With the news of Russian invading Ukraine, at the direction of Russian President Vladimir Putin, I was reminded of one of the wildest stories I’ve ever heard in my entire life.
One that was pretty well-publicized at the time, but also sort of vague in regards to what really happened.
It involved Putin, New England Patriots owner and American businessman Robert Kraft, and how Putin stole his Super Bowl ring… and kept it.
The full story has been revealed in Jeff Benedict’s book, “The Dynasty,” according to Boston.com.
The story goes a little something like this…
Robert Kraft, Citigroup President (at the time) Sandy Weill, media executive Rupert Murdoch, along with a number of American big business executives, met with Putin in 2005 in an effort to “stimulate commerce between the United States and Russia.”
During a press conference at Konstantinovsky Palace near St. Petersburg, Weil allegedly suggested that Kraft should show Putin his Super Bowl XXXIX ring. The Patriots had won back-to-back Super Bowls in 2003 and 2004.
Putin was drooling over the behemoth rign, and said to Kraft:
“I could kill someone with this ring.”
Ummm, come aain?
Kraft, kissing his ass, said:
“You could kill someone without it. You were the head of the KGB.”
Good one Bob…
But when Kraft then stuck his hand out to get it back, but Putin stuffed it in his pocket and walked away. The dude straight up said he could kill someone with it and the TOOK it.
Needless to say, Robert Kraft wanted his Super Bowl ring back. Not because of the value, (him and Putin obviously both have the money to buy a more expensive ring), but because it’s a damn Super Bowl ring (he didn’t realize at the time that he was going to win three more).
But here’s where it gets even more hilarious.
Kraft started going around telling everybody and their mother that Putin stole his Super Bowl ring. Naturally, the United States government didn’t like a story about someone stealing from the mad dictator of Russia going around… not exactly good for US/Russian relations.
The Bush administration called up Kraft and basically told him to suck it up:
“The specter of Russia’s president stealing jewelry from the owner of America’s highest-profile sports team was detrimental to the already shaky diplomatic relations between the two superpowers.
Kraft wasn’t happy. After hanging up, he begrudgingly decided that under the circumstances he would honor the Bush administration’s request. Myra supported his decision.”
Kraft then released a statement essentially saying that he willfully gave Putin the ring as a gift (except he definitely didn’t).
But then in 2013, Kraft contradicted his story while speaking at the Carnegie Hall’s Medal of Excellence gala:
“I took out the ring and showed it to (Putin), and he put it on. I put my hand out and he put it in his pocket, and three KGB guys got around him and walked out.
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.”
And then in 2017, Kraft was still going on about the ring and even offered to get Putin a new one with his own name on it if he could have his original back.
“I was willing to have one made with his name on it. Maybe we’ll have the new president bring it to him when he connects with him.”
Something tells me he isn’t getting it back… and with Tom gone, I’m not sure they’ll be getting some new rings in anytime soon.
Just an absolutely wild story through and through… crazy to see a billionaire like Kraft get intimidated by Putin, crazy to see the United States government get involved, crazy that Putin is still walking around with a New England Patriots ring… what a fucking crazy world we live in.
