Top 10 Super Bowl Rings
10. Super Bowl XLIV – New Orleans Saints
This design is great, helped no doubt by having a lovely, ornate logo that’s been used in jewelry for centuries. But the Fleur de Lis aside, we love that they chose yellow gold (as opposed to the more en vogue white metals) as a nod to their black and gold colors.
9. Super Bowl XL – Pittsburgh Steelers
It’s a tough choice between the two most recent Steelers ring, but the year’s wins out over the Super Bowl XLIII design. Any time you can incorporate marquise diamonds over the round brilliants seen in most other rings, we’re sold.
8. Super Bowl XXXV – Baltimore Ravens
Excellent use of enamel and ruby for a color combo that pops, flawless logo execution (which is difficult for animal logos.) See: The Eagles’ rings. Love the pave background, and again – love that they used a ruby for the Raven’s eye, rather than the de rigeur enamel.
7. Super Bowl XXXIX – New England Patriots
One of the Patriots gaggle of rings, this one stands out from all the others – and the other super bowl rings et al – with its unique shape. The center table is flanked by block text, giving the ring a new profile and making a big statement. The diamond work here is lovely too, (the trio of marquise Lombardi trophies is one of our all time favorite Super Bowl Ring designs) but the emerald cut baguettes – which are hard to arrange in a curve – add major bling while still looking masculine, thanks to their clean step cuts. We do with they’d used red enamel along with the blue, so this ring stays in the upper half of our countdown.
6. Super Bowl XXVIII – Dallas Cowboys
This is how the Cowboys do subtle. If their other rings were watches they’d be Hublot’s, Audemars, Breitling’s,and the like. This one would be a Patek. The burnished gold is rich, and the blue enamel – limited to the sides and a very small swath of the top – adds a subtle pop of color. The center football’s border of round brilliants are each neatly compartmentalized in white gold beadwork, and those four nicely sized marquise diamonds are an elegant nod to their four Lombardi’s.
5. Super Bowl XLI – Indianapolis Colts
Ice done RIGHT. The Colts ring boasts diamond pave as a backdrop to a bright blue enamel horseshoe logo, and the Lombardi trophies use baguettes as bases for a thoroughly sparkling ring. We love that they used a ton of diamonds to rep their white-heavy uniforms, rather than plain or engraved metal. It gives this ring so much life and makes it one of our favorites!
4. Super Bowl XVI – San Francisco 49ers
The Team of The 80’s scored their first Super Bowl W in 81, and this design set the precedent for a boatload more 49er’s rings to come. We love the diamond lattice design that gives a dynamic diagonal pattern to the ring’s entire top. We particularly like the engraved lettering style on this design, and the mix in sizes of round brilliant and diamond pave is a beautiful start to a huge collection of Niner’s Super Bowl Rings.
3. Super Bowl XLV – Green Bay Packers
Why don’t more rings use multi-tiered engraving to this effect? The Green Bay G literally pops out of the center of the ring, making the third dimension look even more 3D.The gold bezel encircling rich green enamel and a diamond pave G is the perfect way to make diamonds on diamonds stand out (as opposed to the Bronco’s rings, which just looks like a seeing eye illusion where you try to spot horses in the diamond pave). This ring is iced out in every way, with four larger diamonds rapping Lombardi trophies on each of the ring’s corners.
2. Super Bowl XXX – Dallas Cowboys
The second Cowboys’ ring on our list and yet another that selects not to use Cowboy’s colors (don’t worry, they have plenty that do.) The symbolism of the fifth Super Bowl win for the Cowboys is what makes this ring very nearly our favorite. We love the 5 marquise diamonds representing each of the Lombardi trophies, but not as much as we love the equally symbol 5 points of the Dallas star, each made up of extremely unique kite shaped diamonds.
1. Super Bowl XLVI – New York Giants
This Tiffany & Co. designed Super Bowl ring is hands down our favorite, though it was a close call between the Dallas & Green Bay rings. Why does the Giants ring stand above the rest? Those sapphires! We adore the sapphire border, combined with the elegance of the Lombardi trophies. We love the restraint of the designers – keeping the bases of the trophies metal (rather than baguette or pave) and letting the larger marquise tops shine like the real deal trophy. Rather, the diamond pave backdrop looks like so many flashes going off in the stadium as the boys in blue play. This ring also uses its surface area to great effect, using subtle text engraving to add texture and pattern, rather than copy. If we could only wear one Super Bowl ring, it would be this one!
Of course, we can’t wait to see what this year’s ring looks like, and on Sunday we’ll at least know which colors it’ll be! While we’d love to see the Seahawks improve upon last year’s rather disappointing ring, we know that the Patriots may just knock it out of the park with four Lombardi trophies to rep.
