Eight days before Super Bowl XLV, Packers coach Mike McCarthy took a calculated risk. He had his players fitted for rings.
“We wanted to come into the game focused,” guard Daryn Colledge said. “We knew we had a chance to win this and came in with that mindset, and that’s the way we played: Downhill.
“It’s a pretty quiet process. It’s a ring fitting like you probably did for your own wedding ring. I think it just sets that mental mindset that you’ve got to go out there and you’ve got something to accomplish.”
Still, if word of the ring-fitting had surfaced, the Packers would have been called presumptuous, and the Steelers may have discovered some extra motivation in the maneuver.
In the end, there’s a good chance that the effort helped the team put the I.R. photo controversy behind it, allowing the Packers to ensure that the sizes of their fingers wouldn’t be used only for NFC championship rings.
UPDATE: Rosenthal sent an e-mail from the stadium indicating that the ring fitting happened more recently. The quote sheets distributed after the game indicated that the ring fitting happened “last Saturday.”