Friday, June 02, 2006
By Ed Bouchette, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Alan Faneca has one goal this afternoon when he meets the President in the Rose Garden at the White House.
"Shake his hand, hopefully," Faneca said.
Two days later, Faneca and the rest of the Steelers might have to think twice before they shake anyone's hand. Sunday, they will receive their Super Bowl rings in a private ceremony in a lounge at Heinz Field. Big, tough football players have been brought to their knees by their reaction to wearing a Super Bowl ring, not because of the emotion it brings, but the pain.
Chuck Noll once said that he discontinued wearing any of his four Super Bowl rings because of the pain it caused when he shook someone's hand. And those rings were small by comparison to the gold and diamond hubcaps Super Bowl teams receive today.
The Steelers will issue at least 150 rings to players, coaches and members of the organization Sunday and, yes, they will be gaudy. They still have a reputation as a mom-and-pop franchise as far as NFL teams go, but the size of their Super Bowl ring will keep up with the Joneses.
Dan Rooney, with help from Jerome Bettis and Ben Roethlisberger, came up with the idea for the ring. Rooney's initial plan was to design a ring that separated this championship from the franchise's first four. But Bettis convinced him otherwise. The retired halfback told him that the modern Steelers played in the shadows of the 1970s teams for so long that they finally believed they belonged with them now. Bettis wanted a ring that would display that.
So the design team of Rooney, Bettis and Roethlisberger came up with a ring that will display five Vince Lombardi Trophies on its face, all in diamonds. Rooney, though, did reject one of the players' requests, that the ring be constructed of white gold. Perhaps that might have represented their four postseason victories on the road in their white shirts, but, as Rooney said, "We're the black and gold." Yellow, not white.
"It really looks good in gold," Rooney said. "I'm pleased with it, and they're pleased with it, too."
For Rooney and a handful of others in the organization, this will be one for the thumb, a fifth Super Bowl ring after a 26-year quest.
"It's been a long time since we won that fourth one," said Dick Hoak, who will receive his fifth ring in the same job that he earned his first, as the Steelers' running backs coach.
Unlike many who store their rings in safe-deposit boxes, Hoak wears his, not daily, but on many occasions. During the season, he would wear the third or fourth ring on the day before the game.
"I don't know why people win them and don't wear them," Hoak said. "What's the sense of winning one?
"What I'll do now is put one of those away and wear this one. I just have to decide which one to put away. I just may wear this one now. Those other two are from so far back."
Receiving the ring not only represents the culmination of a pursuit for a generation, but also the beginning of the next one.
"Once we get it, we can kind of really put this year behind us," Hines Ward said. "It's really been a memorable year, and this ring is kind of the icing on the cake, something we worked hard for.
"Once you get it you look at it, reflect back on the year and all the people who supported you along the way. Then, after the ring ceremony, it's time to focus on starting a new chapter in the upcoming season. We really can't live off the past."
NOTES -- Retired Steelers broadcaster Myron Cope was released from UPMC-Presbyterian after nearly a two-week stay for pneumonia.
(Ed Bouchette can be reached at ebouchette@post-gazette.com or 412-263-3878. )
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