The stories behind the Rams 20 carat Super Bowl ring | You Pod to Win the Game
Yahoo Sports’ Senior NFL Writer Charles Robinson and The Athletic’s Jourdan Rodrigue discuss the Rams enormous championship ring, and share stories on how the unique design that includes a replica of Sofi Stadium came together. Hear the full conversation on the You Pod to Win the Game podcast. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher or wherever you listen.
Video transcript
CHARLES ROBINSON: I was talking to someone about the rings and he was saying to me. He's like, yeah, did you go through the whole, why they didn't put world champions on the front of the ring?
JOURDAN RODRIGUE: I've not heard that, actually.
CHARLES ROBINSON: OK.
JOURDAN RODRIGUE: No, yeah
CHARLES ROBINSON: OK, this is a great one. So it's the first time in a while that there isn't world champions on the front of the ring. Jaylen obviously had a big hand, Von played a role in it. Odell played a role in it. Aaron Donald, they all chipped in in a big way. So I heard the reason why. Well, we can get another row of diamonds on the front. And I said--
JOURDAN RODRIGUE: That sounds about right.
CHARLES ROBINSON: Yeah, I totally I was like-- I was like, that is the most fitting anecdote ever. And it was funny, because the person who was talking to me was like, well-- I mean, come on, man.
You look at the ring, obviously if you don't know that's a world championship ring. I was like, that's pretty fair. That's a pretty fair assessment. That's not a second place ring that you're looking at. So you don't really need to hit people over the head with it. Take the extra row of diamonds.
JOURDAN RODRIGUE: That's so perfect.
CHARLES ROBINSON: Yeah.
JOURDAN RODRIGUE: Yeah, the ring the size of an actual globe doesn't need an indicator that it's a world championship ring, yeah.
CHARLES ROBINSON: And then when I went back and I looked I was like, oh, yeah, it would have been the outside row of diamonds would have sat where-- I was like, and those are like the biggest ones. I'm like, totally. I would have-- every player on the roster should be like, Thanks. Like that it's totally got an extra row. Those rings are unbelievable, by the way
JOURDAN RODRIGUE: Yeah, they--
CHARLES ROBINSON: Good Lord.
JOURDAN RODRIGUE: I got to see one in person as camp opened, and I frankly-- I couldn't believe something like that exists. Yeah.
CHARLES ROBINSON: Every year I think, like, this can't get any crazier. Like, it can't get any more unique or just-- and this one yet I was like I don't know I don't know how someone's going to top this one. And something else I thought was really interesting, too, the fact that there's only one Lombardi on the front when obviously it's an organization that's got more than-- it's got two championships.
But the thought process behind it of-- at least from what I was told with the players. It was like, well, every team's unique, right? Like, that's what we're always told every year. Hey, this is a unique team, this team's never going to be together again.
So the thought process with the players was, this is ours. That was our title, that's our Lombardi. That's why there's the one on the front, because it represents this team that will never be together again. I kind of thought that was cool. I was like, yeah, I like that.
JOURDAN RODRIGUE: Yeah, it's-- the press release from the team on the night of the big unveiling was like, there's two stars on the side and that represents both championships by the franchise. I mean, frankly I just kind of got lost in looking at it. I just-- I was like--
CHARLES ROBINSON: Yeah. -
JOURDAN RODRIGUE: Eh, I'm not reading these details at this point. I'm just staring--
CHARLES ROBINSON: Well, look.
JOURDAN RODRIGUE: --at this amazing thing. But what I thought was really cool was the turf? The piece that like-- the little-- they use little particles of the actual turf. And so I got a lot of questions a while back about them ripping up the turf, parts of the turf at SoFi. And then this comes out that they picked pieces of it from that final go-ahead touchdown, and then all of that and it's the fragments of it. And I was like, man, the detail that goes into these things every single year. No detail is left unconsidered. That's what I will say about that.
I was thinking earlier about Odell, and I was thinking I wonder how he must feel because he tore his ACL, a non-contact on the turf, and then won the Super Bowl and the conflict of that emotional experience. There's this just beautiful story of Robert Woods sitting in the locker room at halftime, and he just sat there with Odell and just held him, and Odell just was distraught as one would be. So I wondered how that might feel, knowing that there's a piece of that turf where that thing happened, where that moment happened inside this.
And then I thought, well, Odell was a part of the design. I personally think-- I'm pretty optimistic about him coming back as well. So I would be curious to ask him about that, and about sort of that process, because he was such a big voice in the design. So he would have absolutely known and worked through this particular facet of it, and sort of what that deeper level and how he kind of traveled through that emotion and those moments in his mind, and then--
CHARLES ROBINSON: Yeah, that's interesting. [INAUDIBLE].
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
JOURDAN RODRIGUE: --finally got his ring. Don't take the story! I'm writing the story! Don't take it!
CHARLES ROBINSON: No, it's all yours. That's interesting, though, that is. I'd be curious to know what if he really even thought about it. The fact that, hey, that's part of the field that--
JOURDAN RODRIGUE: Yeah.
CHARLES ROBINSON: --ended your Super Bowl for you, and you'll carry that with you forever.
