It was Inevitable That

Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones could end up involved in bribing Clarence Thomas.

In 1994, Jerry Jones gave Thomas a Superb Owl ring.

They cost something north of $7,500.00 to make, and, at least according to sports memorabilia enthusiasts, that ring could likely now go for more than $100,000.00.

Thomas has been taking bribes for a very long time:

Long forgotten until last week, the Super Bowl ring Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones gave Justice Clarence Thomas in 1994 has skyrocketed in value.

One memorabilia expert says it could be worth upwards of $100,000.

The rings the players themselves got after Super Bowl XXVIII each cost $7,500, most of which came from the NFL. Thomas, who’d proclaimed his Cowboys fandom at his confirmation hearing a few years earlier, was on hand for the presentation of the bling.

But the specs of his ring are lost to history, which makes its current value a matter of some speculation.

“Typically, a non-player ring would go for $20,000 to $25,000,” said Ken Goldin, known to Netflix viewers as the “King of Collectibles” and founder of a leading auction house. “Due to the significance of Justice Thomas, I would say $100,000 or more in this case.”

………

The story set off a flurry of social media chatter and breathless news articles, the assumption and implication being that this, too, was a gift Thomas never disclosed.

It turns out that he did disclose it — on his 1994 ethics form, according to an Associated Press account from May 1995, when the court released the annual filings.

That form is no longer available for inspection.

………

At his September 1991 confirmation hearing, he declined to state his views on abortion but readily testified under oath that when it comes to the NFL, he is not impartial.

“I’ve been a Dallas Cowboys fan for 25 years,” he told the senators.

It’s not uncommon for longtime members of Congress to become devoted fans of the local team. Then-Sen. Alan Simpson, R-Wyo., quipped that “to have you in this nest of Redskins fans, to be a Dallas Cowboys fan, certainly discloses a degree of independence which will serve you very well on the court.”

A year later, Thomas was in Jones’s box for a Cowboys-Redskins game. Over the next few years, he would attend training camp sporting a jersey with the number 106 — he was the 106th justice. He would fly on Jones’ private jet.

Jerry Jones has been a complete bucket of putrescent slime his entire life.

That he was bribing Clarence Thomas, it kind of seems inevitable, or, to quote Zathras, At least there is symmetry."