Namath's Game Worn Super Bowl Helmet? Nope.

[kingjammy24]

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 this is odd. it went straight from namath to his friend/courier to the consigner. it has "namath", "12", and "jwn" written inside it. why was an unknown player running around the field with joe's name, number and initials written in his helmet??

rudy.

[aeneas01]

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 this is odd. it went straight from namath to his friend/courier to the consigner. it has "namath", "12", and "jwn" written inside it. why was an unknown player running around the field with joe's name, number and initials written in his helmet??

rudy.

i just went over to scd and read chris's blog - i found his following comment interesting:

"Many board members crucified Heritage for promoting the piece as something it was not, but what they didn’t realize is that Lou never authenticated it and caught all the things wrong with it and many more things that the message board member didn’t even catch."

hmmm....

i thought i was careful to state throughout my posts that i found many other problems with the helmet but considering the two major issues i pointed to, i felt that discussing the other issues was pointless - so i didn't. as a matter of fact i stated the following:

"...as i told chris at heritage, the problems with this helmet are numerous - there are significant inconsistencies that encompass both the interior and exterior of the lid. but two inconsistencies are so major that they make discussing the others in detail moot - in fact, they're so major that they simply rule out the possibility of this helmet being namath's sb3 game worn lid. as a matter of fact, in my opinion this helmet was never worn by namath."

so i'm a little confused - why would chris nerat feel compelled to state that lou discovered problems with the helmet that i "didn't even catch" given that i clearly didn't share my other findings with the forum? chris?

[otismalibu]

i thought i was careful to state throughout my posts that i found many other problems with the helmet but considering the two major issues i pointed to, i felt that discussing the other issues was pointless - so i didn't.

Yep.

It's sad, really. After the fact, it's "look, look...Lou found something that the board members did not!!!" Hats off to you Lou - you're a credit to the hobby.

Lou Lampson couldn't hold aeneas01's jock, when it comes to helmet knowledge. And if he did ever get his hands on it, he'd surely attribute it to Joe Montana.

[rose14]

It seems that fellow board member and Sports Collectors Digest columnist Chris Nerat is a little disgusted with some of the fellow posters on this site. You can read it on his blog here: www.sportscollectorsdigest.com

Well, I decided to email a response to his blog and here is what I emailed him.

Chris, I just finished reading your blog about some of the cowardly talk on the gamusedforum.com website. I'm not going to trash Heritage for jumping the gun and advertising an item that appeared to have rock solid provenance but Heritage probably should have done a little fact checking themselves before promoting an item like this before the collecting community. By taking a little amount of time and cross checking the helmet it would have saved them from this embarrassing situation. Mistakes happen, but with an item such as the Namath helmet they should have realized that it would have been scrutinized.

My problem with your column is that you state that some posters on the forum are way out of line, some are cowards and some are instigators and are bad for the hobby. Yes, there are some overzealous posters on there but with the many fake items that have been sold at auction through supposedly reputable auction houses after being authenticated by supposedly reputable authenticators I believe the collecting public has grown tired of seeing collectors being ripped off for the sake of pure profit for certain auction houses and authenticators.

How can someone such as yourself actually call someone out as a coward and bad for the hobby when the company you work for continues to business withCoach's Corner Sports Auctions? I'm sure you have heard all the complaints about authenticity with Coach's Corners items. It seems Coach's Corner has a never ending supply of Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner, Cy Young and even Josh Gibson signed items. Some of the most knowledgeable and experienced autograph and memorabilia collectors in the collecting community have never even seen a genuine Josh Gibson signed item but Coach's Corner seems to find one to auction every other month. When Coach's Corner does sell these items why do they always sell at just a fraction of what the same item would sell for in say a Robert Edwards auction?

I know you frequent the message boards such as as the one for the basis of your column as well as the Net 54 Vintage Baseball Card Forum where posters have continued to ask for a response to this but no one from SCD has ever been man enough to step up and respond. In fact there was an outstanding thread that has received over 700 post that questions SCD and their relationship with Coach's Corner. I'm sure you have seen it but in case you haven't here is a link to it. http://www.network54.com/Forum/153652/thread/1201896466/last-1205088768/Open+letter+to+STAT+and+Christopher+Morales This is just one of the many threads where posters have questions SCD's motives.

Why hasn't there been a response from someone associated with Sports Collectors Digest? It is the "voice of the hobby" isn't it? I can tell you, it's money. If it wasn't for the monthly 20-25 pages of advertising that SCD gets from Coach's Corner I highly doubt that publication would continue to be in business. I am a current subscriber for now but I find it embarrassing that you can call someone out for being a coward and being bad for the hobby when the publication that you write for has done so much damage and continues to further damage the hobby each and every month.

I look forward to your response.

We will see if Chris Nerat isn't the coward that he claims some on here to be and responds to this very important question.

[aeneas01]

Yep. It's sad, really. After the fact, it's "look, look...Lou found something that the board members did not!!!"

i have to say greg, nerat's comments left me with the same impression - with a little pouting and sour grapes thrown in as well. frankly, and not to put too fine of a point on it, imo nerat was pretty much saying that the "pros" are now on the job, they now have it covered, and that the armchair authenticators and hobbyists can get back to comparing bottle caps.

also, given that nerat felt compelled to pursue this topic in his blog, i'm equally curious about his following comment as well:

"Keep in mind, Lou Lampson, its (Heritage's) game-used equipment authenticator wasn’t scheduled to come in to their Dallas offices until this week, when he will look at all lots for the May Signature sale.... Was it bad judgment to run with the ads before Lou looked at the helmet? Maybe so, but they did and that was a business decision, but given the strong provenance, I believe it was a calculated risk and the majority of other auction houses probably would have done the same thing."

so let let's see if i've got this straight - lampson is actually heritage's game-used equipment authenticator (which i didn't know), the guy does work for them? yet heritage doesn't run the namath helmet by him before his scheduled trip to dallas, before they publicize the lid as ""arguably the most significant football artifact ever to reach the auction block"? lampson is in the dark as far as this item is concerned? is this what i'm hearing from nerat?

seriously, how does this work? seriously, how does one square this? obviously lampson had access to the same photos heritage included in their publicity ad - obviously lampson could have received more photos from heritage if needed. and obviously getting on a plane to dallas was not needed to determine that this "monumental piece" was not namath's authentic sb3 helmet.

but apparently, according to nerat, that's not how things work in the world of top-tier auction houses, in the world of well-known authenticators. apparently an auction house can't pick up the phone and call it's authenticator to say "hey, we know you will be here in two weeks to do your work on the lots, but how about taking a quick look at some photos of this namath helmet we got our hands on - we think it could be the biggest find of the last twenty years, could bring a boat load at auction and we want to get the word out as soon as possible."

no, apparently things just don't work like that - after all, what could be determined by just looking at some pics....