Kramer's Super Bowl I ring to be auctioned

Jerry Kramer always enjoyed the process of earning a championship ring.

He put a lot of value in the hard work, chemistry and determination it took to win five NFL titles and two Super Bowls as an offensive lineman with the Green Bay Packers in the 1960s.

But he’s never cared about keeping much from those times except the memories. Which is why, on the 50th Anniversary of the Super Bowl,  the former great is putting his Super Bowl I ring up for auction.

It’s one of 60 items from Kramer that will be made available by Heritage Auctions, a Texas company, in its Platinum Night auction that closes Feb. 20-21. It includes his game-used jersey from Super Bowl I and his Packers Hall of Fame ring.

Don’t worry. Kramer isn’t broke. He doesn’t need the money and said he’s living quite comfortably.

It’s just that the self-proclaimed borderline hoarder has had so much of this stuff packed away the past 40 years he doesn’t feel the need to keep it. Besides, the 125 fishing poles he has in the garage of his Idaho home likely won’t raise the type of money his football memorabilia will, nor will the dozen sets of golf clubs he’s had since his college days.

He plans on using the money to set up a college fund for his five grandchildren.

“My (six) kids have got enough stuff around the house that they wanted and had a piece of,” Kramer said. “We don’t have a Packers room or Packers spot. … it just doesn’t make a hell of a lot of sense to have that stuff.

“It was just an opportunity to kind of tidy things up, clean out the garage and maybe establish something for the grandkids.”

There is a conservative estimate of $100,000 or more for his Super Bowl I ring, but there’s a good possibility it could break the record for an auctioned Super Bowl ring.

Former New York Giants linebacker Lawrence Taylor’s Super Bowl XXV ring was sold for a record $230,401 in 2012, while former Chicago Bears defensive lineman William Perry’s Super Bowl XX one went for $203,150 in 2015.

“Any time you have a Super Bowl ring in an auction, it’s a big deal,” said Heritage consignment director Chris Nerat, who graduated from Marinette High School and the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. “But the fact that this ring is from a legendary Green Bay Packers player, and it’s Super Bowl I at a time when it’s the 50th anniversary, just makes it more exciting.”

Only two Super Bowl I rings have previously been made available. Former offensive lineman Steve Wright’s was auctioned for $73,409 in 2011, while linebacker Ray Nitschke’s was sold privately for an unknown amount.

Kramer declined to put up his Super Bowl II ring or the 1961 NFL Championship one that marked the first title he won. Both mean too much to him.

He still wears the Super Bowl II ring because of what it represents, which includes the final Packers game coached by Vince Lombardi and the famous drive against the Dallas Cowboys in the Ice Bowl that helped lead them to the championship two weeks later.

“It’s not just the ring and the diamond stones,” Kramer said. “It’s the coach in the locker room. It’s the early August day when he talked about challenges. It’s watching Merlin (Olsen) and Deacon (Jones) and the guys when we beat them 28-7 (in the playoffs) and thinking about the locker room speech Coach gave us. That ring, maybe because it was my last one, is by far my favorite ring.”

Another interesting item in the auction is a letter sent to him by Lombardi after Kramer made an appearance on “The Today Show” in 1968 to promote his book. Kramer talked about using his helmet as a weapon during the show, which wouldn’t go over well these days with the increased awareness of concussions.

It didn’t even sit well with Lombardi back then.

“Your statement concerning the use of the helmet as a weapon I don't think does you, the Green Bay Packers or professional football one bit of good,” Lombardi wrote. “Announcers and commentators deliberately bait people just to get a reaction such as yours.”

Kramer still thinks it was the general manager in Lombardi writing that rather than the coach. Besides, it was the truth.

“I did use my helmet as a weapon,” Kramer said. “I led with my head. It was the most certain way to block. You aim for the chest with your head and if you miss you get a shoulder. One or the other. You still get a pretty good piece of the individual. My head was pretty solid and pretty hard, so it didn’t seem to cause me a whole lot of problems.”

Kramer did have an assortment of injuries during his career. It included a concussion and detached retina in a game against the Rams in 1960, and he separated two bones in his left ankle the next season against the Vikings. He also had an operation for a tumor on his liver in 1964 that caused him to miss most of the season.

He’s had 28 major operations throughout his life.

It was around 1993 when he started to think about how cool it would be to see the new millennium. Only he was certain he wouldn’t be alive by then.

Kramer doesn’t mind that he was wrong. He will turn 80 on Jan. 23 and still is quite active.

He planned to go hunting with his two sons this week in Texas and work with NFL Films on a Super Bowl I project. He also has an upcoming engagement in Michigan and an appearance at the Super Bowl next month.

He doesn’t like to sit still. Golfing. Fishing. Hunting. He loves it all, including mingling with the Packers fans he says have treated him great.

There’s not much left to accomplish at this point for a man voted to the NFL’s 50th Anniversary Team and its 1960’s All-Decade Team while also being a five-time Associated Press all-pro.

But there still is that question hanging over him, the one about whether he will ever be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. His daughter, Alicia, has led a campaign in recent years in support of her father, but he again was left out of consideration for 2016 by the Hall of Fame’s Senior Committee.

That would have made him mad at one time. Not anymore.

“My little tippy emotional boat got wacked out about somewhere between ‘75 and ‘80 and maybe even ‘85,” Kramer said. “I started thinking about it. I started to think about all the gifts that have been given to me. It’s like they have given me so many presents, am I going to be pissed or I’m going to get pouty because they didn’t give me one? They gave me literally hundreds. That’s kind of stupid to let something like that bother you. You are going to be pissed that you didn’t get one honor that you thought you might get?

“Let’s not worry about that. Let’s go on down the road and enjoy the journey and enjoy the moment. If they don’t want to put me in the Hall of Fame, that’s their business. I’m fine with that.”