eBay - Game Used Faulk Rams Helmet

[cohibasmoker]

Hello sports fans. I DO NOT collect modern day helmets nor do I have any affiliation with the seller. I saw this auction and thought forum members who are Rams fans may like to check this item out.

Jim



http://cgi.ebay.com/Marshall-Faulk-S...QQcmdZViewItem

[mvandor]

Hello sports fans. I DO NOT collect modern day helmets nor do I have any affiliation with the seller. I saw this auction and thought forum members who are Rams fans may like to check this item out.

Jim



http://cgi.ebay.com/Marshall-Faulk-S...QQcmdZViewItem

Curious myself, it looks pretty good to me but I don't have Robert's eye nor knowledge.

[Yankwood]

I, too, know nothing about helmets or even football in general. I do know the seller though, and he is a very straight shooter who has been doing this sort of thing since the early 70's. Honest, trustworthy guy.

[mvandor]

Seller provided the following in exchanges with me, FYI:

Go to GettyImages.Com. There's a dozens of photos of Faulk from that year 2001, from all angles showing the helmet. The helmet came through a collector who has ties to a NFL Pro Bowl player who trades with various players. I have a 100% complete helmet of KC Chiefs, Priest Holmes which came from the same player and considering going after an Emmitt Smith Cardinals. His last helmet. For your own info. American Memorabilia has two Rams helmets on auction right now that have very similar interior team code and player ID's.

[mvandor]

Robert, you sitting this one out?

[helmets]

The helmet looks ok to me, however there is very little wear to it for a runningback. The interior padding looks new. Look at the rear sizer. That thing is brand new, hardly rounded to fit the rear of the helmet. The mask also looks too thick to me. Most players chose the thinner coated Schutt "Vinyl Guard" masks in 2001, not the thicker mask that this one appears to be. The side stabilizer clips say "Elite" on them which means that they are made for a Schutt Armor Guard Elite coated mask. To give a background on this, Schutt used to offer two different coatings on their masks. They offered the vinyl guard thinner coating as well as an Armor Guard coating which was much thicker. Most NFL players - most skilled players chose the thinner coated masks. A few years ago, Schutt went to one type of coating called armor guard Elite. This was sort of a medium thickness between the two previous coatings. Perhaps Robert can tell us when Schutt made this change. I don't think it was that long ago.

Did the seller provide the date code of the mask or the helmet to anyone that has inquired?

Yes, the interior markings are consistant with Rams lids, however, I could whip up those labels for you in about 45 seconds with a label, a sharpie, and my trusty dymo label maker...

[mvandor]

Did the seller provide the date code of the mask or the helmet to anyone that has inquired?

Seller told me clips were dated 2001 if I recall correctly...

[aeneas01]

The helmet looks ok to me, however there is very little wear to it for a runningback. The interior padding looks new. Look at the rear sizer. That thing is brand new, hardly rounded to fit the rear of the helmet. The mask also looks too thick to me. Most players chose the thinner coated Schutt "Vinyl Guard" masks in 2001, not the thicker mask that this one appears to be. The side stabilizer clips say "Elite" on them which means that they are made for a Schutt Armor Guard Elite coated mask. To give a background on this, Schutt used to offer two different coatings on their masks. They offered the vinyl guard thinner coating as well as an Armor Guard coating which was much thicker. Most NFL players - most skilled players chose the thinner coated masks. A few years ago, Schutt went to one type of coating called armor guard Elite. This was sort of a medium thickness between the two previous coatings. Perhaps Robert can tell us when Schutt made this change. I don't think it was that long ago.

Did the seller provide the date code of the mask or the helmet to anyone that has inquired?

Yes, the interior markings are consistant with Rams lids, however, I could whip up those labels for you in about 45 seconds with a label, a sharpie, and my trusty dymo label maker...

lol - the moment i looked at that helmet i immediately thought of our phone conversation years ago when i was looking for an orlando pace facemask. i just couldn't find pace's vinyl guard mask anywhere and you were my last hope (i actually did find a game used one about a year later!). but i remember our conversation well my friend - i knew i had reached the right guy because you knew masks inside & out! btw i didn't know "helmet's" identity until very recently - as it turns out i had at least a couple of great conversations with him years ago. small world, this helmet thing...

anyway you are of course absolutely correct - faulk didn't wear a thick-coated mask as pictured in the ad. btw i'm assuming the seller is stating that it's faulk 2001 lid because of the 202 recon decal?

a few other things. first, i have no doubt that this helmet and the two at american memorabilia (hakim & polley) are authentic rams helmets. as far as the "faulk" helmet is concerned, the warning label is too large - notice that it is actually a bit larger than the american flag decal. compare it to the photos below (bruce & faulk, 2001). also compare the last line of the warning label.

the rams horns are also worth looking at. when the rams switched to metallic gold horns the shape and length of the horn decals changed considerably. the metallic gold horns aren't as wide as the previous horns and they are longer. further, the previous horns formed a continuous curve interrupted only by the cut to accommodate the facemask clips. the metallic gold horns do not form a continuous curve - they are actually so long that they extend beyond the helmet shell below the ear hole. in other words if the current horn was not cut it would not fit on the helmet unless it was a revolution helmet. make sense?

but for whatever reason it seems that special care was always taken when dressing faulk's lid - that an attempt was always made to create a curve at the bottom of the ear hole. in most (all?) photos of faulk this is apparent and the jaw pad rivets can be seen protruding from below the decal. this wasn't the case for all rams players - in many cases the decal was applied as in the ad - just a downward slope below the ear hole, covering the jaw pad rivets, and then cut off. but, of course. god only knows how many times in a season todd hewitt had to replace the horn decals and, as such, it wouldn't surprise me to see a faulk helmet with the horn decals applied as in the ad.

btw i'm a lifelong rams fan - as a matter of fact my "handle" stems from aeneas williams. man, those were a great few years - faulk, warner, bruce, holt, fletcher, williams, etc... did we land from that high with a thump or what? got waxed last week in philly and we face off with the giants in a couple of hours - looks like another very long season!

warning labels - 2001:



facemask - 2001 photos:



...

[cohibasmoker]

Robert,

Finally, the mystery for your user ID and/or handle has been solved - my "handle" stems from aeneas williams.

I thought you were a history major and used the handle from its origin in European mythology

Jim

[aeneas01]

Robert,

Finally, the mystery for your user ID and/or handle has been solved - my "handle" stems from aeneas williams.

I thought you were a history major and used the handle from its origin in European mythology

Jim