he credits President Putin for modernizing the Russian economy."

Kraft can take some consolation because he has two other Super Bowl rings given to him for his team's other NFL championships.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.


Read more: [www.foxnews.com]

I'm 'Dubious' to say the least...

These guys lose, sell and gamble away their rings more than any other Professional Athelete.. Probably traded it for 3/4 of a Million Rubles and thought it was a Great deal... <sigh..>

Hey Peace...he's the OWNER of the Pats...don't think he needed rubles...and Putin is gangter man! Obama better watch it today, lol.

...and why are we discussing this here... because metal detectors find rings???

Yea, would be neat to find a Superbowl ring. I'm going out now for one,....Wait, I'd better do my homework to know who owns them and the beaches they swim at, hmmm,, now, what detector to use..... LOL

deathray Wrote:
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> Hey Peace...he's the OWNER of the Pats...don't
> think he needed rubles...and Putin is gangter man!
> Obama better watch it today, lol.


LOL... Ok, that could be the case then... Maybe Putin lost a bundle on a game and decided to collect by taking the ring!

My favorite part is"I can kill a man with this", haha

deathray Wrote:
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> My favorite part is"I can kill a man with this",
> haha


If is figure of speach. Putin meant the ring so heavy, it is possible to kill a men with it (kind of idiom in Russian).

Yeah, that's how I understoid it. Had a buddy back in Georgia who wore his high school ring on his middle finger to cause damage.