UPDATE:

Again, the ring was found yesterday morning.

My buddy, who lost the ring on Super Bowl Sunday, actually jumped into the river that day, and also hired a guy with a waterproof metal detector, to no avail. The water was dark, and they just couldn't find it after searching the small area for about 3 hours.

(side note: another buddy of ours was drunk one night in college shortly after getting his ring, and was tossing around an old keg shell [yeah, i know] in the back yard, which backed up to some woods. Sure enough, the ring goes flying, my buddy panics, etc. The next day, we called someone with a metal detector from Craigslist and he found the ring in about 30 seconds.)

However, my buddy had a pretty good idea of where the ring had fallen into the water. Some time last week, the metal detector guy from Super Bowl Sunday got into contact with Mr. Joseph Cruz (who is some kind of authority figure for the river, or something). Mr. Cruz kindly relayed the message to his maintenance crew, and yesterday morning as they were doing routine maintenance, they just saw the ring beneath the surface, right where my buddy said he'd lost it. For whatever reason, the water was crystal clear (I think it might be clearer in the mornings, or something, but what do I know.)

Anyway, buddy said he was at work when he got the call, which was actually from metal detector guy. Metal detector guy asked whether my buddy was sitting down, and then proceeded to let him know that "they F^#@*NG FOUND IT!"

The ring is in transit to Houston town as we speak.