Stolen rings represent more than titles

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Former Pittsburgh Steeler Rocky Bleier has told the police that three of his four Super Bowl rings were stolen in Charlotte while he was here over the weekend for a speaking engagement.

Bleier is upset. He is offering a $2,500 reward for the return of the rings, no questions asked.

Bleier’s four Super Bowl rings had a tangled history even before this incident. He sold them once to a friend just before declaring bankruptcy, then bought them back on a payment plan.

But before we get to all that, ask yourself this question:

Why do football players get so emotionally attached to a ring?

A Super Bowl ring doesn’t promise something, like a wedding or engagement ring does. It doesn’t come with its own hobbit. If you’ve ever seen Super Bowl rings, you know they are extremely gaudy and completely impractical.

Yet NFL players swoon over them.

To Bleier, the rings represent hope.

“What becomes important in our lives is hope,” Bleier said Monday night. “If you take away hope, you take away our desire to achieve.”

Others who have won Super Bowl rings have similar ideas. Said Carolina Panthers radio announcer Eugene Robinson, who won a Super Bowl ring with Green Bay: “A Super Bowl ring crowns your career. It puts an exclamation point at the end of it. When you wear it, you don’t have to explain anything about it.”

Said former Panthers wide receiver Willie Green, who won two Super Bowl rings in Denver: “I can feel Rocky’s pain. Thousands of players have passed through the NFL and not been able to get a Super Bowl ring — great players like Dan Marino and Barry Sanders. So when you do get one, it’s a great accomplishment. And, to be honest, it can open a lot of doors, too. I wear one of mine sometimes when I need to get into somebody’s office or to close a deal.”

Bleier, 58, was one of a handful of NFL players (almost all of them Steelers) to boast four Super Bowl rings. A motivational speaker who commands $10,000 per speech, Bleier carried them with him on trips as props for his talks. He has shared the rings with fans for 25 years, letting hundreds try them on for size.

“Sharing the rings is like sharing the glory,” Bleier said. “I didn’t win those rings. The team won it. And the fans share those victories, as well.”

On Saturday, Bleier was speaking to the Moose International convention at the Charlotte Convention Center.

Sometime between 12:30 and 4 p.m., the police report said, Bleier’s 1975, 1976 and 1980 Super Bowl rings were taken from his suitcase in an unlocked “green room” slightly offstage. Bleier’s wallet and credit cards were also taken.

Bleier was wearing his 1979 Super Bowl ring, which is how it escaped theft.

Bleier is a decorated Vietnam veteran who came back from serious leg injuries in that war to start for the Steelers as a fullback and play 12 years in the NFL. His autobiography, “Fighting Back,” was made into a TV movie.

But financial woes brought on in large part by a nasty divorce forced Bleier to sell all of his four Super Bowl rings eight years ago.

Bleier’s close friend Herb Conner, a Pittsburgh lawyer, bought the rings for a total of $40,000 as a favor to Bleier shortly before Bleier declared bankruptcy in late 1996.

Bleier eventually bought the rings back from Conner on a payment plan.

“Those rings make some people just melt,” Conner said in a phone interview Monday. “I kept them in a vault until Rocky bought them back. I will say he didn’t take the best care of them. He gave them to me in this little bag, and they were just banging into each other. But they are very important to Rocky because of what they represent.”

What they stand for can’t be bought — not for $40,000 and not for a $2,500 reward.

A Super Bowl ring, like an Olympic gold medal, also embodies excellence.

“It’s the culmination of a group of guys being able to accomplish something that’s the pinnacle of the profession,” Bleier said.

Said Green: “I’m so sorry this happened in our city. It’s disgusting, really.”

But Bleier thinks the rings may still find their way home to Pittsburgh one day.

After all, he still has one Super Bowl ring.

He still has hope.