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some thoughts on the bounty of vintage game used football helmets currently listed at mastro - has there ever been this many interesting helmets listed by an auction house at the same time? i don't think so. in no particular order, here's a closer look at some of the lids with a few comments based on photos. anyway, jump in you helmets heads....
i've never seen this "circa 70s bobby bell" helmet listed at auction before but i'm not too crazy about it. bell wore an rk style helmet (bubbled/flared ear style helmet) for most of his career but switched to the tk style (pictured) in the very early 70s. the thing is, it appears bell may have taken advantage of the larger tk shells that were introduced around the time he made the switch. whatever the case, the dungard facemask positioning of the auction helmet is entirely inconsistent with bell's actual tk lid. notice where the top "t" of the facemask is mounted in the game photos - it's so close to the shell edge that the front rivet can be seen. notice the side mountings in the game photos - the facemask clips are so close to the helmet edge that the facemask is beyond the shell. now compare this with the auction photos - i've never seen an example of bell ever wearing a helmet with his dungard positioned as in the auction. for a look at a beautiful bell gamer, visit "helmet hut" and check out bell's pro bowl lid.
great looking vintage pro bowl gamer - but did it belong to lamonica, was it his '72 pro bowl lid? pro bowlers typically brought their lids with them to these all star matchups - they were simply painted over in gold, red, white, etc. depending on the era. in '72, the year in question (and his final pro bowl season), lamonica sported an rk helmet (bubbled/flared ear), not a tk helmet as pictured in the auction. in fact, it's pretty safe to say that the "mad bomber" was definitely an rk helmet man, which he wore throughout his career with the raiders (although he may have switched to a tk in his final two seasons). the last game lamonica played before the '72 pro bowl was against the steelers, a game that will forever be remembered thanks to franco harris's "immaculate reception" - lamonica can clearly be seen sporting his rk in this final game. of course this doesn't mean lamonica didn't wear a tk in the '72 pro bowl - maybe he was given a tk at the pro bowl because his rk got lost, maybe he didn't want his rk painted red, who knows. whatever the case, as a buyer i would want conclusive photo evidence that lamonica wore a tk in the '72 pro bowl and, if he did, i would also have to feel comfortable with the fact that the lid falls well short of a classic example of what lamonica wore during his great, and i do mean great, years with the raiders. btw, i can't believe lamonica isn't in the hall of fame. btw, btw - there's a great looking lamonica gamer featured at helmet hut.
looks like a dead ringer - it also appears to have very similar game markings as indicated above, markings that could potentially match up even better with the helmet in hand, rotated to reflect same angle. icing on the cake would be a game photo of unitas showing the short-lived "kra-lite-8" logo heat stamped on the back of his helmet. obviously physically examining the lid could tell a different story but from the photos alone it sure looks good. fwiw this helmet has sold for $7,500 & $10,000 in the past.
although this helmet is a much, much better representation than the $50,000 macgregor "gamer" that sold at hunt's and the $10,000 trojan "gamer" that sold on ebay, it has far too many problems to be an actual game helmet used by unitas imo. the most obvious problems are the facemask drill holes - although these sort of drill holes are very common when it comes to authentic gamers, i have never seen a photo or film frame of unitas wearing such a helmet. in the mid 60s, for a year or two, unitas wore an rk helmet with drill holes but their location, compared to the auction helmet, were different. as can be seen in the game photos above, the side drill holes were located just above where a bd facemask would be mounted and the top drill holes were located close to the center stripe and well above helmet edge. in short, the drill holes on unitas's helmet were consistent with a "cowcatcher" facemask (pictured at the bottom left - raymond berry), and not consistent with a clip-on facemask or butterfly clip-on facemask as in the auction helmet. nonetheless, if history is any indication, this unitas "gamer" should easily fecth five figures.
probably my two favorite helmets in the auction - just beautiful rk gamers. if i had to pick one, i would have to go with the atkins (saints) lid. this thing is just a knockout - a classic rk (rac) helmet, a vintage, well-worn, clip-on nop facemask, optional (and rare) factory leather forehead padding, vintage chinstrap, vintage two-piece side decals, etc. throw in the fact that it belonged to a hall of famer and that it's a helmet from the inaugural season of an nfl franchise and it becomes clear how special this lid is. if i were the owner of this lid i wouldn't be particularly happy with the part of the item description that states: "Overall, this helmet is destroyed." - imo pretty goofy wording regardless of the intent. fwiw this helmet has sold in the past for a paltry $500 and for a more deserving price of $2,000. the philbin (jets) lid is another absolute knockout - a classic xl rk (husky) helmet fiited with optional (relatively rare) factory leather padding.
here's that george blanda "gamer" again which recently sold for $4,400 at another auction house. when it was previously listed i created a guu thread discussing the huge problems with this lid - i mention this because this time around the lot description includes 17 pages of "addendum & photographic support" which is a rebuttal clearly directed at what i had posted about the lid here at guu. whoever wrote the rebuttal obviously spent some time putting it together - this person is also, imo, very familiar with game used items including football helmets. and although the rebuttal was interesting and at times an informative read, it contained nothing that would convince me that this was blanda's "70-71 game used helmet".
what the rebuttal did do was try to convince the reader that just about every helmet that comes down the pike could have easily belonged to pretty much any player because, according to the author, "...helmets were used by multiple players without regard to veteran status, star status, salary or any other criteria, save for size, fit, mask, or padding considerations." while this is certainly true to some extent, it's also true that many players wore the same helmet over the course of many of many years (including raiders) - in fact, some players wore the same helmet for their entire careers. like a baseball glove, many players preferred their own broken-in lids as far as the padding was concerned.
anyway, i pretty much disagree with just about everything in the rebuttal including the explanation concerning the outline of the "32" which can be seen below the current decals. i also have to point out that a couple of photos the author used to support his position, that blanda wore a helmet with a white snubber during the 70-71 season, are in black & white and of poor quality. if you look at the higher quality color photos available (as can be seen in the bottom right hand game photo above dated 1970), it's pretty obvious that his snubber is gray. in fact there are even color photos in which the snubber appears almost white - but further investigation proves this effect is simply caused by glare.
as far as this "70-71 blanda gamer" is concerned, i'll ask the author of the rebuttal two simple questions: 1) can you find one photo or film frame, just one, showing blanda wearing a helmet that roughly matches this helmet? and 2) if this helmet was subsequently used by another player (or players) and the drill holes were added to meet that player's facemask requirements as you suggest, then why does blanda's number "16" remain on the back of the helmet? why wouldn't the subsequent player(s) number appear on the back of the helmet?
this is a tak29 helmet and one of my favorite styles given that it represents the transition from suspension helmet to a cell padded helmet. the problem is i have not seen any evidence that riggins ever wore a tak29 while with the jets. during his first 3 years in new york he sported a suspension helmet (tk) and then switched to a cell for his final two years. a tak29 helmet is easily identified from the exterior because both the rivets (that secure the suspension crown) and pegs (which secure the cell padding) are evident. looking at the game photos above, riggins can be seen wearing a suspension helmet (all rivets) and a cell helmet (all pegs). in the auction photo rivets can be seen and so can the peg(s) (circled in red). this helmet has sold for $3,800 in the past.
here are a couple of great looking helmets but, frankly, i wish i could feel better about them. the bart starr helmet strikes me as an authentic packers gamer that was made to look like what starr wore. the macgregor "absorblo" e64l chinstrap, which came with macgregor e505 helmets, is consistent with what starr wore although starr's chinstrap was typically fitted with a metal sizer/fastener, not a nylon/plastic one as appears in the auction. the bt2 (stubby) facemask also strikes me as an addon given what appears to be such light use. and, needless to say, i'm not too crazy about this mention in the item desciption: "On the lower back, the outershell numeric identifiers have been enhanced."
as far as the biletnikoff lid is concerned, as a buyer i would feel much more comfortable if i could locate a single photo (of the many in circulation) that roughly matched the details of this helmet. specifically, a photo that showed fred wearing a lid with only top drill holes (as opposed to top holes and side holes) that hadn't been repainted by the reconditioner. too much to ask? perhaps. especially given the many types of looks his rk(s) showed throughout the years including cracks that were merely taped up. could this lid be one of fred's gamers? i suppose. could it simply be a raiders reject gamer signed by fred and then added to? sure. imo.
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i've never seen this "circa 70s bobby bell" helmet listed at auction before but i'm not too crazy about it. bell wore an rk style helmet (bubbled/flared ear style helmet) for most of his career but switched to the tk style (pictured) in the very early 70s. the thing is, it appears bell may have taken advantage of the larger tk shells that were introduced around the time he made the switch. whatever the case, the dungard facemask positioning of the auction helmet is entirely inconsistent with bell's actual tk lid. notice where the top "t" of the facemask is mounted in the game photos - it's so close to the shell edge that the front rivet can be seen. notice the side mountings in the game photos - the facemask clips are so close to the helmet edge that the facemask is beyond the shell. now compare this with the auction photos - i've never seen an example of bell ever wearing a helmet with his dungard positioned as in the auction. for a look at a beautiful bell gamer, visit "helmet hut" and check out bell's pro bowl lid.
great looking vintage pro bowl gamer - but did it belong to lamonica, was it his '72 pro bowl lid? pro bowlers typically brought their lids with them to these all star matchups - they were simply painted over in gold, red, white, etc. depending on the era. in '72, the year in question (and his final pro bowl season), lamonica sported an rk helmet (bubbled/flared ear), not a tk helmet as pictured in the auction. in fact, it's pretty safe to say that the "mad bomber" was definitely an rk helmet man, which he wore throughout his career with the raiders (although he may have switched to a tk in his final two seasons). the last game lamonica played before the '72 pro bowl was against the steelers, a game that will forever be remembered thanks to franco harris's "immaculate reception" - lamonica can clearly be seen sporting his rk in this final game. of course this doesn't mean lamonica didn't wear a tk in the '72 pro bowl - maybe he was given a tk at the pro bowl because his rk got lost, maybe he didn't want his rk painted red, who knows. whatever the case, as a buyer i would want conclusive photo evidence that lamonica wore a tk in the '72 pro bowl and, if he did, i would also have to feel comfortable with the fact that the lid falls well short of a classic example of what lamonica wore during his great, and i do mean great, years with the raiders. btw, i can't believe lamonica isn't in the hall of fame. btw, btw - there's a great looking lamonica gamer featured at helmet hut.
looks like a dead ringer - it also appears to have very similar game markings as indicated above, markings that could potentially match up even better with the helmet in hand, rotated to reflect same angle. icing on the cake would be a game photo of unitas showing the short-lived "kra-lite-8" logo heat stamped on the back of his helmet. obviously physically examining the lid could tell a different story but from the photos alone it sure looks good. fwiw this helmet has sold for $7,500 & $10,000 in the past.
although this helmet is a much, much better representation than the $50,000 macgregor "gamer" that sold at hunt's and the $10,000 trojan "gamer" that sold on ebay, it has far too many problems to be an actual game helmet used by unitas imo. the most obvious problems are the facemask drill holes - although these sort of drill holes are very common when it comes to authentic gamers, i have never seen a photo or film frame of unitas wearing such a helmet. in the mid 60s, for a year or two, unitas wore an rk helmet with drill holes but their location, compared to the auction helmet, were different. as can be seen in the game photos above, the side drill holes were located just above where a bd facemask would be mounted and the top drill holes were located close to the center stripe and well above helmet edge. in short, the drill holes on unitas's helmet were consistent with a "cowcatcher" facemask (pictured at the bottom left - raymond berry), and not consistent with a clip-on facemask or butterfly clip-on facemask as in the auction helmet. nonetheless, if history is any indication, this unitas "gamer" should easily fecth five figures.
probably my two favorite helmets in the auction - just beautiful rk gamers. if i had to pick one, i would have to go with the atkins (saints) lid. this thing is just a knockout - a classic rk (rac) helmet, a vintage, well-worn, clip-on nop facemask, optional (and rare) factory leather forehead padding, vintage chinstrap, vintage two-piece side decals, etc. throw in the fact that it belonged to a hall of famer and that it's a helmet from the inaugural season of an nfl franchise and it becomes clear how special this lid is. if i were the owner of this lid i wouldn't be particularly happy with the part of the item description that states: "Overall, this helmet is destroyed." - imo pretty goofy wording regardless of the intent. fwiw this helmet has sold in the past for a paltry $500 and for a more deserving price of $2,000. the philbin (jets) lid is another absolute knockout - a classic xl rk (husky) helmet fiited with optional (relatively rare) factory leather padding.
here's that george blanda "gamer" again which recently sold for $4,400 at another auction house. when it was previously listed i created a guu thread discussing the huge problems with this lid - i mention this because this time around the lot description includes 17 pages of "addendum & photographic support" which is a rebuttal clearly directed at what i had posted about the lid here at guu. whoever wrote the rebuttal obviously spent some time putting it together - this person is also, imo, very familiar with game used items including football helmets. and although the rebuttal was interesting and at times an informative read, it contained nothing that would convince me that this was blanda's "70-71 game used helmet".
what the rebuttal did do was try to convince the reader that just about every helmet that comes down the pike could have easily belonged to pretty much any player because, according to the author, "...helmets were used by multiple players without regard to veteran status, star status, salary or any other criteria, save for size, fit, mask, or padding considerations." while this is certainly true to some extent, it's also true that many players wore the same helmet over the course of many of many years (including raiders) - in fact, some players wore the same helmet for their entire careers. like a baseball glove, many players preferred their own broken-in lids as far as the padding was concerned.
anyway, i pretty much disagree with just about everything in the rebuttal including the explanation concerning the outline of the "32" which can be seen below the current decals. i also have to point out that a couple of photos the author used to support his position, that blanda wore a helmet with a white snubber during the 70-71 season, are in black & white and of poor quality. if you look at the higher quality color photos available (as can be seen in the bottom right hand game photo above dated 1970), it's pretty obvious that his snubber is gray. in fact there are even color photos in which the snubber appears almost white - but further investigation proves this effect is simply caused by glare.
as far as this "70-71 blanda gamer" is concerned, i'll ask the author of the rebuttal two simple questions: 1) can you find one photo or film frame, just one, showing blanda wearing a helmet that roughly matches this helmet? and 2) if this helmet was subsequently used by another player (or players) and the drill holes were added to meet that player's facemask requirements as you suggest, then why does blanda's number "16" remain on the back of the helmet? why wouldn't the subsequent player(s) number appear on the back of the helmet?
this is a tak29 helmet and one of my favorite styles given that it represents the transition from suspension helmet to a cell padded helmet. the problem is i have not seen any evidence that riggins ever wore a tak29 while with the jets. during his first 3 years in new york he sported a suspension helmet (tk) and then switched to a cell for his final two years. a tak29 helmet is easily identified from the exterior because both the rivets (that secure the suspension crown) and pegs (which secure the cell padding) are evident. looking at the game photos above, riggins can be seen wearing a suspension helmet (all rivets) and a cell helmet (all pegs). in the auction photo rivets can be seen and so can the peg(s) (circled in red). this helmet has sold for $3,800 in the past.
here are a couple of great looking helmets but, frankly, i wish i could feel better about them. the bart starr helmet strikes me as an authentic packers gamer that was made to look like what starr wore. the macgregor "absorblo" e64l chinstrap, which came with macgregor e505 helmets, is consistent with what starr wore although starr's chinstrap was typically fitted with a metal sizer/fastener, not a nylon/plastic one as appears in the auction. the bt2 (stubby) facemask also strikes me as an addon given what appears to be such light use. and, needless to say, i'm not too crazy about this mention in the item desciption: "On the lower back, the outershell numeric identifiers have been enhanced."
as far as the biletnikoff lid is concerned, as a buyer i would feel much more comfortable if i could locate a single photo (of the many in circulation) that roughly matched the details of this helmet. specifically, a photo that showed fred wearing a lid with only top drill holes (as opposed to top holes and side holes) that hadn't been repainted by the reconditioner. too much to ask? perhaps. especially given the many types of looks his rk(s) showed throughout the years including cracks that were merely taped up. could this lid be one of fred's gamers? i suppose. could it simply be a raiders reject gamer signed by fred and then added to? sure. imo.
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