When he has attended reunions for the iconic Super Bowl XX-winning Chicago Bears, some of Emery Moorehead’s former teammates have asked why his championship ring remains so shiny.

He has a very good reason for that.

Moorehead, a former University of Colorado star, was a Chicago tight end from 1981-88 and caught two passes for 22 yards in Super Bowl XX as the Bears wrapped up the 1985 season with a 46-10 rout of the New England Patriots. For years, he has split his time living in Arvada from January to June and in Northbrook, Ill., the remainder of year.

Two decades ago, though, Moorehead spent an entire winter in that Chicago suburb. One day he went to the mailbox during lousy weather wearing his Super Bowl ring.

“I was reaching in the mailbox and I took my gloves off and I didn’t realize I had lost it until later,’’ said Moorehead, reflecting back 40 years after Super Bowl XX was played Jan. 26, 1986, at the Superdome in New Orleans. “When I realized I had lost it, I finally filled out an insurance report.”

A few months had elapsed during the period that included Moorehead eventually filing a report to when it was processed. He eventually got a check for $5,500, the estimated cost of the ring.

“For some reason, I didn’t cash it right away,’’ Moorehead said. “Then about two weeks after I got the check, a lady who lived near me said, ‘Did you lose something?’ And she had my ring. It had been under one of those big snow piles that lasted all winter and when the snow finally melted, there was my ring.”

The ring, though, was damaged from having been lodged in a snow pile that included road grime. But Moorehead learned from the Bears that Jostens, the company that makes Super Bowl rings, would repair it for free. So he sent the check back to the insurance company and his ring to Jostens.

“They fixed it up, cleaned it up, and it looked brand new,” Moorehead said. “So some of the other guys on the team said, ‘How’d you get your ring so shiny?”’

Moorehead was a stalwart that season for the Bears, catching 35 passes for 481 yards for a team that went 18-1, including the playoffs, and is regarded as one of the best in NFL history. He had finally found a home in Chicago after he entered the NFL with the New York Giants from 1977-79 and with the Broncos in 1980 and barely got the ball. Playing mostly on special teams in his one Denver season, Moorehead didn’t catch a single pass.

While Moorehead, 71, never was one of the most well-known players from the 1985 Bears, at least two things could have changed his popularity had they happened.

Moorehead was invited to take part in the Bears’ “Super Bowl Shuffle” video shoot. But he had to decline due to having a scheduled endorsement appearance at a Chicago store for a cologne.

“As it turned out, that 1985 video was unbelievable exposure for the guys,’’ Moorehead said. “I mean, everybody had that record or that VHS video tape and the thing went platinum. It was the highest-selling video next to Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller.'”

At least Moorehead can laugh now about missing it.

“Those guys didn’t get paid unless they had a singing part in the video,’’ Moorehead said. “At least I got a grand (for the endorsement appearance).”

Then in the Super Bowl, a play was designed late in the first quarter in which legendary 335-pound defensive tackle William “Refrigerator” Perry was put in the backfield with the assignment of throwing a touchdown pass to Moorehead with the Bears at the Patriots’ 5.

“The linebacker was running with me and I wasn’t open and the ‘Fridge’ didn’t throw and tried to run and he lost a yard,’’ Moorehead said of what was recorded as a sack. “But if I was open and caught a touchdown pass from the ‘Fridge,’ that would have been my moment in history. That would have been my claim to fame.”

Perry did get a 1-yard touchdown run in the third quarter, which has been shown over and over on highlight tapes the past 40 years. Meanwhile, there have been few replays of Moorehead’s catches in the game of 14 and 8 yards from Jim McMahon.

But at reunions for the team over the years, including the 40th-anniversary gathering last fall, Moorehead has been able to claim having the shiniest ring.

What I’m hearing

—Former Broncos running back and San Francisco Bay Area native C.J. Anderson is feeling a sense of pride with Sunday’s Super Bowl LX being in the Bay Area for the third time. San Francisco beat Miami 38-16 in Super Bowl XIX in January 1985 at Stanford Stadium. The Broncos defeated Carolina 24-10 in Super Bowl 50 in February 2016 at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, also the site of Sunday’s game between New England and Seattle.

“It’s good to see the Super Bowl back in the Bay Area and just hearing players (from numerous teams) talk about how fun ‘Cali’ is,’’ said Anderson, who rushed for 90 yards and scored a touchdown in Super Bowl 50. “When people are usually talking about California, they’re talking about L.A. It’s good to see that the players are enjoying themselves out here.”

—Regardless of whether play calling in 2026 is done by head coach Sean Payton or offensive coordinator Davis Webb, former Broncos quarterback Jake Plummer called it important that the team retained Webb.

“There were moments of brilliance and then there were some moments of calls that were not as good, but that’s normal in a season,’’ said Plummer, who played for the Broncos from 2003-06. “However it works out, having Webb, because he knows (Broncos quarterback) Bo (Nix) so well, it’s a big bonus for him to be the O.C.”

Webb, who is entering his fourth Denver season as an assistant and spent the past two years tutoring Nix, was promoted after being offensive pass game coordinator and quarterbacks coach in 2025.

What I’m thinking

—Kudos for now to new Bills defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard for at least not yet having caved into all the talk in Buffalo that it should have been a Brandin Cooks catch, rather than an interception by Broncos cornerback Ja’Quan McMillian, in overtime of Denver’s 33-30 win on Jan. 17 in a divisional playoff game. McMillian ripped the ball away from the Bills receiver as both players were falling to the ground at the Denver 20, saving the game for the Broncos.

“Was not (a catch by Cooks),” said Leonhard, hired by the Bills on Jan. 31 after being Denver’s assistant head coach and defensive pass game coordinator. “We caught it. Denver caught it.”

Speaking on Thursday in Buffalo, Leonhard did note he still considered it the 2025 season until the Super Bowl is played and he needed to maintain some “loyalty” to the Broncos. “Ask me in another week, and I’ll give you a different answer,’’ he said of the controversial play.

—With Denver and Kansas City both expected to open new stadiums with a roof in the 2031 season, that has prompted speculation about which city might have the inside track to potentially play host to a Super Bowl in February 2033. The NFL often grants a city with a new stadium a Super Bowl in the second season of it being open. My gut feeling is the Chiefs would have an advantage. After all, the winner of the AFC Championship Game gets the Lamar Hunt Trophy, named after the legendary late Kansas City owner. And having Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes around as a possible ambassador for the game, whether he ends up playing in it or not, would seem to be quite a bonus.