Arthur Blank Was 'Pissed Off' About 283 Diamonds On Patriots' Super Bowl LI Rings
By Matthew Geagan, CBS Boston
BOSTON (CBS) -- After staging their dramatic comeback over the Atlanta Falcons in Super Bowl LI last year, Patriots owner Robert Kraft wanted to give his players something special to remember that historic victory.
So to commemorate the team's epic rally from a 28-3 deficit, the Patriots put 283 diamonds in their Super Bowl championship rings. And why not? It's kind of hard for a guy who's had give out four previous celebratory rings to come up with new ideas to make them unique.
His players certainly loved their new bling, but it appears Falcons owner Arthur Blank was not too happy with this decision. In fact, it pissed him off quite a bit, and he made sure he let Kraft know it when the two met up for dinner in New York prior to the 2017 NFL season, according to the New York Times.
But the ring stunt bothered him. He found it unnecessary and tacky. "I said to Robert, 'You didn't have to do the 28-3 in the ring,'" he told me recently. "It kind of pissed me off."
Blank has been pretty gracious since his team's collapse, so it's kind of odd that he would be so upset over New England's championship jewelry. He's just lucky Kraft didn't put a picture of Blank and his wife staring incredulously on the sideline just before James White scored the game-winning touchdown.
Now that would have been tacky.
