The tub was part of the Kelce brothers’ Great “Lombaby” Games at their alma mater of Cincinnati, where teams of students faced off in a series of bizarre challenges. As Kelce explained it, one of those challenges was for two students to dig through the Skyline chili — specifically a 3-way consisting of chili, spaghetti and cheese — looking for socks with Super Bowl rings tied to them.

One of those rings was Kelce’s actual Super Bowl LII ring. Unfortunately, when the proverbial dust cleared, no one could find a white gold ring consisting of 219 diamonds and 17 rare green sapphires.

Kelce now believes the ring is in a landfill:

“There was an unfortunate-ness. As you guys know, this game existed because I continually lose my Super Bowl ring. I don’t even know if Travis still knows this, but I legitimately lost my Super Bowl ring in this event. They could not find it.

“We have still yet to find it. All of this stuff has been thrown away so I think we can safely assume that my super Bowl ring is in a landfill someplace in the Cincinnati tri-state area. I didn’t think that would happen.”

That ring was the only one Kelce earned across his 13-year career, and was the high point of one of the greatest careers for a center the NFL has ever seen. That career came to an end last month, when Kelce announced his retirement.

Weirdly, this isn’t the first time a sports legend has lost a championship ring in a container of meat. Baseball fans might recall legendary Los Angeles Dodgers broadcaster Vin Scully losing his 1988 World Series ring in a bag of Costco ribs.

Unlike Kelce, Scully proceeded to find the ring.

Jason Kelce losing his Super Bowl ring in a pool of chili is pretty on-brand. (Photo by Perry Knotts/Getty Images)

Kelce at least has a theory on what caused his ring to disappear, though he’s apparently accepted the loss and has submitted an insurance claim:

“The only thing I can think of is at some point the sock got kicked out of the three-way and it made its way out of the pool and it was thrown out in some shape or form. The Super Bowl ring is officially gone. We’ve already put the insurance claim in, which I think the insurance company might have some things to say about whether they’re going to cover that.”

To get a sense of the kind of money we’re talking about here, one ring auctioned off by former Eagles starting linebacker Nigel Bradham sold for more than $80,000 last year.

Kelce shrugged off the loss, though with the belief that he can pay to get the ring replaced:

“I knew where it was at. Somebody at some point messed with my Super Bowl ring, which I’m fine with. It’s just a hunk of metal. I’ll just have another one made, I think. They can do that, right? Guess we’re gonna find out.”

We wish the best of luck to him. There’s a good chance he will be able to afford having a new one made given how the podcast business is going, to say nothing of the $90 million he earned in his career or his considerable sponsorships.