.jpg?downsize=56%3A*)
.jpg?downsize=56%3A*)
.jpg?downsize=56%3A*)
.jpg?downsize=56%3A*)
.vresize.36.36.medium.0.png){kind=small}
Odd stories of lost Super Bowl rings
Question: What’s big, shiny and found in a bathroom?
Answer: John Macaulay's 1984 Super Bowl ring.
Sure, it sounds like a silly children’s joke. But it’s really amazing how often those heavy, pricey Super Bowl rings seem to go missing or turn up in strange places. (We’re looking at you, Vladimir Putin.)
The latest instance was in San Jose, Calif., where Macaulay, a center on the 49ers’ title-winning team, seemingly lost his gold-and-diamond encrusted ring in a restroom at Mineta San Jose International Airport, according to a San Jose Mercury-News report.
According to the report by Sal Pizarro, a Starbucks employee named Arra Daquina found the ring on Tuesday. “I didn't know what it was," she told Pizarro, "but it was big and heavy."
She turned the ring — engraved with Macaulay’s name — over to airport employees, and the ex-NFL player soon came looking for it at lost and found. According to Pizarro’s report, Macaulay was amazed at how quickly he got it back.
Well, we’re amazed at the frequency of misplaced, sold or otherwise “gifted” (ahem, Vladimir) Super Bowl rings. You’d think something fought for so hard would be treasured and protected better.
Check out these other memorable recent Super Bowl ring tales:
• Another former 49ers player, kicker Mike Cofer, had his two Super Bowl rings stolen from his Las Vegas-area home in March. (Safe-deposit box, anyone?)
• A 2010 Green Bay Packers Super Bowl ring reportedly was found in a drug bust in Mexico in June 2012 — along with, oh, 20 kilograms of heroin, 18 weapons and about $1.4 million in cash.
• Also from chilly Wisconsin: A longtime Packers fan managed to buy a Super Bowl ring at a pawn shop in May 2012.
• Then, of course, there was the saga of Lawrence Taylor’s Super Bowl XXV ring, which sold for about $230,000 — not to Osi Umenyiora (who tried to recruit Twitter followers in exchange for buying it) but perhaps to actor Charlie Sheen (though he denied reports he did purchase it).
• And finally, there’s the rather incredible 2011 story of the 1969 Super Bowl ring lost by former Jets center John Schmitt while taking surf lessons (Really, John? You wore it surfing?) in Hawaii and then found 40 years later.
[H/T Sportress of Blogitude via Yardbarker]
