John Hannah Patriots Helmet In Grey Flannel Any Thoughts?

[VERIS#60]

I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts on the john Hannah Patriots game used helmet in Grey Flannel? I would appreciate any information to your thoughts on it being legit or not. Thanks so much for any info!
bruce

[yosef777]

Veris#60,
The Hannah helmet appears to me to be an actual Pats gamer but difficult to determine if it is Hannah's for sure. I am no Pats expert so I do not know if the #73 in black marker was a Pats equipment manager trademark and if it is authentic. Also, there are no size indicators in the description or photos. Even the facemask's red dot /green dot size indicator is covered by the extra side clip, which incidently was a feature on Hannah's helmet August 1981 SI cover. (To my eye the facemask appears to be a red dot indicating a medium size shell, 7 1/4 or smaller.) Seems to be some action on the helmet but as we all know doesn't mean its real. Sorry I can't be more helpful.

[VERIS#60]

yosef777,
Thanks so much for your response! I had some of the same concerns you have mentioned. If the mask is a red dot and original with the helmet, there is no way Hannah ever wore a medium shell. I am not sure if the equipment manager ever wrote the number in the helmet during this time period. I have owned a few Patriots linemens helmets and every one of them look like they wore put in a meat grinder. Both the helmet and mask displayed numerous hit marks. However, if this helmet was one he wore at the end of a season after perhaps cracking the shell of another one. Then, perhaps, he did wear this one for a couple games. Thanks so much for your input!
Bruce

[aeneas01]

i haven't had time to check out the gfc helmet but hannah did indeed sport a red dot schutt facemask throughout his career - in both gray & white...

btw veris#60, be careful not to write off a helmet simply because it's not a size large. with few exceptions, the entire league wore "medium" size suspension helmets before riddell introduced large shells in the early to mid '70s, even huge linemen...

...

[yosef777]

aeneas01 is correct as I know NOCSAE forced Riddell to go to a larger shells as there was not enough 'clearance' between the suspension and the shells. In fact when a player switched from a suspension helmet to a foam padded model like the PAC 3 it often meant a larger size helmet shell would be necessary due to the foam padding taking up more space within the shell. (Of course this was dependent on their helmet size.) Both Ahmad Rashad and Harold Carmichael went to larger helmet sizes when they went from suspensions to PAC 3's in the late 70's/early 80's.
Upon further thought on the helmet two things come to mind that make me think this was not the case with this helmet.
One, the NOCSAE and KRA LITE markings on the back of the helmet and the time stamp on the inside of the helmet lead me to believe it is from the mid to late 70's, at its earliest. This would date the helmet to the era after the NOCSAE mandated size change. Earlier Riddells had the word RIDDELL (in various fonts depending on the era) stamped on the back instead of the NOCSAE stamp. Also, the time clock stamp style was different in the earlier Riddells and it placement was marked just below the the ear hole not on top of the helmet.)

[yosef777]

Forgot to mention that I am not dismissing the helmet simply stating some facts in regards to stamps, markings and time periods. On the contrary, I do seem to remember Hannah wearing a rather small looking helmet (relative to the rest of his body) and with aeneas01 confirmation of a red dot mask along with my notations of the aforementioned stamps, markings and time periods I would say the medium shell Patriots/Hannah on Grey Flannel would seem correct.
Finally, we could contact Grey Flannel to ask them if they can read the date stamp on the top of the inside of the helmet as well as look for a size sticker on the inside of the helmet. That would make our speculation less speculative : )