The Super Bowl II ring that previously belonged to former Packers lineman Fred “Fuzzy” Thurston sold for $50,788 at an auction on Thursday night.
The money will go to the IRS, not to Thurston. During his playing career, Thurston and some business partners opened a chain of restaurants, and the IRS found that they withheld federal income taxes from their employees’ paychecks but failed to turn all the money over to the IRS. Thurston was ordered to pay $190,000 in 1984, never paid, and with interest that debt now stands at $1.7 million.
Some Packers fans talked about pooling money to buy the ring and give it back to Thurston, but this buyer was anonymous and there’s no word on what he or she intends to do with it. (It’s also entirely possible that if that did happen, the IRS would just seize the ring from Thurston and sell it again.)
Thurston played for the Colts in 1958 and for the Packers from 1959 to 1967.