Robert Kraft drops an F-bomb by sending a message to Vladimir Putin

Robert Kraft hasn’t forgotten the time when Vladimir Putin pocketed his Super Bowl ring.

The New England Patriots president was a guest on Netflix’s Roast of Tom Brady over the weekend and joined in with the barbs being thrown. But before he finished, Kraft, 82, had a message for the Russian president, dropping an F-bomb in the process.

“Just in case, Vladimir Putin, you’re watching, give me back my (expletive) ring,” Kraft said.

The message was a reminder of an incident in 2005, when Kraft handed Putin his ring during a visit to St. Petersburg to show him. He didn’t get it back.

“I took out the ring and showed it to (Putin), and he put it on and he said, ‘I can kill someone with this ring,'” Kraft said, according to the New York Post in 2013. “I reached out and he put it in his pocket, and three KGB men walked around him and came out.

The ring, which represented the Patriots’ third championship in Super Bowl XXXIX, was put on display in the Kremlin library.

Details of the story remain murky, with Kraft initially saying he gave the ring as a gift before saying Putin pocketed it. But days later, a Patriots spokesperson walked back those comments, saying the story of Putin pocketing the ring was “a humorous, anecdotal story that Robert tells for laughs.”

Kraft reportedly wanted to try to get the ring back. That was until former President George W. Bush called him and said it would be better for the country if Kraft let Putin keep him as a gift.

In 2013, Putin responded to questions about the incident by saying he did not remember Kraft or taking the ring. The Russian president added that if the ring was so important, he “would order that a piece of jewelry made of precious metal and precious stones be made for Kraft,” the Associated Press reported.

It’s been 11 years since the story of the Kraft-Putin incident first broke. At the time, one could imagine how careful Kraft would have to be following an incident involving a world leader.

However, the situation regarding Russia has changed dramatically in the years since. Putin effectively became a political pariah after Russia launched a full-scale military invasion of Ukraine in 2022. In 2023, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Putin, charging him with war crimes .

Earlier this week, Putin was sworn in for his fifth term as president of Russia. The war in Ukraine continues.