Just curious.
Only members of the winning team and assorted personnel, ie, trainers, general managers, the owner get Super Bowl rings. I believe the NFL will pay up to a certain amount per ring, but after that, the team picks up the tab.
Gaudy doesn’t even begin to describe some of the rings.
About 12 years ago, I noticed a huge guy with a huge ring working at the computer store at my university. It turned out that the ring was a championship ring for SuperBowl IV. Apparently, he had played for Kansas City.
He told me that he also played in SuperBowl I, and related that even though KC lost the game, both teams received rings for the game, the first SuperBowl. He told me that he kept that ring in a safe.
I believe that his first name was Aaron, and according to the official website below, only one Aaron played for KC in Superbowl I and IV. I would guess that I met Aaron L. Brown.
The site below has a brief section on the rings. It’s a betting site, not an official NFL site, so I can’t say for sure it’s correct. They say that the NFL will pay for 125 “winner rings” at a cost of up to $5000/ring, and will also pay for 125 rings for the losing team, with the cost of those rings not being more than 50% of the winners’ rings. So you can get a ring just for playing in the Super Bowl, but it’s twice as nice if you win. I guess either team can also shell out their own money to purchase more or nicer rings.
The site also has pictures of the winner’s rings for all the Superbowls. Like WSLer said, some of them are a tad ornate.
http://www.superbowlbetting.info/superbowl_section/tickets-rings/I.html
John Madden (before he went completely loony) tells this story:
At a roast, the official of the first Super Bowl that Madden won (or maybe only, I don’t remember), complained that the Raiders got these cool rings and the league gave him a lousy watch. He asked Madden why, and he replied without a hitch, “Because you don’t care who wins.”