ATLANTA _ They have been lost and found, pilfered and pawned, paraded around bars and locked away in wall safes.
A Super Bowl ring is the most coveted prize in the nation's most popular sport, and the Rams and New England Patriots will battle Sunday for the right to wear the newest one.
As the game has grown over the years, so has the size and splendor of the reward. The first, awarded in 1967 to the Green Bay Packers, had a single one-carat diamond set in a simple yet striking design. The latest, earned last year by the Philadelphia Eagles, had 219 diamonds and 17 green sapphires in 10-carat white gold.
Vladimir Putin may possess one of them. When Patriots owner Bob Kraft met Putin months after his team won the Super Bowl in 2005, the Russian president reportedly asked to see Kraft's ring, ended up pocketing it, and never gave it back. Putin considered it a gift, and for years Kraft went along with that story. Eventually, however, it was reported that Kraft never intended to give it away, and the late Sen. John McCain requested the ring be returned. If it was, the public doesn't know about it.
There are lots of stories about rings disappearing for one reason or another. Some may be gone forever. Some resurface and eventually wind up back on the hand of their rightful owner.
Perhaps the strangest tale involves a party, the police, some blind luck, and one of the greatest players in NFL history.
