Namath's Game Worn Super Bowl Helmet? Nope.

[aeneas01]

anyway, heritage seems to have made the best of a bad situation by reacting promptly and properly. i can name a few auction houses that would've told you to take a flying leap and would continue to run the helmet because "lou says he likes it".rudy.

and that's all i've been trying to point out, especially given my experiences with other auctions houses. as i mentioned months ago, i once came across a "game used" butkus helmet at auction that didn't look right - so i contacted butkus, pointed him to the auction and he replied to my email the following day that the interior of the helmet "bothered" him, that he didn't recall his number ever being applied to the inside of the helmet in the same manner. the auction houses response? in a nutshell - butkus didn't know what he was talking about, the lid rides. beautiful.

notice the "namath", "12", and "jwm" inscriptions written in the helmet. now juxtapose those with your comment that "this helmet was never worn by namath...there are several problems relating to the interior of the helmet that, imo, rather easily disqualifies it as a helmet ever worn by namath". the helmet was never worn by namath yet the inside is marked up with his name and number. i don't doubt your evaluation but it certainly makes the inscriptions very puzzling.

imo no more puzzling than the sig on the exterior of the helmet that reads "hope you have as much luck with this as i have...", no more puzzling than a 1975 vintage cowboys' tk helmet that will soon hit auction houses with a letter from staubach stating that it was his game used lid even though staubach stopped wearing tk lids after the '72 season, no more puzzling than a 1973 vintage tk packers' lid inscribed by bart "1971 my final season".

any thoughts on how or why those inscriptions are there?

sure - just as i have thoughts as to why the size "7" appearing on the crown webbing has been carefully darkened. but, again, the helmet is clearly not namath's sb3 lid as advertised so getting into that or the several other problems with the lid seems to be beating a dead horse - or an attempt to further embarrass heritage by piling it on.

i don't think there's anything unethical about sharing info. you're assuming their reps will necessarily suffer and i don't think that's the case. kim stigall's made some errors and his rep is stellar. people can barely remember the mistakes he's made because they were so few and far between and they weren't stupid errors.

i think we'll have to agree to disagree - imo auction houses suffer when they drop the ball and their mistakes are rehashed in the public domain.

point blank, whatever heritage did, it wasn't good enough in light of the profit they stood to reap.... if they only want to look at photos for 20 min before crowing "hey we tried! noone's perfect!", then they should chop their buyers premiums down to 2% and people wouldn't expect a great job. whatever heritage did on this helmet wasn't worth a 19.5% buyers premium. for $20k, i'd expect them to see the holes.

and therein lies the rub - further, it's a point that's impossible to argue and imho you are 100% correct. collectors pay a steep premium to auction houses because they are supposed to offer what ebay doesn't - a safe haven where one can be confident and secure that what they are purchasing is indeed the authentic item that has been described. but, then again, just do a forum search on coas and it's pretty clear that auction houses are what they are.

chris nerat posted this on the scd site on 03/18:

"Today Lou determined that it is not a game-worn Namath helmet, but is a Jets gamer from an unknown player."

well lou and i agree - as i mentioned in my first post, not only did i believe that the lid wasn't namath's game used sb3 helmet, but i didn't believe that it ever belonged to namath. who says lou is a bad guy? better yet, i wonder if heritage paid lou for his input!

btw rudy, thanks for your posts on the topic - they were a great read and i'm sure 99.9% of the forum feels exactly as you, as well they should!