If the New England Patriots defeat the Atlanta Falcons to win their fifth Super Bowl this Sunday at NRG Stadium in Houston, the resulting championship rings are likely to be the biggest and blingiest ever.
The National Football League seems to maintain an unwritten rule that allows teams with multiple Super Bowl victories to design the most extravagant rings. The sky will be the limit if the coveted Lombardi Trophy returns to Foxborough, Mass., in 2017. The rings are usually distributed to the winning team some time in June.
In 2015, QB Tom Brady and the Patriots celebrated their fourth Super Bowl victory with stunning rings that weighed more than a quarter-pound and gleamed with 205 diamonds. At the time, the Super Bowl XLIX Championship rings were billed as the biggest ever. Each ring boasted a minimum diamond total weight of 4.85 carats and was valued at $36,500.
“I have been blessed to host four Super Bowl ring ceremonies, and just like the rings we present, we have tried to make each ceremony a little bigger and a little better than the one before,” Patriots’ owner Robert Kraft said at the time.
Ring manufacturer Jostens didn't officially announce the gram weight of the 2015 Super Bowl rings, but they were far larger than the Patriots' 2004 rings, which reportedly weighed 110 grams (just under one-quarter pound).
By comparison, when the Seattle Seahawks earned their very first Lombardi Trophy in 2014, the rings weighed in at a modest 56 grams, one of the smallest in recent Super Bowl history.
Jostens provided a photo reflecting the Patriots' ever-growing Super Bowl rings. In 2001, the team’s first Super Bowl ring weighed in at 74 grams. Two years later, the Patriots' second Super Bowl ring weighed 100 grams.
In 2013, the Baltimore Ravens' official website stated that the team's Super Bowl XLVII championship rings weighed 380 grams (13.4 ounces), which we're pretty sure is an error because that would have made them about three times as heavy as the massive rings awarded to the Patriots in 2015.
The NFL typically awards 150 rings to the Super Bowl victor and allocates approximately $7,000 per ring — although teams with multiple Super Bowl victories are allotted a higher budget for diamonds. Teams often create “B” and “C” level rings — designs with faux diamonds or fewer diamonds — for distribution to the front office staff.
Although the Patriots will be shooting for their fifth Super Bowl title, the record for the most Super Bowl wins is held by the Pittsburgh Steelers, who have six. The Dallas Cowboys and the San Francisco 49ers each have won five.
Credits: Photos courtesy of Jostens, Twitter/New England Patriots.
