Rock Guitarist and LA Rams Super Fan Nita Strauss Earns Championship Ring

Here's the story behind how one of the world's most accomplished female guitarists earned a Super Bowl LVI championship ring.

Los Angeles born guitarist Nita Strauss has become a force to be reckoned with in the music world, dazzling audiences across six continents. She was Alice Cooper’s touring guitarist from 2014 to 2022 and is currently on tour with Demi Lovato.

She's also a wildly dedicated Los Angeles Rams super fan whose "shreddy guitar playing" prior to the team's home games at SoFi Stadium has been credited with juicing the crowd and supporting the Rams epic run to the Super Bowl LVI championship in February 2022.

In an 800-word piece on ESPN.com, staff writer Michael Rothstein recounted the rocker's Herculean efforts to honor her tour commitments while supporting her favorite team. It was not unusual for her to play a Saturday evening concert, hop a crack-of-dawn Sunday flight to Los Angeles, take an Uber straight to the stadium, perform at the game, grab an Uber back to the airport and catch a red eye to the next stop of the tour.

For her over-the-top devotion to the team, Strauss was honored with an official Super Bowl ring, the same one earned by the players, coaches and staff.

On her Instagram page, Strauss wrote, "And ring or no ring, it was worth every early morning sprint through the airport to be a small part of bringing the energy to SoFi and watching the team bring the championship home."

She said the ring is "pretty damn awesome" and her "new favorite piece of hardware."

Strauss recalled being on tour when she received an unexpected text from Sarah Schuler, the Rams' senior director of game presentation and brand experience.

Schuler's one-line question was, "What's your ring size."

Strauss has been the in-house guitarist for Rams games since the team moved to the $5 billion SoFi Stadium in 2020. She was there when the Rams played in front of no fans during the pandemic, and she enjoyed packed houses last season — all while wearing her No. 86 Rams jersey, a nod to her birth year and her dad's uniform number when he played football.

Strauss put her accomplishments into perspective with this comment on her Instagram page: "You have these goals and dreams and aspirations in your life. And then sometimes, as your career goes on, you’re fortunate enough to achieve things that weren’t even a part of those aspirations, because they didn’t even exist before."

The guitarist has been touring internationally with Lovato and hasn't been able to whip up the crowds at the Rams' home games this season — so far.

On Instagram, she wrote, "Can’t wait to be back home in the #RamsHouse in a few short weeks!!!"

She'll make her return to SoFi on November 13.

Just for the record, the Super Bowl LVI rings presented to the Los Angeles Rams’ players, coaches, staff and Strauss set a record for the highest diamond carat weight in the history of NFL championship rings. Each ring pops with 20 carats of white diamonds, along with custom-cut blue and yellow sapphires set in white and yellow gold.

Images via Instagram / hurricanenita.

407-Carat 'Incomparable' Gets Reshaped and Renamed Before Heading to Auction

The reimagined “Incomparable Diamond," now sporting a classic pear shape and slimmed down to 303.10 carats to reveal a deeper color, brighter hue and improved profile, will be introduced as "The Golden Canary" when it hits the auction block at Sotheby's Magnificent Jewels event in New York on December 7.

In a bold move, the auction house is offering the famous diamond without reserve. Experts believe the massive stone — one of the largest polished diamonds in the world and the largest internally flawless diamond ever graded by the Gemological Institute of America — will sell for $15 million or more.

The original 407-carat, shield-shaped, step-cut Incomparable Diamond had been cut from an 890-carat rough gem discovered by a young girl in the Democratic Republic of Congo in the early 1980s. She reportedly scooped up the stone from a pile of rubble collected from an old mine dump. The diamond had been overlooked because it was mixed in with the bulky rubble thought to be too large to contain any diamonds.

The girl gave the stone to her uncle, who then sold it to local diamond dealers. Given its enormous size, cutters originally intended to shoot for a record-breaking finished stone that would outweigh the Cullinan I (530.20 carats). But as the project progressed, the cutters decided to forego the record. The final size was reduced to 407 carats in order to earn a flawless grade. The original rough diamond also yielded 14 satellite finished gems ranging in size from 1.33 carats to 15.66 carats.

The fancy, deep brownish-yellow Incomparable Diamond became an instant sensation. The gem has attracted crowds at famous museums around the world, including a six-week stint at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC, in 1988.

Sotheby's noted that vastly improved computer modeling and cutting technology contributed to the decision to trim the gem by more than 100 carats. The goal was to maximize its depth of color, brighten its hue and improve its shape.

The GIA described the stone in its monograph: “The re-cut of the Incomparable to the current 303.10 carat pear modified brilliant is to look at the diamond as new; a re-creation bringing to bear the advances in technology, computer modeling and visual evaluation available today. Everything from the orientation of the stone, to its shape and cutting style, has been considered.”

"Steeped in history, The Golden Canary is one of the most exquisite diamonds to ever be discovered, not only for its sheer size and intensity in color, but for its stunning beauty that is sure to captivate collectors around the world," noted Quig Bruning, Sotheby’s Head of Jewelry for the Americas. "Sotheby’s is privileged to help write the next chapter for this incomparable, reborn gem.”

The Golden Canary is embarking on a worldwide tour that will include appearances in Dubai, Taipei, Geneva, Hong Kong before returning to New York for the auction.

Credit: Photo courtesy of Sotheby's.