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Patriots: Giants Ring Theft After Super Bowl XLII ‘Masterminded’ by Angry Pats Fan

By Thomas Carannante

FOXBOROUGH, MASSACHUSETTS - OCTOBER 10: Tom Brady #12 of the New England Patriots shakes hands with Eli Manning #10 of the New York Giants after their game at Gillette Stadium on October 10, 2019 in Foxborough, Massachusetts. The New England Patriots defeated the New York Giants with a score of 35 to 14. (Photo by Adam Glanzman/Getty Images)
FOXBOROUGH, MASSACHUSETTS - OCTOBER 10: Tom Brady #12 of the New England Patriots shakes hands with Eli Manning #10 of the New York Giants after their game at Gillette Stadium on October 10, 2019 in Foxborough, Massachusetts. The New England Patriots defeated the New York Giants with a score of 35 to 14. (Photo by Adam Glanzman/Getty Images) /
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Back in 2008, a jewelry store in Attleboro, Massachusetts, was burglarized by a Patriots fan.

When the New York Giants ruined the New England Patriots‘ perfect season back in Super Bowl 42, there probably wasn’t a single fan that acted rationally in wake of the loss. The 18-0 season went down the drain and was forgotten thanks to Eli Manning and one of the biggest upsets in the history of the sport.

That angered Patriots fan Sean Murphy so much that he decided to rob a jewelry store in Attleboro, Massachusetts back in 2008 after learning where the Giants’ Super Bowl rings were because they “didn’t deserve them.”

Perhaps many Pats fans can agree after witnessing arguably the luckiest play ever when Manning completed that infamous pass to David Tyree.

Bloomberg.com did a feature on Murphy, who was apparently a professional at stealing and burglarizing.

“On Saturday nights he put on an all-black ninja suit and went out looking for things to steal,” wrote Zeke Faux. “He was a cat burglar—the best in a town where burglary was still regarded as an art form.”

Weeks after the Patriots’ defeat, Murphy was at the Boston Public Library researching and planning his next heist when he discovered who was manufacturing the Giants’ Super Bowl rings. It was E.A. Dion Inc. in Attleboro, Massachusetts. What better crime to commit?!

Accompanied by a friend, Murphy stole more than two dozen of the Giants’ SB hardware — and over $2 million in gold and jewelry.

“F— ’em, he thought,” Murphy though, via Faux. “They don’t deserve them.”

Murphy was eventually caught later in 2008 — after being busted for a bank robbery — by a lieutenant who had been after the him since 1990, and the rings were found in his possession. He was tried on a number of burglary charges and found guilty on all of them, which got him a 20-year federal prison sentence (that was reduced to 13 on appeal).

If not for a later robbery gone wrong, this Patriots fan could have gotten away with the greatest fan-centric theft in the history of sports.

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