For sale: Lawrence Taylor's Super Bowl ring
Former NFL football great Lawrence Taylor arrives at the Bergen County Courthouse. (March 4, 2011) Credit: AP
A day after the Giants collected their rings for winning Super Bowl XLVI, one of the team's all-time greats made it known that he is selling his ring from two decades earlier.
Lawrence Taylor, who has had a string of legal and financial troubles since retiring from the NFL in 1994, is auctioning off the ring he earned as a member of the Super Bowl XXV-winning Giants. The auction, which is being hosted by SCPAuctions.com, closes tomorrow. The auction company estimates the value of the ring at between $75,000 and $100,000; as of 9:30 last night bidding had reached $89,568.
The ring, which features two football-shaped diamonds to represent the team's second Super Bowl title, as well as Taylor's name engraved on the side and inside, is being called "arguably the most significant Super Bowl player ring ever offered publicly." The auction company also notes that: "The ring shows considerable wear that, in some eyes, only enhances its aura."
Taylor, a Hall of Fame linebacker for 13 seasons who won two Super Bowls, has battled drug addiction since his time with the Giants. His most recent difficulties were pleading guilty to sexual misconduct and patronizing a prostitute, both misdemeanors, in 2011 (he was sentenced to six years' probation and registered as a sex offender) and being sentenced to house arrest and probation for tax evasion in 2000.
Osi: I'm sorry
Osi Umenyiora made waves this weekend by tweeting Happy Mother's Day wishes to Eagles running back LeSean McCoy. Yesterday, Umenyiora apologized -- not to McCoy, but for demeaning women with his remarks.
After being called out on his remarks as sexist by ESPNW writer Sarah Spain, Umenyiora tweeted that she "is absolutely correct in her article. I wasn't thinking about it from that perspective. I apologize to any women offended."
Giant steps
Brandon Jacobs and Mario Manningham chose to stay with their new team, the 49ers, rather than attend the Giants' ring ceremony. "I think winning a championship is important . . . I respect that, but right now, I'm working toward the same goal with a new team," Jacobs told the 49ers' website . . . Before handing out the rings, Giants president and CEO John Mara said, "Much of my childhood and early adult years were spent suffering with some pretty poor teams. There were years when the team was ridiculed and scorned by the media and by our fans. So to get to this point today, where we're the world champions again, and to have an organization that is universally respected and, to my thinking, is second to none, is very special indeed."
