Weird little story circulating in the nether regions of the Interwebs concerning well-known (almost legendary, matter of fact) con man Fred Brito and his claim that, yesterday, he became the "owner of Troy Aikman's 1993 Super Bowl Dallas Cowboy's Championship Ring." The folks over at The Landry Hat, a Dallas Cowboys' site, are trying to debunk the story with "a full investigation," which Brito's welcoming with taunting posts of his own. Only, it isn't necessary, fellas. Because Aikman's personal assistant, Saye Donovan, tells Unfair Park this morning that the former Cowboys QB "has not had any thefts and has kept all his Super Bowl rings. I am certain it's not a true story. People like to see what they can get away with."
Donovan and the woman who answers the phone at The Aikman Foundation both recall that a few years back, another man also claimed to have bought one of Aikman's Super Bowl rings. "But I am 99.99 percent sure he has all his Super Bowl rings," says the woman at the foundation, "because he keeps them in a very safe place, and I know where it is." Investigation closed. --Robert Wilonsky
Update: After the jump, Fred Brito calls to say that the Fred Brito who claims to have bought the Aikman ring was not, in fact, the real Fred Brito. This just turned into a very interesting story.
So, yeah, Fred Brito just called. Wanted to know how he wound up all over the Internet in recent days. Wanted to know why his office phone was going "haywire." Because, look, Fred Brito said, he doesn't know squat about Troy Aikman's ring or any other piece of jewelry.
"I have no clue what anybody's talking about," he said. "It's not me."
So I asked him, "Is FredBrito.net your Web site?"
Yes, he said. He sounded exactly like Fred Brito.
"Because yesterday," I told him, "it said on your Web site that you bought Troy Aikman's Super Bowl ring."
"I did not write all this stuff," he insisted. "But it's all over the blasted Internet that I am some big liar."
But you are the Fred Brito who's the infamous con man, right?
"Yes, that is me," he said. "But somebody has pirated my Web site, and I don't appreciate it."
And, indeed, Brito's site now has a note that reads, in part:
There appears to be someone in the universe who enjoys impersonating me and is doing a poor job at doing it. They have pirated my websites and precautions have been taken to change the passwords in order to hopefully prevent this from happening in the future.
So, I asked him, somebody's doing to you what you used to do to other people? He agreed.
"I understand it, but the way people have been talking about me on the Internet, I don't appreciate it," he said. "They're doing what I normally would have done five years ago, but I haven't done it in a long time. But I am going straight. And I am livid somebody would actually do this. I've never done this before to somebody else. This is a first. But what goes around comes around. I guess I earned it. But I do not have a ring and don't want one. It's bizarre. I am not even a Cowboys fan. I am a Rams fan."
Thank you for the help. Case closed. Good job.
Posted at: July 17, 2008 1:01 PM