Pitts' stolen Super Bowl rings replaced at Saints game
NEW ORLEANS -- One year after state Senate official Frank Pitts lost two Super Bowl rings to burglars, replacements arrived Sunday.
Pitts, 63, was presented with duplicate diamond rings to mark his participation in Super Bowls I and IV before Sunday's game between the New Orleans Saints and the San Francisco 49ers.
His originals were stolen when burglars ransacked the Baton Rouge home where he has lived for more than 20 years.
Pitts, who played wide receiver for the Kansas City Chiefs after a college career at Southern University, is a sergeant-at-arms for the Louisiana Senate. After word of the theft got around, Senate President Don Hines, D-Bunkie, offered a $1,000 reward for the missing rings.
Sen. Ken Hollis, R-Metairie, then decided to spearhead a fundraising drive among senators to replace the rings at a cost of $10,746.
"I've got to believe those were his pride and joy," Hollis said.
The original Super Bowl IV ring, which marked the Chiefs 23-7 win over the Minnesota Vikings at Tulane Stadium in 1970, is valued at $15,000 to $20,000, Pitts said. The ring from Super Bowl I, where the Chiefs lost to the Green Bay Packers, is worth $8,000 to $9,000.
Hollis said the fundraising drive got a $5,000 assist from the Saints. The team also provided Pitts and his family with use of a Superdome suite for the game.
Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press
