Winning a Super Bowl is not as easy as Patrick Mahomes and Tom Brady have made it look. It takes months, if not years, of relentless efforts, determination, and some luck. No wonder rocking a Super Bowl ring is a badge of honor and ultimate glory.
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While players and coaching staff members are the obvious recipients of this honor, they aren’t the only lucky ones. So who else gets a Super Bowl ring when a team wins it all? The answer might surprise you.
The NFL generally covers the cost of 150 Super Bowl rings for a team. In essence, teams are expected to distribute these among their players, coaches, owners, and select employees. However, they can also extend this honor to other stakeholders, such as cheerleaders or practice squad players.
This decision ultimately rests with team management, but if they choose to, teams can order more than 150 rings—though they’ll have to cover the additional costs themselves.
The Kansas City Chiefs, for instance, made headlines after Super Bowl LVII for giving rings to their cheerleading squad as well. The Philadelphia Eagles, meanwhile, gifted their cheerleaders custom-made Super Bowl LII Championship Pendants. Simply put, teams can order as many extra rings as they want and award them to whomever they see fit, as long as they foot the bill.
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While the answer to how many rings can be distributed is limitless in theory, it may not be a practical solution from a team’s perspective. This is mainly due to the meticulous process involved in producing a Super Bowl ring. For those out of the loop, the rings aren’t distributed immediately after the game. The day after a team wins the Lombardi Trophy, jewelers across the country submit bids for the design rights.
Once a jeweler is selected, finalizing the design takes nearly two months. After that, production takes an additional four to six weeks. This means teams have just a two-month window after the season to decide on their ring design and who in their cohort will receive one.
One of the best Super Bowl ring designs in recent memory was created by the New England Patriots for their Super Bowl LI win. The game, arguably the greatest comeback in football history, saw Tom Brady & Co. rally from a 28-3 deficit to defeat the Falcons 34-28 in overtime.
The Patriots Super Bowl LI ring has 283 diamonds, a reminder that they were down 28-3 to the Falcons. pic.twitter.com/FnobjM6WV9
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) October 23, 2017
Commemorating the epic comeback, Robert Kraft helped design a ring with 283 diamonds. Unfortunately for Kraft, this beauty of a ring didn’t last long with him as he auctioned it off for $1.025 million in 2020, will all proceeds going towards the ‘All In Challenge’.
Safe to say, Kraft got a fitting bid for the Super Bowl ring.
