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The Design of Championship Rings From Super Bowl XXXVII

The ring on the left is the Tampa Bay Buccaneers first ever Super Bowl Ring from their 2002 season.   This beautiful championship ring was designed and manufactured by Tiffany and Company in solid 14K gold.

While Tiffany and Company has made some spectacular Super Bowl rings, lately, their last few, have been in my humble opinion, lacking. This particular Super Bowl ring has a wonderful top and sides and is one of the nicest Tiffany championship rings I’ve seen.

The team that loses the Super Bowl is recognized as a champion of their respective conference.   The Raiders 2002 AFC championship ring, is shown below on the right.

The Raiders ring does an outstanding job of maintaining the Raiders championship ring design format. The AFC championship ring weighs in at 46-47 grams. The ring does contains nice size marquis diamonds, each helping to represent the team’s five Super Bowl appearances. Three of the diamonds are noticeably larger, and that’s to commemorate the team’s three Super Bowl victories.

The Raiders AFC championship ring was made by Jostens in 14K solid white gold.

Another cool thing about this ring is the championship ring box. Under the Raider logo are the words “The Team Of The Decades”. This wording is a nod to the fact that the raiders appeared in Super Bowls in the 60s, 70s, 80s, and now their fourth decade.

Any thoughts or opinions on these two rings?

Wow, I never noticed before how similar in design these two Jostens rings are.  They show where the evolution of Super Bowl rings is heading.  Note that the photos are not to scale, the Pats ring is about 15% or more larger than the Ravens ring.

Is Jostens Back to Designing NFL Same-Mold-Every-Year Championship Rings Again?

Tom III hit the nail on the head again recently.

Tom and I are both are alluding to the similar run Jostens did in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007, and 2008. (see picture below)

During this six season stretch, Jostens designed and manufactured four NFC conference championship rings and one AFC conference championship ring with almost identical tops.

Sorry it’s not shown to scale, but note that during this time, only the Bears massive and unique 2006 NFC conference championship ring was a different design (also made by Jostens).

Who knows if Jostens would have designed the 2014 NFC championship ring in a similar fashion like the two championship rings shown below.  They were not given a chance, as the Seahawks went with Tiffany and company who made a very bland championship ring.

Notice Tom's High School championship ring design shows his football position on both sides of the ring, and tells a better story than the Tiffany championship ring.

The Designs of Recent NFL Conference Championship Rings

Recently I showed how the 49ers and Giants last NFC Conference championship rings, although 12 years apart, are quite similar in design.  Now here are examples of how different the designs have become for conference championship rings in recent years:  (see photo below)

About 10 to 13 years ago (2003-2008, not including 2006) conference championship rings by Jostens were basically the same design. 

Lately the trend has been for the championship ring manufacturers to design a completely new conference championship ring each year.  However, we might be heading back to the old days, as the newest conference championship ring, belonging to the 2015 Panthers is remarkably similar to the Denver Broncos 2013 championship ring shown below.

The championship rings from left to right are:  2009 Colts championship ring, made by Herff Jones, 2011 Patriots ring made by Herff Jones and Masters of Design, 2012 NFC championship ring made by Tiffany and Company, the 2014 Broncos ring made by Jostens and the Seahawks 2015 NFC championship ring made by Tiffany and Company.

If you're wondering about the 2010 Steelers AFC championship ring, it does not exist.  The team broke tradition and went with a blinged-out watch.

My favorite championship ring of the ones shown above is the Pats ring - which has as much bling as many Super Bowl rings and my least favorite is the Seahawks championship ring which has lots of dots and bumps on the face but very few diamonds.

Any thoughts or comments about these designs?

11 hours ago, UHCollector said:

Congrats on the pickup. 

 

I prefer simpler designs so I like the face but those shanks are terrible. I couldn't name all of the Tiffany championship rings off of the top of my head (except for maybe Seattle) but they always seem to be a disappointment when they get posted. Does Tiffany handle the box design as well? Because oddly enough I think I like that one more than the frosted glass topped boxes. 

 

 

Here's what I know about box designs.  The images and designs found on the boxes are done by the ring manufacturers in house.  I know Jostens has subcontracted out their box making for years.  I imagine Tiffany does as well, since both companies do much more jewelry without wood presentation boxes than they do with wood presentation boxes.

A few years back, Jostens was using a company in China who either went out of business or disapeared or could no longer make the boxes and Jostens switched suppliers.

In comparing Tiffany boxes (which appear to usually be the same format and size for each of their championshpi rings), to the glass box, I believe the glass boxes offer to major advantages: 

1)  The recipient can display is ring while protecting it in the glass see-through box[

2)  The boxes light up for an added display feature.

5 hours ago, OnWis97 said:

I think the top of that 49ers ring is absolutely beautiful.  Their logo is obviously very conducive to such a thing, but I like the colored stone look far more than the "blingy" look.  Of course they'd never do this for a Super Bowl Champs ring since they tend to use diamond Lombardy trophies.  

 

I agree that the sides are kinda blah, though.

Yes, the top of the ring is beautiful, and the red-stone is great, however, AFC/NFC rings have grown much larger and with much bigger diamonds.  Having read many player quotes on championship rings, I can assure you the players but have been unimpressed with this offering.

And I forgot to mention in my earlier post that the 49ers have gold in their team colors and they should have produced a yellow gold ring, not white gold!  Whether you're a fan of the ring top or not, I believe we can all agree that the sides of these rings are dreadful!

The Design of this Championship Ring is awful!

Below is the first professional quality pictures of the San Francisco Forty Niners 2012 NFC championship ring and presentation box.

I suppose not every championship ring can be a stunning beauty.

I finally acquired a player 2012 NFC championship ring and to date, not only have none been available for sale, I had never seen a clear picture of their presentation box, or a high quality photograph of the championship ring.  Now that such photos exist, we can look at the design of this championship ring much more closely.

The 2012 NFC championship ring was manufactured by Tiffany and Company and in my opinion, compared to other recent championship rings, the quality and design are quite inferior to the amazing championship rings that have emerged in recent years in the four professional sports.

While the ring top lacks any imagination creativity, it is by far the best part of this championship ring.  The sides of the rings lack nice detail and the inside of the ring has no theme or mantras.

While I'm  underwhelmed at the design and build of this championship ring, in no way does this diminish the season the players, coaches and staff had.  Additionally, as a collector, I'm thrilled to be able to add this championship ring to my collection.

Any thoughts on the design of this championship ring?  Have we seen Tiffany design quality suffer in recent years and they are no longer the premier championship ring design company (if they ever were)?

Here's another example of a Super Bowl ring that has been redesigned and modified by a couple of players.  The photo below shows the modified ring on the left, while the photo on the right is the 1986 New York Giants Super Bowl XXI ring as it was designed and presented by Jostens.

Which ring design do you like better?  Me, it's easy: The original version with the blue stone is classy and elegant.  Hands down, I like the original better.

Championship Ring Design Modifications    

Sometimes players take Championship Ring Design into their own hands by increasing the bling in their rings.  An example is shown below

The Giant Super Bowl XXV rings shown are from the 1990 season.

The Super Bowl ring on the left is how the championship ring looked when it was designed and awarded to players, coaches and staff.

At least one of the players, and probably more, took matters into their own hands and had their Super Bowl rings enhanced.  The ring on the right shows that while all the original diamonds were left intact, including two large marquis diamonds which symbolized the team's two Super Bowl titles, the blue onyx stone was removed and 10 small diamonds were added to the ring top.

I'm not sure which version looks better and I guess that can be debated.

Championship ring purists and some collectors might prefer an original, unmodified Super Bowl ring.

Personally, I'll stick with the original Balfour design too.

Any thoughts or opinions on this matter?

Continuing the discussion on Super Bowl rings that are similar in design or different in design for individual teams here's an example of how one team radically changed the design of the rings.

You won't find any NFL team that has won multiple Super Bowl rings that has the huge variance of style and design as the Redskins rings.

As you can see by the photograph below, the design, size, theme, and style of the Redskin championship rings are quite different from one another.

Unlike some NFL teams such as the Packers, Cowboys, and Steelers, who won Super Bowl rings in different eras, the Redskin Super Bowl rings are from a nine year period in the team's history.

Pictured below from left to right:  The 1982, 1987, and 1991 Redskins Super Bowl rings.

The 1982 Super Bowl ring was designed by Jostens in 10K solid gold.  It is a typical late 70s/early 80s Super Bowl ring in terms of size and style.

Five years later, the Redskins used Tiffany and Company and made a massive championship ring.  In my humble opinion, this Super Bowl ring is not very attractive.  The two Lombardi trophies are made of small diamonds and to me, looks more like globs of diamonds rather than a sharp diamond-image of the Lombardi trophies.

Finally, on the right is the 1991 Super Bowl ring.  Gone from the top of the ring is any hint of Footballs and Lombardi trophies.  As championship rings were becoming larger and more blinged out, this Super Bowl ring is pretty mundane for the time period.  This championship ring was also designed and manufactured by Tiffany and Company.

The Championship Rings From Super Bowl XXXVI

Anyone want to discuss the design of the Patriots first Super Bowl ring and/or the Rams NFC championship ring from 2001?

The ring on the left is the New England Patriots, and Tom Brady's first ever Super Bowl Ring from their 2001 season.  This beautiful championship ring was designed and manufactured by Jostens in solid 14K white gold.  

The day this Super Bowl ring debuted I was enamored with it and couldn't wait to finally own a player's  version of this stunning championship ring.

The Patriots Super Bowl XXXVI player ring shown below, weighs approximately 70 grams and is made of solid 14 carat yellow gold.  A few of these rings weigh in the  68-69 gram area, while my player championship ring tips the scales at 72 grams.

The team that loses the Super Bowl is recognized as a champion of their respective conference.

The Rams NFC championship ring weighs in at 40-41 grams.  The ring does not contain a lot of bling for an NFC championship ring, yet it's still a very nice looking championship ring.

The Rams NFC championship ring was made by Jostens in 14K solid yellow gold.

29 minutes ago, Cosmic said:

Would you really compare the first ring with the most recent one, and say that they are "extremely standardized"?  Similar elements, sure, the design changes pretty dramatically.  The uniformity isn't even in the same league as the Raiders' rings IMO:

 

(not that you don't know what they look like, but just for illustration purposes)

Cosmic - Great post and thoughts!

Are the pats rings (1 and 4) "extremely standardized"? - Perhaps not.  But look at the NY Giants, Red Skins, Packers, Cowboys and Steelers (sorry if I forgot any other multi-winning teams).

They have different manufacturers, different colors and radically different design layouts.

Each of the Pats rings (even 1 and 4) prominently show off their Patriot logo, all use the same colors, all were designed and made by Jostens, and all contain a Lombardi trophy on top with a football shaped diamond. The 2nd, third, and fourth, contain multiple Lombardi trophies and football shaped diamonds to designate each title win in team history.  Each ring is crammed with tons of diamonds and each and every one of those baby's were the most stunning super bowl ring made to date.

the only major change I see between the four Pats rings is the sheer size of the rings and that is more a design-evolution thing than a radical change in style that we see with some of teams I mentioned above.

Another small change is that the last ring, was made of 10K gold while the first three were designed at 14K versions.

July 4th and Championship Ring Design:

What better way to celebrate July 4th then to discuss championship rings and their design.

 Here's a look at the Patriots Four Super Bowl Rings.

Love or Hate the Patriots - for July 4th, here's a great photo of the four Super Bowl rings of the New England Patriots.

The photograph demonstrates how owner Robert Kraft has pushed the envelope more than once, and helped to crate the largest and most blinged-out Super Bowl rings ever made.

The first ring, shown on the far left is their first championship ring.  That 2001 Super Bowl ring, while taken from an existing Jostens design (see the Rams and Ravens super bowl rings the two seasons before), was considered magnificent and stunning in it's day.

The next championship ring, to the right, was a huge leap forward - the 2003 Super Bowl ring.  It grew in size and was the largest most blinged-out Super Bowl ring ever when it debuted.

The following year, the Patriots won their third Super Bowl ring and once again, Kraft and the Patriots enlarged their championship ring and once again, debuted the largest Super Bowl ring ever.

And finally, already a year old, the championship ring on the far right is the 2014 Super Bowl ring, and once again, Kraft presented the now-largest Super Bowl ring ever.  Yes, it's quite larger than the Broncos 2015 Super Bowl ring, and the latest Patriots championship ring is dazzling.

One last note about the Patriots Super Bowl rings and championship ring design:  Only the Raiders and Patriots can boast that their series of Super Bowl rings have remained extremely standardized - not radically changing in design or style over the years.  Their first Super Bowl rings are the same design themes as their most recent championship rings.

Any thoughts or comments?

(Please click on the picture below to see a larger version of it)

9 hours ago, UHCollector said:

Congrats on your acquisition Mike. The ring looks awesome. How'd the deal go? Was it sudden or a lot of back and forth?

lots of back and forth, dealing with dealers is a challenge and headache!

There’s much more to life than the design characteristics of Super Bowl rings and championship rings. Two sons lost their loving father yesterday. Since the scope of this forum are about championship ring design, let’s discuss the Ryan family’s collection of Super Bowl rings and how they compare in the realm of championship ring design.

It’s interesting to note, that none of the super bowl rings shown below were won by a team with a Ryan as an NFL head coach.

The photograph below shows every Super Bowl ring the Ryan family has won. Love ‘em or despise them, the Ryans are terrific coaches, and perhaps, someday, Rex and maybe even Rob will finally win a Super Bowl ring as an NFL head coach.

The championship rings pictured below are presented in chronological order. Not only does the picture show every championship ring the family owns, the photo also show cases the on-going design evolution and growing sizes of Super Bowl rings.

Here’s the low-down on each championship ring:

The championship ring on the far left is the iconic Jets Super Bowl III ring, and the Jets only one. Designed and minted by Balfour, Buddy received this Super Bowl ring as the Defensive Line Coach. The championship ring is 40 grams and contains one large diamond and 6 smaller diamonds. Rex and Rob, although very young, remember the game well. They were lucky enough to be in attendance and root for Dad and the Jets.

Seventeen years later, as the Defensive Coordinator for the Bears, Buddy was awarded a Bears Super Bowl XX championship ring. That ring, also crafted by Jostens, has a large center diamond, weighs 47 grams, and has 40 diamonds.

The middle Super Bowl ring, is the Ravens’ Super XXXV ring. It belongs to current Buffalo Bills coach, Rex Ryan. It’s his only Super Bowl ring. He recently commented that his dad and brother each have two Super Bowl rings, while Rex only has one. Rex has promised to “fix that” deficiency. Rex was awarded this championship ring as the Ravens Defensive Line Coach.

Rex’s Ravens Super Bowl ring weighs in at 65 grams and it was designed and made by Jostens. The gorgeous championship ring contains over 100 diamonds.

The final two Super Bowl rings belong to Rob Ryan. Rob was the New England Patriots Linebackers coach when they won their first two Super Bowls. Rob is currently a coach for the Bills and working with his brother Rex.

The Super Bowl ring, second from the right is the Patriots Super Bowl XXXVI ring. Designed and manufactured by Jostens, the championship ring contains 144 diamonds and weighs 66 grams.

Last, the ring on the far right is the Patriots second Super Bowl ring and the last time a Ryan has won a Super Bowl ring. This is the Super Bowl XXXVIII ring, also made by Jostens. The championship ring weighs in at 100 grams and contains 104 diamonds. While the ring may have less total diamonds then the Patriot’s first championship ring, the diamonds are larger and the ring is one-third larger too.

On 6/20/2016 at 4:09 PM, ridenlow71 said:

Never to early to start thinking what the Cavs ring will look like..anyone got any ideas?  I thinking it will have the trophy on the face similar to the 2006 Heat ring.  Probably made by Jostens or maybe Herff Jones as their based in Indy.

While this Nike tee shirt is not really an indication of the size and style of the upcoming Cavs ring, it does demonstrate the pressure ownership feels when designing the latest championship rings to make them so darn large.  The design of these huge championship rings means that wearing them is very uncomfortable.  Kind of defeats the purpose of the championship ring design if they are too large to wear.

On 6/15/2016 at 10:33 PM, dralec said:

Mike, I am dying to know if Denver 50 ring is larger than Pats 2014 ring? I do think Pats ring is larger.

So how about you use these measurements against Pats 2004 and Ravens 2013 rings, see which one is longer. Based on that we should have an idea how 50 ring compares to Pats 2014 ring....Here are the 50 ring dimensions in mm

 

 

No way is the Bronco 50 ring larger than the Pats ring.  I think I am getting a player Pats ring this weekend and if the deal goes through, I will have plenty of pictures to compare the design and size of the latest and greatest super bowl rings!  Unfortunately I don't have any way at this time to compare the design of the Pats ring to the Broncos ring.  The Peyton photo of his colts ring and the Bronco ring is quite telling as the Bronco ring appears to be about twice as large as the Colts ring.  Time will tell!

1 hour ago, ridenlow71 said:

That's because the players want it this way.  I remember Michael Strahan famously said he wanted a 10 table ring.  Meaning you could see it from 10 tables over at a restaurant.  So as long as we're in the "bling" era the rings will just keep growing.

By the way, I goofed, the huge ring box with the pad-lock is not the super bowl  ring box.  When you open that huge box, it contained the proper ring box with the championship ring, inside and the huge box shown below also contained a painted full-size football with the recipient's name on it and perhaps other goodies as well.

The championship ring box is the typical glass box with etching that we have seen lately.  I am trying to find a good picture of it, but have not found one yet.

2 hours ago, Championship Sports Rings said:

The 2015 Denver Super Bowl ring was made of 10K Gold

Thanks, I appreciate your help!

18 hours ago, Championship Sports Rings said:

The Broncos and Jostens did a very nice job on the new rings.  They look to be huge. I would love to see how big this one is compared to the Pats ring from last year.  I am sure we will be seeing photos or I hope to see a photo of the 2 rings side by side soon.   Now while we are enjoying the new Denver ring I just saw posted on the Twitter page of the owner of "Diamond Cutters" the company who made the first official Denver Super Bowl Champions ring in 1997 has posted a photo of what looks to be the 3 Denver Super Bowl Rings.  As we all know the 1998 (2nd) one was made by Jostens and of course the latest one (2015) was made by Jostens too.   In the photo you can clearly see that the ring they are showing is NOT the Jostens version of the 2015 Ring as the top is slightly different and the side that you can see is not the same as Jostens ring.  The 1998 ring looks to be a bit off too than the one that Jostens made. I had originally thought that DC might have sold the stones to Jostens or that the stones came from DC but after looking at the photos the last 2 rings are NOT made by Jostens.  So why would DC have recreated their own version of the 1998 and 2015 rings that look so similar to the ones that Jostens made??   You could say that these were the designs that DC submitted to the team but i dont think this is the case. I am sure one of these days this question will be answered or at least I hope it will be soon.  

 

One odd thing thing with this photo from DCI is the new ring I would expect is far larger than the 1998 Ring and in the photo it does look larger but I am willing to bet the Jostens new one is by far way larger than the other 2 rings if they were shown side by side.  

 

Thanks so much for this information and picture.   What a strange occurrence! 

Here are more photos, scaled to the same size...

While I was hoping to see a yellow-gold Super Bowl ring to match the team’s last two Super Bowl rings, Jostens produced a white version but at least the top of the championship ring showcases a lot of yellow gold.

According to the Broncos, each Super Bowl 50 ring contains 194 diamonds, and the stunning championship rings have more than 5.05 carats. Some media outlets are reporting 212 diamonds so we’ll have to sort this out.

The Broncos’ iconic logo sits in the middle of the top of the Super Bowl ring and thankfully, the team and Jostens, decided not to do a championship ring with three Bronco horse-head logos. The Broncos three Super Bowl trophies are featured on top of the Super Bowl ring, as this has become a common theme in Super Bowl ring design for teams that have multiple titles.

On one side of the championship ring is an image of the Lombardi Trophy surrounded by the words “This one’s for Pat.” General Manager John Elway spoke those moving words after the Broncos’ 24-10 win in Super Bowl 50. That sentiment was in honor of Bronco owner Pat Bowen, who’s battling Alzheimer’s disease.

The other side of the Super Bowl 50 ring contains the recipient’s last name and jersey number.

As is the usual case with Jostens, we have no idea how large the ring is, although there is a picture of Peyton Manning wearing this championship ring and his Colts Super Bowl XLI ring. As you would expect, the photo reveals that the Broncos ring is substantially larger than Manning’s 9 year old Colts championship ring. That Colts Super Bowl ring was not small, it weighed in at 68 grams, which is considered a large, modern size championship ring.

Jostens also did not report if the ring was made of 10K gold, 14K gold , or platinum, so I will research these details as well and report back soon.  Please let me know if anyone knows what the ring is made of.

Click the photo below for a larger view of the image.

On June 9, 2016 at 7:18 AM, Cosmic said:

@sports-rings.com What changed in those 40 minutes? The professional pictures look exactly like I'd expect, given the previous ones.

Please look at both sets of photographs and I believe you will see that the later photos, taken by Jostens, show the design aspects of the rings much clearer and without the harsh light of the first set of pictures.

So the better photos reveals a much better design than the first group of pictures hinted at.