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Super Bowl LI: The day Putin ‘borrowed’ a Super Bowl ring - permanently

Andrew Webster

Super Bowl? That's the thing before and after the Lady Gaga concert, isn't it? Indeed, as I wander through the hordes of Texans at the NFL live site here in downtown Houston, four days out from the showdown between the New England Patriots and Atlanta Falcons, it's easy to forget there's a game of football on the line.

Gaga is the half-time entertainment, having been elevated from belting out the national anthem before Peyton Manning's Denver Broncos silenced Cam Newton and his Carolina Panthers in San Francisco last year to headlining the half-time show.

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Plays of the Week

Big alley-oops, tennis fairytales and some epic finishes slide in for this week's biggest plays from the sporting world.

But for real star power you need not go past the Patriots, who don't have connections with the pointy end of town so much as the pointy end of the world.

Star quarterback Tom Brady and coach Bill Belichick have been ducking and weaving questions about their relationship with US President Donald Trump (surprisingly, nobody else in Houston seems as preoccupied with him as Australia seems to be), but Trump seemingly wants the world to know they're all very tight.

The President told the New York Times that he advised Brady to sue the NFL  over the Deflategate ball tampering scandal.

"I said, 'Tom.' – I gave him a lawyer – I said: 'Here's what you do," Trump said. "Sue the NFL for $500 million tomorrow. Sue 'em up in Boston, for everything. They'll come to the table'."

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Brady didn't and in the eventual wash-up missed the first four matches of this season.

No sitting president has ever attended the Super Bowl, and Trump has said via his aides that he will not be breaking with tradition. But we wonder if he might consider stepping in for Patriots team owner and good friend Robert Kraft, who once had his 124-diamond ring from Super Bowl XXXIX "borrowed" by Russian president Vladimir Putin.

In 2005, on a business trip to Russia, Kraft met with Putin.

"[The Super Bowl rings] are all in a drawer except for my third one," Kraft recently told NFL Media. "The original is in Russia with the president of the country. I happened to be there on a business mission with my friend Sandy Weill. We had just given out our rings. I showed Sandy my ring, and he said, 'Why don't you show it to the president?' And I showed it to him and he put it on, and he sort of just enjoyed it, so he kept it on."

Kraft has also said President Bush's administration suggested he tell people it was a gift to Putin and Russia in "the best interest of US-Soviet relations".

God bless America. And Americans. Even when they're sitting in the dark they can keep talking and talking and talking — especially about football.

Illuminating coverage playing big part in Aussie love affair with NFL

ESPN's head of global production Rodolfo Martinez recalls the night when the lights went out in the third quarter of the Super Bowl in 2013 at the 73,000-seat Superdome in New Orleans.

The game between the Baltimore Ravens and San Francisco 49ers was halted for 34 minutes because of a power outage.

"We kept broadcasting but we were showing hosts in the dark — they kept on talking," Martinez laughs. "You could see a little light here and there but that was it. Not a lot of people knew what was going on. You usually have a back-up for the back-up for the back-up, so that's rare. But we manage to fill hours and hours of air-time for days and days leading up to Super Bowl. There's a lot to be said about who will win and who will lose."

In radio alley, hundreds of broadcasters and reporters talk non-stop about the match.

In the US, the broadcast of the big match rotates between CBS, NBC and Fox (which is showing it this year), but ESPN takes it to the world. It broadcasts the game into more than 120 million households in 66 countries and territories throughout Latin America, Brazil, the Pacific Islands and Canada.

And into Australia where the sport — and particularly the Super Bowl itself — is growing in popularity. In 2016, more than 420,000 viewers in Australia and New Zealand watched. In 2015, it rated about 291,000 viewers. "We've been very pleased with the ratings in the last two years in Australia," Martinez says. "I think it's a fair to say that we were surprised but also excited to see it's growing as a sport. I was in Sydney for a Super Bowl about four or five years ago, and I was watching the game with all these people in a bar on a Monday morning."

The match itself is often forgotten in the haze of exclusive parties that gibbering reporters from Sydney somehow find themselves stumbling into. The biggest is the annual ESPN The Party, which is held on the Friday night before the match. This year's party will feature a special live performance by multi-platinum selling, eight-time Grammy award-winning solo artist and vocalist Fergie, along with music from award-winning recording artist, producer and business mogul DJ Khaled.

Fergie wasn't available for one-on-ones but she did pass on this quote via ESPN: "Waaazzzuup Houston!!!!! Im comin for u to kick off Super Bowl weekend Friday night at ESPN The Party with my boy DJ Khaled!!! Itz gon be lit!!!!!!!"

A question of fun

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell stood before a huge media contingent here on Wednesday and answered all manner of questions, from the possible relocation of the Oakland Raiders to Las Vegas, whether President George Bush snr will toss the coin on Sunday, and how long before the domestic violence investigations into Dallas Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott, who has already been cleared by the courts, will end.

And, of course, his strained relationship with the Patriots.

But the most interesting question from the floor concerned the banning of media outlet Barstool Sports, a very provocative group who once staged a sit-in at NFL headquarters over the Brady drama, ending in the arrest of four. It furthered the belief that the NFL is the "No Fun League".

"I've never heard that in the context of 'No Fun League'," Goodell said. "We hear it, obviously, as it relates to celebrations on the field.  That is something we will look at in the off-season, but that is something we've been dealing with for well over 35 years that I've been in the league. In the same concept is balancing sportsmanship, avoiding taunting and trying to allow players the ability to express themselves in an exuberant way and to celebrate.  We think that's great. We want to see more of that. We want to see the players do that, but we want to see them do it respectfully to their teammates and their opponents."

Missing hat a big deal

If there was any indication that Australia is falling madly in love with the NFL, it came at the weekend when some desperado broke into the car of South Sydney boss Shane Richardson.

Richo and coach Michael Maguire visited the Atlanta Falcons as part of an off-season study trip of the US. Apart from gaining invaluable knowledge about how the Super Bowl finalists went about business, he also came back with a Falcons hat.

When thieves broke into his car, they didn't take the expensive sunnies sitting in the console – just the hat. If anyone sees some hoodlum wearing an extra-extra-extra-large Falcons hat, please contact the Rabbitohs immediately. 

A head for charity

Speaking of massive heads, rugby league great Paul Langmack has one himself. He's also got a big heart. Having staved off throat cancer last year, he is now going to jump out of a plane for Chris O'Brien's Lifehouse, which raises money for cancer research.

"The medical team at Chris O'Brien's Lifehouse believe that I hold the record for having the largest head to ever have radiation and this Saturday I will become the person with the largest head to sky dive for cancer research," Langmack said.

Langmack and his partner, Amanda Lee, will skydive on Saturday, which is World Cancer Day.

"I faced some tough opponents, but nothing like my battle with cancer in 2016," Langmack said. "I am so inspired by and grateful for the work of the Chris O'Brien Lifehouse, not only for myself, but for the thousands of others they have helped."

 Go to www.nswrl.com.au to donate.

Shameful response

Last weekend, I interviewed Anthony Mundine before his fight with Danny Green at Adelaide Oval on Saturday.

I wholeheartedly agreed with him on some issues and was  appalled by his thoughts about others. But let's just say the disgraceful, racist correspondence from some readers was quite saddening. And scary. Hang your heads in shame.

There's one thing that isn't in dispute: the interest in the fight. Foxtel is quite guarded when it comes to exact figures for pay-per-view subscriptions, but we're told it's going through the roof and will be right up there with ANY boxing bout shown by Main Event – including the first fight between Mundine and Green in 2006.

Andrew Webster travelled to Houston as a guest of ESPN. Unrivalled Super Bowl LI coverage LIVE on ESPN – Monday February 6 at 10am.

Q&A; Nick Riewoldt

We speak to the St Kilda star and ESPN columnist about Super Bowl coming to Houston, his home during the off-season for the last seven years after he married a Texan local.

I know it's the AFL pre-season but did you consider asking your coach about coming to Houston to watch the game?
No, I didn't. But, to be honest, I was more worried about asking my wife, Cath, to have four or five days off to come to her hometown to watch the Super Bowl while she stayed in Melbourne and looked after our two boys.

You've become an NFL fan?
"Tragic" is what I would say. I love it. I support the Texans and go to all their home games when I am there. And the college football as well. I've been really fortunate as a Houston fan to see one of the great defensive careers take shape in JJ Watt. Seeing him come in as a rookie, he's a once-in-a-generation player.

What about your St Kilda teammates? More and more Australian sportspeople seem to be following the NFL.
They are. It's really shifted away. When I was a younger player, everyone was obsessed with the English Premier League. But as the coverage has increased and improved, the interest in the American sports and particularly football and basketball has really blossomed. At St Kilda, I had a fun week for the wildcard round. Houston won the AFC South, and Oakland finished in the five slot. Jason Holmes, our American import and ruckman, is the brother of Andre Holmes, who is a receiver for Oakland. We had a bet going that week. The loser had to wear the others colours for the week.

Who do you want to win?
Unlike 95 per cent of Americans who are sick of the Patriots, sick of Tom Brady, sick of Bill Belichick, I want New England to win. As an older player, Brady is an inspiration for me. At 39, to possibly break the all-time record of his childhood hero Joe Montana would be great.

Finally, will you get to watch the game or will you be on the training paddock?
We will train earlier than normal next Monday morning and come in during the second quarter. Our dietician has tinkered with the menu that day so we will have an American-themed menu.

THE QUOTE

 "We have muskets. You do the math." 
– Patriots receiver Julian Edelman when asked who would win an actual fight between a falcon and a patriot. Big questions being answered here, sports fans. Big, big questions.

THUMBS UP
Let's be completely vain for a second. (Ha! Just a second?) Has anyone else noticed that Roger Federer has not aged a single bit in about, say, 15 years? Not a crease, not a wrinkle. And he doesn't sweat when he's playing. When I grow up, I want to be Roger Federer, the men's Australian Open champion.

THUMBS DOWN
You see some gibber-jabber in the NRL, but if there was anything more gibbery than Ben Barba's deal with Toulon, catching everyone from the Sharks to the NRL by surprise, then tell me what it is. I thought slowly easing Barba back in to the warm bosom of the Sharks was "critical" to his welfare. 

IT'S A BIG WEEKEND FOR
The Auckland Nines. This stat warms our heart in these racially tense times: 41 indigenous players – more than 14 per cent – will play, including 15 who are yet to play first grade.

IT'S AN EVEN BIGGER WEEKEND FOR
Thirsty fans attending the Sydney Sevens, which after just one year has become a must-see sporting event. Some advice for young players: beer-water-beer-water-vodka-water-beer-uber-water-bed.

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