- Putin took Kraft’s Super Bowl ring when they met in 2005.
- To this day, Kraft has yet to see the ring as it is in the Kremlin library.
- DailyMail.com provides the latest international sports news.
It’s been 19 years since one of the Super Bowl championship rings owned by Robert Kraft was taken by Russian leader Vladimir Putin. Kraft has not forgotten.
During a live stream of The Roast of Tom Brady on Netflix, Kraft criticized the world leader.
“In case Vladimir Putin is watching, give me my damn ring back, will you?” Kraft said after toasting Brady.
As the story goes, back in 2005, Kraft met with the Russian president at an event in St. Petersburg.
“I took out the ring and showed it to him, and he put it on and said, ‘I can kill someone with this ring,'” Kraft recalled in 2013.
Robert Kraft asked Vladimir Putin to return a Super Bowl ring that the leader stole from him
In this image of Kraft shaking Putin’s hand, the leader holds the ring in his other hand.
Earlier that night, Tom Brady took offense to a joke Jeff Ross made about Kraft.
“I raised my hand and he put it in his pocket, and three KGB guys surrounded him and walked away.”
Kraft claims that a White House staffer told him not to publicly reveal that the ring had been taken against his will and that the official told him to say that he had given the prize to Putin as a gift.
So that’s what Kraft did at the time, but he has since emphasized his ’emotional attachment’ to the ring he won for helping lead the Patriots to a victory over the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl XXXIX.
Kremlin officials told reporters in 2013 that the ring was in the Kremlin library along with other foreign gifts.
Earlier that night, comedian Jeff Ross made a joke suggesting that Brady offered to give Kraft a massage when they met. That was in reference to when Kraft was accused of soliciting a prostitute in 2019. Those charges have since been dropped.
Former Patriots receiver Julian Edelman also made a joke at Kraft’s expense. He said, “I think the next time I see you all will be at Kraft’s funeral.”
When Kraft took the microphone later, he replied, “Julien, I’m not inviting you to my funeral.”