Through NFL.com, the team seemed to want this story to go away very quickly.
“It’s a humorous, anecdotal story that Robert re-tells for laughs. 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,” a team spokesman said. “In particular, he credits President Putin for modernizing the Russian economy.”
As Kraft told it more recently, 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, 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 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. No word yet as to whether Roger Goodell has fined Putin.
Article Appeared @http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nfl-shutdown-corner/robert-kraft-vladimir-putin-stole-super-bowl-ring-130732690.html