Anyone can log on to their favorite team’s website and buy a commemorative necklace, pendant, or ring. It is not that difficult to walk through your local mall and see commemorative jewelry of your favorite sports team in any of the jewelry stores or even sporting goods stores that you pass by.
But the sports jewelry that the true collectors really want is the jewelry you cannot order from a regular website or the jewelry you see when you are walking through the mall. Their tastes are much more expensive and can take them on searches that can last years and cost thousands of dollars.
If you have ever watched any sports broadcast that features a former coach or player who was on a championship team you may have noticed a rather large ring on their finger. Players and coaches who win championships are not shy about wearing their championship rings in public and especially when they can be seen on television. It only makes sense. An athlete trains and gives up a huge portion of their life to try and make it to the professional level of their sport. Once they get there they train and sacrifice even more to try and get to the level of being known as a champion.
It is a great source of pride for any athlete and the sacrifice and work required to get to that level is a reason why that pride is so strong. It also has to do with the fact that they work their entire lives to get to that championship level and when they finally attain their championship then they are known as champions the rest of their lives and no one can take that away from them. A career can be considered a Hall of Fame career with the help of that championship and along with that pride comes the ring.
Sports jewelry comes in all shapes and sizes. You see some athletes wearing gold chains around their necks when they are competing. But when you see that championship ring on an athlete’s finger you know they have attained a level that very few other people can attain. A championship ring is that piece of sports jewelry that you cannot buy, you have to earn it. You could spend a lot of money making an exact replica of a championship ring but you would just be lying to yourself. To get a real championship ring, a championship ring that means something, you need to make those sacrifices and reach that pinnacle of your sport and be recognized as a champion. Some athletes win so many championships that they donate some of their rings to their Hall of Fame. Then there is the sad side to the story of the most exclusive pieces of jewelry in all of sports.
Each year you hear stories of athletes that had their championship rings stolen from them either by a thief in their house or even at gun point while they were wearing them. You sometimes hear stories of athletes selling their championship rings at greatly reduced prices just so they can put some food on the table or, worse yet, buy drugs and continue to ruin their lives.
A championship ring comes to symbolize so much to the athlete, the coach, and the fan that the sad stories are that much sadder and the feel good stories are that much more uplifting. But in the end it still is the most exclusive piece of jewelry in all of sports.
