Bobby Johnson made a pivotal catch for the New York Giants in 1986, when they trailed the Minnesota Vikings in the fourth quarter of Week 12. Quarterback Phil Simms found Johnson on fourth-and-17, putting the Giants within range for Raul Allegre's game-winning 33-yard field goal.
The 22-20 victory propelled the Giants into the postseason and, eventually, to their Super Bowl XXI win over John Elway and the Denver Broncos.
Johnson, an undrafted free agent out of the University of Kansas, recorded 81 catches and 15 touchdowns his first two seasons in New York.
"Bobby was the mystery guy for a long time," said Bill Parcells, who coached the Giants from 1983 to 1990. "No one really knew about him."
Johnson might have appeared mysterious on the surface, but, in reality, he was hiding something from his teammates: He was addicted to crack cocaine.
"It was just a social gathering one night," Johnson said of his first encounter with the drug, sometime in the middle of the 1986 season. "We were at my place. Somebody said, 'Try this.' I had never tried it before. I thought my will was strong enough just to try it that one time and continue on with my life. But no. That one hit changed my life forever."
The more Johnson began using, the more he struggled to honor his commitment to football. He began arriving late to meetings and practices and almost missed kickoff for the Giants NFC Championship Game against the Washington Redskins.
Johnson's erratic behavior was overlooked when the team shared the joy of winning Super Bowl XXI, and of receiving the championship rings.
"Being as young as I was at that time, playing three years, and actually getting a Super Bowl ring, I didn't believe it," Bobby said. "I didn't believe it that day. I just kept looking at it, thinking, 'This cannot be happening.'"
The next summer, Johnson was traded to the San Diego Chargers.
He was cut two weeks later.
"They couldn't count on me," he said. "I don't blame them, you know. Just like a regular job, if you come in late every day, eventually you're going to get fired. That's what happened. I would have got rid of me, too."
But the cut pushed Johnson deeper into his addiction.
"I started doing cocaine 24/7. I didn't have to be at practice. I didn't have to get drug-tested," he said. "I stayed high practically all day and night."
Johnson headed home to Tennessee, but instead of being with his family in Smyrna, a rural town outside of Nashville, he hid himself in the city, often sleeping on benches along Nashville's Cumberland River.
"It was embarrassing," Johnson said. "One day you're in the Super Bowl, the next day, you're walking around, homeless, smoking crack. How in the heck did I end up in this situation?"
It was outside of a Nashville pawn shop in 1989 when Johnson said he hit rock bottom.
"The drugs were calling me. I mean, literally, the drugs were calling my name," he said. "I walked into the pawn shop to get high, maybe a place to sleep that night. A cheap room."
Johnson pawned his Super Bowl XXI ring for $250.
"I actually asked the man what he could give me for it," he said. "He offered me $1,000. I said no because I knew I wasn't going to be able to come back and pay it. Finally, he got down to $250. I said, 'I'll take it.'
"After that, it was just a distant memory. All I had was the tan line on my finger."
"One day you're in the Super Bowl, the next day, you're walking around, homeless, smoking crack. How in the heck did I end up in this situation?"
Several weeks later, it would be Johnson's mother, Ruby, who snapped her son out of his addiction with a simple but poignant reality check.
"I walked in the house one day, and she looked me dead in the eye," Johnson said. "She said, 'You look terrible. You look dehydrated, gray, you lost all kinds of weight.' It went to my core. It went to my soul.
"She asked me, 'Are you my son? I didn't raise you like this. This is not you.'"
Johnson has been clean for 14 years. ESPN learned his story, and shared it before this season's Giants-Vikings matchup in Week 4.
Within hours, a campaign to get Johnson's ring back to him began.
Leading the charge was Lee Einsidler, a sports fan who was deeply moved by Johnson's recovery and positive outlook.
Einsidler, who declined to be interviewed for this story, reached out to his close friend Bill Parcells with his idea. The two had bonded 10 years ago through a shared passion for horses in Saratoga, New York.
"Lee had seen the piece that ESPN had done on Bobby, on being homeless and selling his Super Bowl ring," Parcells said. "Right after that aired, Lee called me and he said, 'You know, Bill, we need to try and get this guy his ring back.' And I said, 'Well, Lee, I would like to assist you in doing that, if you would be gracious enough to let me.' Which he was."
Einsidler pursued the trail of Johnson's Super Bowl ring to a memorabilia dealer's collection on Long Island. From there, he and Parcells split the cost to purchase it.
"I felt like I failed with him in some respects," Parcells said of that 1986 season. "I wasn't able to keep him from going off the deep end, so to speak. We wound up having to trade him, and then football ended for him. Most of us thought that when we did hear about him, it wasn't going to be that good of news."
Parcells crossed paths with Johnson five years ago, when the 1986 team celebrated the 25th anniversary of its Super Bowl win.
"He was different," Parcells said. "He was good. He came right up to me, he gave me a big hug, told me the dark days were over. You could just tell that things were a lot better for him."
On Oct. 16, Johnson was invited to MetLife Stadium to attend the Giants' Week 6 game against the Ravens, joining 74 other Giants alumni being honored in a pregame ceremony. But before the ceremony began, Johnson was approached by Giants personnel.
"We were signing autographs, and they got me and said somebody wants to talk to me," he said. "All the guys thought I was in trouble!"
Johnson was led into a back room, where Chris Mara, Giants senior vice president, was waiting for him, holding a ring box.
"Thirty years ago, my dad presented you with a Super Bowl ring," Mara told Johnson. "Through the efforts of some very good people, we were able to recover your ring after all these years. We want to present it to you today."
Johnson was stunned. "I just couldn't believe it. It was like a dream. It really was," he said. "I just remember putting it on and crying. For five to 10 minutes, that's all I remember."
With his ring finally back on his finger, Johnson could not hold in his emotions any longer. He sat down, bent over and started sobbing. After drying his eyes, he then had an important phone call to make.
"I just told Coach thank you. A thousand times. Amongst all the tears, and my runny nose," Johnson said.
Parcells' message to Johnson was a little more like tough love.
"He was like, 'Put it on; don't ever take it off!'" Johnson said with a laugh. "'Don't lose it again.' Speaking to me like a father. Which was awesome. You have to respect that. He did everything he could to get it back. I didn't think it was going to actually happen."
"He was an important part of the group, and both Lee and I felt the same way," Parcells said. "He deserves to share in that with everybody. That's the only symbol that could represent his participation. So it was nice to get it back to him."
Johnson has never met Lee Einsidler but is hoping to set up a meeting with him soon to express his gratitude.
"I never thought this would happen," Johnson said. "God is good. Coach is good. I don't even know Lee. But I love him. This means the world to me.
"I have come a long way. I have come full circle."