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Patriots owner Robert Kraft comes up with the perfect gift for Trump: A Super Bowl LI ring

President Trump ended up with more than just a helmet and a jersey when the Patriots came to visit. (Andrew Harnik/Associated Press)

The New England Patriots and President Trump have long had a special relationship, so it was no surprise that the team brought along a little somethin’ extra nice when the team celebrated its Super Bowl LI victory with a White House visit in April.

Oh, there was the obligatory helmet and personalized jersey that every president gets, yawn, but, because this president has long been a bud to owner Robert Kraft (as well as to Coach Bill Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady), he got a personalized Super Bowl ring. Along with the 283 diamonds — a nod to the deficit the Patriots faced in Super Bowl LI — the ring is engraved with the president’s name.

Anthony “The Mooch” Scaramucci actually broke that news, sending a direct message on Twitter to user @rslashpatriots, the Boston Herald reported, and Stacey James, the team’s vice president of media relations, confirmed it, noting that Trump put his own stamp on the first trip by a championship team to the White House in his administration. And, because of Kraft’s long friendship with Trump, James said, the president gave the team tours of parts of the mansion that the team’s previous winners did not visit.

But the ring . . . ooh, that ring.

Now perhaps Kraft can get his friend to do him a little favor in return. Kraft’s Super Bowl XXXIX ring ended up on the finger of Vladimir Putin, either as a gift as the Kremlin says, or by heist when the Russian leader tried it on and never removed it in 2005. It’s worth $25,000 and has 124 diamonds, but it’s the symbolism that counts. The team earned that ring with its repeat championship and third in four years.

“I do have an emotional attachment to that ring,” Kraft told Fox Sports before Super Bowl LI.

Maybe he’ll get it back now.

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