Mike Haynes, Atlanta Falcons #81 1988-93

[elsaivymom]

Hi, I am new to Jerseys and have had one just land in my lap. It is a Champion Branded Jersey for the Atlanta Falcons in a number 81, which was worn by Mike Haynes 1988-1993. It is signed on the front and has NO tags on the inside, just the champion tag on the outer lower front. Jersey is a size 44. This is a black jersey, which I understand to be the home jersey color at the time.

There is an oval commorative embroidered patch on the top left shoulder; it has a big silver 25 in the center with Atlanta Falcons above it, and the years 1966 and 1990 under the 25, with a small NFL logo inbetween the years. This was on the jersyes to mark the 25th anniversary of the Falcons in the NFL.

The right shoulder has the number 81 on it. The sleeves each have a Falcons logo on them, with an embroidered champion logo sewn under it. Front and back each have big white 81 numbers outlined in red, the Mike Haynes signature is on the front on the 8. The back has a rectangular name patch with HAYNES silkscreened on it, sewn on to the upper back poriton of the jersey.

Front and back are mesh nylon, shoulders and sleeves are very thick Nylon fabric, double thickness on the shoulders, single thickness in the sleeves. Sleeves are not banded, neck is rounded in the back going to a V in the front, with nylon or poly ribknit banding. All numbers are silkscreened, very thick, white edged in red.

Does anyone have an opinion if this sounds like real or fake, have any value at all, and to sell it, do I need to have it authenticated and if so , by who and what is the process.

It has been suggested to me that this could be a game issued jersey- but I have no clue as to what that means, so any info at all would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

[G1X]

This sounds like a legitimate 1990 Falcons game jersey from your description. I am not an authenticator, but would gladly look at your jersey for free and offer my thoughts (you would need to pay for shipping costs). I have been collecting and selling game-used football jerseys since 1974 with the Falcons being the focal point of my collection, and currently have several game-used 1990 Falcons jerseys in my collection (both Russell and Champion) that I could compare to your jersey.

As for some background on the Falcons 1990 jerseys, they switched to black jerseys that season after wearing red jerseys the previous 19 years (1971-1989). They originally wore black jerseys from the inception of the franchise in 1966 through 1970 (with several variations in the style).

The Falcons traditionally wore Russell Athletic jerseys beginning in the mid-1970s and continued through 1996 with the exception of switching to Champion for the 1991 regular season. However, in 1990, the Falcons wore black Champion jerseys in the preseason before switching back to Russell jerseys in the regular season. This can be verified in numerous photos from 1990 as Champion jerseys of that era were quite distinctive from Russell, Wilson, and other manufacturers. Both the shape of the Champion numbers and the lettering font on the nameplates were unique and easy to discern.

I am not sure of the reason the Falcons used Champion in the 1990 preseason and Russell during the regular season. Perhaps Champion was trying to get their business as back in those days, it was pretty much left up to each team to contract with the supplier of their choosing.

On a side note, 1990 was unique for the Falcons with their white jerseys as well. They started out the season wearing white Russell Athletic jerseys with red numbers trimmed in black. The lettering on the nameplate was black with red trim. Midway into the season, they reversed the color scheme on the numbers (black numbers with red trim), but did not change the lettering on the nameplate.

Another aside is that in several of their preseason games, there were a few players wearing duplicate numbers. Based on jerseys that later ended up in my collection, it was evident that in some cases, one player wearing a duplicate number would be in a Champion while the other was dressed in a Russell.

One final note on the 1990 Falcons jerseys. The Champion numbers and lettering on the nameplates were all screened-on. On the Russell jerseys, the numbers were screened-on, but the lettering was sewn-on to the nameplates. All of the jerseys - home and road of both Champion and Russell - had the anniversary patch sewn on the top left shoulder.

If you are looking for a value on the jersey, this style is fairly easy to find and usually runs in the $150-to-$300 range for common players. I currently have one on my price list at $150 which has not garnered much interest. The thing to keep in mind is that the 1990 Champion jerseys with the patch intact were used strictly in the 1990 preseason. The autograph may or may not hurt the value as some collectors like autographed jerseys, but a lot of collectors do not like the autograph.

I hope this information is helpful, and please let me know if any additional information is needed.

Mark Hayne