"FOUR MONTHS AFTER the Philadelphia Eagles lost Super Bowl LVII, Cam Jurgens glanced at the team schedule and came upon something that stopped him. "Ring Ceremony." It was June 2023, and Philadelphia still wasn't over its 38-35 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs. "What the hell is the ring ceremony for?" Jurgens, then a second-year offensive lineman, muttered. "We lost.""
"But it was supposed to be a nice thing. The team gathered in a meeting room and watched a highlight video of the 2022 season, and boy, were there some lovely highs -- the 13-1 start, the 70 sacks. The reel ended, and the Eagles were directed to a table in the cafeteria, which held a heap of boxes of personalized conference championship rings. The reward for finishing second."
"Honestly, I wasn't so thrilled about getting a ring that felt like a participation trophy that I had to pay taxes on," Jurgens said. "Like, it's second place. You know, you made it to the Super Bowl; you participated. So here's a beautiful, nice-sized ring as a token, or a reminder of you losing the Super Bowl. ... It's not necessarily just a participation trophy, but it's a reminder that, hey, you made it all the way to the mountaintop and failed."
Cam Jurgens reacted angrily when he found 'Ring Ceremony' on the Philadelphia Eagles' offseason schedule following the 38-35 Super Bowl LVII loss to the Kansas City Chiefs. The team gathered to watch a highlight reel celebrating the 13-1 start and 70 sacks, then was led to a cafeteria table stacked with personalized conference championship rings presented as the reward for finishing second. Jurgens and other players described the rings as reminders of falling short, likening them to participation trophies that still incur tax liabilities. The NFL game operations manual stipulates that the losing Super Bowl team 'will receive awards,' similar to runner-up prizes in other sports.
Read at ESPN.com
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