Tom Brady GU Helmet - Grey Flannel Lot #825

[beantown]

aeneas01...with your wealth of football helmet knowledge, could you please breakdown this Tom Brady Game Used Helmet currently running in Grey Flannel's Auction?

http://www.greyflannelauctions.com/showdetail.cfm?Lot=825&From=646&To=831

[mvandor]

Betting he'll tell you that Brady is the easiest helmet to reproduce, standard Riddell VSR-4, stickers easily available. A number of perfect copy sellers can be found on ebay. Beting you could put together an identical one, sweat in it and beat it around and you wouldn't be able to seperate em.

Accordingly, without perfect provenance from the team or Brady forgeddaboutit.

--
aeneas #1 apprectice :o

[aeneas01]

i don't like it for many reasons - to name a few...

1. as mvandor pointed out i just don't trust easily reproduced modern helmets, especially those that are said to be game used by future hall of fame players - brady, favre, etc.

2. imo the chinstrap looks much too mint/new to be game used.

3. the rear decals - interestingly this helmet reminds me of a very fishy "game used" ty law helmet that was auctioned off a few years ago at one of the big sports auction houses. the rear "patriot" decal on this brady helmet is identical to the one that appeared on the law helmet. both are inconsistent with what the pats actually use - wrong font, very suspicious cut. also, the"1" and "2" decals on this brady helmet that form the "12" look shaky to me as well.

here are a couple of photos of the rear "patriot" decal...

2001

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y238/aeneas1/back7.jpg

2007

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y238/aeneas1/back6.jpg

[cohibasmoker]

aeneas01 - As usual, words of the wise. Personally, I have seen a whole lot of Patriots helmet decal kits and a lot of red facemasks being sold on eBay.

Hey, I have a question for you. In the 70's, Riddell machined little clock-like impressions inside their helmets to show when the shell was manufactured. Most were located just above the ear-hole.

My question is, were all of their helmets done this way or just helmets that were shipped to professional teams?

Thanx,

Jim

[aeneas01]

cohibasmoker - how are ya my friend?

date stamps/codes - i believe that riddell and other helmet manufacturers date stamped/coded all helmets made for competitive use beginning in the late 60s, early 70s as a quality/safety control requirement. the shells without the date codes could be old inventory that made its way into circulation, old inventory that was manufactured before the date code requirements.

whatever the case, date codes began appearing on riddell shells around 1972, about the same time riddell stopped painting the interior of their shells gray - i don't think i've ever seen a vintage riddell with a gray interior that has a date stamp. this was around the same time that riddell also began to offer shells molded in a few colors other than white. i have a few riddell suspension helmets without the date code as well.

btw i found some photos of the fishy "game used" ty law helmet that sold at auction a few years ago for about $1,200, one of which i've included below.

this first group of photos show game photos dating back to 2001 of the rear "patriots" decal including a photo of ty law - notice the thickness/boldness of the font.

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y238/aeneas1/orig.jpg

this second group of photos show, from top to bottom, a) a brady reproduction helmet currently listed on ebay by ebayer bernstein2 (an honest ebayer who sells very nice reproductions that go for about $100-$150 dollars), b) a shot of the rear "patriots" decal on the "game used" brady helmet being discussed and c) the fishy "game used" ty law helmet that sold at auction. notice the similarity of these decals and how different they are from the game photos above. did the patriots use this style of font at one time? if so, i haven't seen it.


http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y238/aeneas1/fakes.jpg

[aeneas01]

i decided to spend some time this evening foraging through pre-2000 patriots photos and discovered that the pats did in fact use the thinner font on the rear decal prior to the 1999 season. but it was a diffent type of decal than those shown in the above photos - and, the ty law "game used" helmet is still incorrect even tho he played with the pats when they used the thinner font because the pats had long since moved to the thicker (current) font by the time the 911 memorial flag was added to the helmet. during the desert storm memorial flag year (1990) the pats were still sporting their classic white lids which, for the record, blow away their current lids imo...

[mvandor]

You like that helmet? Get it here at a savings.

http://www.realstuffsports.com/images/Triumph/brady2006large.jpg

GF hasn't a stellar rep and doesn't provide ANY provenance in their description. As aeneas pointed out there are even decal issues. The knockoffs from Real Stuff look more accurate.

[beantown]

aeneas01....it appears that the Brady helmet in the GFC auction is a size large....have you ever known him to wear a size large? I was told and you can see the difference in shell size in this photo w/ Doug Flutie, that Brady has ALWAYS worn a size x-large Riddell shell.....thoughts on that?

[mvandor]

aeneas01....it appears that the Brady helmet in the GFC auction is a size large....have you ever known him to wear a size large? I was told and you can see the difference in shell size in this photo w/ Doug Flutie, that Brady has ALWAYS worn a size x-large Riddell shell.....thoughts on that?

You seem tempted to take the plunge on this one. Have you asked GF about its provenance?

[spider9698]

Heritage auctions sold off a Brady game used helmet from his rookie season a few years back. It may have been the same one. For what it is worth, I went through many Getty images from this season and did not see a photo match. It appears that the top strap never matched the ones seen in the photos.

[aeneas01]

well it looks like it sold for $5,600+++

[mvandor]

well it looks like it sold for $5,600+++

Crazy. Given the inconsistencies and lack of provenance. Man some people just have way too much jack to spend on things.

[spider9698]

Funny. It does look like the same helmet that Heritage sold a few years back for over 6K. I agree completely. There is no documentation and too many inconsistencies to spend that kind of coin.

[beantown]

You can buy this "issued" Brady for potentially a fraction of the cost....better grab it now, as the seller states its "extremely rare"... ;)

http://cgi.ebay.com/TOM-BRADY-AUTO-2001-SUPER-BOWL-36-GAME-ISSUE-HELMET_W0QQitemZ270197476450QQihZ017QQcategoryZ272 76QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

[mvandor]

Given that aeneas had discussions with Gridiron Authentics that pretty much clarified their "game issued" helmets were NOT truly from teams' locker rooms, I'd say another victim is about to be had.