MINNEAPOLIS - Like the two teams that survive the season-long gauntlet to earn a spot in the big game, every Super Bowl is decidedly unique.
And for the club that wins, the championship rings they receive will also be one of a kind, courtesy of Minnesota-based Jostens.
Since the first Super Bowl in 1967 Jostens has created rings for 33 of 51 NFL Champions. Designers work with team owners to create a ring that reflects the organization, and perhaps the way the big game was one. New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft has won 5 rings, and says last year's had to be bigger and better than previous models, as the Pats won the Super Bowl with a record comeback. The 2016-17 ring reflects that, containing more than 280 diamonds.
Here are some more unusual facts about Super Bowl rings.
- The NFL pays for 150 rings for the winning team, at a total cost of roughly $5,000,000, depending on the fluctuating cost of gold and diamonds.
- If a team wants more than 150 rings, they have to pay for them.
- The most expensive Super Bowl rings belonged to the 2015 New England Patriots at a reported cost of $36,500.
- The Green Bay Packers’ Super Bowl XLV rings each contained more than 100 diamonds.
- The rings are customized with the player’s name and uniform number.
- Neal Dahlen has the most Super Bowl rings with seven. He got five with San Francisco and two with Denver.
- Seven people have six rings: Dan Rooney and Art Rooney II with Pittsburgh; Chuck Noll with Pittsburgh; Bill Nunn with Pittsburgh; “Mean Joe” Greene with Pittsburgh; Mike Woicik with Dallas and New England; Bill Belichick with the Giants and Patriots
- Tom Brady and Charles Haley are the only NFL player to earn five Super Bowl rings. He won two with the San Francisco 49ers in the late 1980s and three more with the Dallas Cowboys in the 1990s.
- Another 33 players have four Super Bowl wins to their credit. Twenty-two of them played for the the four-time champion Pittsburgh Steelers in the ‘70s.
- Some teams give less expensive rings to front office staff members. These are commonly called "B" and "C" level rings and are smaller and contain fewer or fake diamonds.
Also one-of-a-kind are some of the stories behind players who somehow have lost their Super Bowl rings. Take the tale of New York Jets starting center John Schmidt, who lost his Super Bowl III ring while surfing in the waters off Waikiki. Schmidt lost it in 1971, and 20 years later it was found by a lifeguard, who put it away in a box. After the lifeguard's death the heir to his estate received the ring and found Schmidt's name and jersey number engraved on it. She returned it to the grateful former player in 2011.
In 2012 authorities busted a drug ring with ties to a Mexican cartel in Chicago, and along with heroin and guns confiscated a 2010 Green Bay Packers Super Bowl ring that had reportedly stolen from a team executive.
San Francisco 49ers center John Macaulay’s left his 1984 Super Bowl ring in the bathroom at the airport in San Jose in 2014 after washing his hands. Macaulay was fortunate that the wayward ring was discovered by an honest Starbucks employee who immediately turned it in to airport police, who then contacted Mccaulay.
Washington Redskins star Dexter Manley was a force at defensive end, but nearly as fierce in his use of illegal drugs. Manley won two Super Bowl rings, and ended up pawning one of them for money to buy crack cocaine. A Houston-area attorney named John O'Quinn who had employed Manley in an attempt to help him maintain sobriety learned the ring had been pawned purchased it, and returned it to the former All Pro when he got straight for good.
And finally, back to Patriots owner Kraft and what may be the strangest story involving a Super Bowl ring. On a trip to Russia in 2005 Kraft showed President Vladamir Putin his 4.94-carat, diamond-encrusted 2005 Super Bowl ring, and allowed him to try it on. Instead of giving it back, Putin took the ring off and slipped it in his pocket. Not wanting to create an international incident, Kraft let the matter slide, figuring he would get the ring back at a later date. Unless the valuable keepsake was returned in secret, Putin still has it.