CUTLER BAY, Fla. _ Anthony John Machado, better known as AJ, got the call from Miami cornerbacks coach Mike Rumph roughly two weeks before the Hurricanes' opener.
Rumph, the 2002 first-round pick out of UM, had purchased from AJ's Jewelry during his six-year professional career. He's not alone. Dubbed the "King of Bling," Machado claims more than 700 active NFL players among his clientele.
Put on speaker phone while fellow ex-Hurricane Vince Wilfork was in Machado's Cutler Bay office for an unrelated purchase, Rumph told Machado that defensive coordinator Manny Diaz was looking for a prop to incentivize turnovers forced by his players _ similar to what Alabama does with its wrestling belt _ and, of course, "to bring the swag back."
The initial thought was a rope chain that players would get to wear after forcing a turnover.
"Naw, man," chimed in Wilfork, recently retired after a 13-year NFL career. "We got to do the Cuban link, AJ!"
The consensus among the three was a collective "Hell yeah!"
"In Miami, what are we famous for? We're famous for the Cuban chains," Machado says. "But we need to add a little something to it.
"So we did a big U charm _ orange stones, green stones in there to flash it out."
Ten days and 900 of those orange and green sapphire stones later, the 6.5-inch-wide "U" was attached to the 36-inch, 2.5-kilogram, 10-karat gold chain. The final product was wrapped up, secured in a box and shipped up US-1, accompanied by security, from the jewelry store in south Miami-Dade County to the Coral Gables campus.
That was the birth of the "Turnover Chain" _ which stole some of the national spotlight on college football's first full Saturday in the most Miami of ways.
