From Napkin Sketch to the Gridiron: The Inside Story of the Lombardi Trophy

When the final whistle blew and the confetti settled, the Seattle Seahawks capped their Super Bowl 29-13 victory over the New England Patriots with one of sports’ most iconic moments: the presentation of the Vince Lombardi Trophy. As Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold lifted the gleaming prize high above his head during the postgame ceremony, he was holding a 6.7-pound masterpiece of sterling silver — a symbol of football supremacy and a triumph of American craftsmanship.

Standing 20.75 inches tall, the Vince Lombardi Trophy depicts a regulation-sized football poised in a kicking position atop a sleek, tapered three-sided base. The words “Vince Lombardi Trophy” and the LX Roman numerals for the 60th Super Bowl are engraved along its polished surface, while the National Football League shield adorns the base. Elegant in its simplicity, the design has remained virtually unchanged for six decades — a testament to the timeless vision behind it.

That vision famously began in 1966 with a sketch on the back of a cocktail napkin.

At the time, NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle was preparing for the first AFL-NFL World Championship Game and wanted a trophy that reflected the league’s ambition to present the sport as a first-class spectacle. He turned to Tiffany & Co., which arranged a meeting between Rozelle and its head of design, Oscar Riedener.

There was just one catch: Riedener, a native of Switzerland, knew nothing about American football.

Determined to understand the assignment, the designer visited the FAO Schwarz toy store in New York City and purchased a football. The next morning, he placed it on his kitchen table and studied its shape over breakfast. After finishing a box of cornflakes, Riedener cut up the empty package and fashioned a three-sided base to support the ball. Days later, during a lunch meeting with Rozelle and Tiffany executives, he sketched the concept on a cocktail napkin. The commissioner approved it on the spot — and an enduring sports icon was born.

Today, each Lombardi Trophy is handcrafted by Tiffany & Co. in a painstaking process that spans roughly four months and requires about 72 hours of skilled labor.

The journey begins in the company’s hollowware shop in Cumberland, RI. Sheets of sterling silver are heated to approximately 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit, making the metal soft enough to shape. A master spinner then places the heated silver on a lathe and carefully forms it into the distinctive football shape.

Next comes chasing, a traditional silversmithing technique in which artisans hammer intricate details into the surface, including the ball’s seams and laces. At the same time, another master silversmith fabricates the three-sided base, cutting, forming and soldering the components with precision. The assembled piece is then bathed in acid to remove impurities before undergoing extensive polishing and final assembly — a process that gives the trophy its mirror-like brilliance.

Although the Lombardi Trophy is presented immediately after the game, its journey isn’t quite finished. The piece will return to Tiffany’s workshop to be engraved with the names of both teams, the date and location of the game, and the final score. Unlike many championship awards, the Lombardi Trophy is not passed from team to team — each Super Bowl champion keeps its own.

While the trophy’s sterling silver content carries a melt value of roughly $8,000 based on current silver prices, its true worth lies far beyond the metal itself. With a reported production cost of about $50,000 — and immeasurable symbolic value — the Lombardi Trophy represents the pinnacle of achievement in professional football.

Credits: Trophy image by Erik Drost, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Screen capture of the fabrication process via YouTube / The Wall Street Journal.