Brandon Jacobs helmet goes into the stands

[tkd7]

I'm guessing a football player breaks in a helmet for a season to fit his head just right. Its the most important piece of safety equipment a player has in his job, I still can't see why he is expected to give it away. I don't think that was his intention when he threw it in the crowd. If I leave my keys or cell phone behind, I don't think I would be out of line to expect them back and not leave them as a souvenir for someone.

I think I'm in the minority here though.

[Jags Fan Dan]

I bet it would be the same if a baseball player "accidentally" threw his fielding glove into the stands. He would be dead set on getting that back no matter what! It isn't like a ball, or even a bat where you just grab another and go on. I'm not saying I agree that the fan should not be allowed to keep the helmet, I'm just saying I can see why it was a bigger deal than a ball or something else that is easily replaced. Of course, maybe he should have considered that before he threw it. What if it had broken?

[hockeytigers]

I just wanted to shed some light into this conversation as some of you don't sound that familiar with football helmets...helmets are pretty generic. Most are filled with air, add a chin strap, a face mask, and the right size ear pads, and you have a helmet that would have been exactly the same as the player would wear in the game. It would probably would have taken an equipment guy 5 to 10 minutes to make him a new one. There is a little hand pump that fills the helmet with air to the correct size when the helmet is on the players head. Equipment managers have all of this on the sidelines in cases and if you ever see them in a bind, there is a good chance the helmet could have been made quicker...these guys are like pit crews in NASCAR...

[skinsfan0521]

I just wanted to shed some light into this conversation as some of you don't sound that familiar with football helmets...helmets are pretty generic. Most are filled with air, add a chin strap, a face mask, and the right size ear pads, and you have a helmet that would have been exactly the same as the player would wear in the game. It would probably would have taken an equipment guy 5 to 10 minutes to make him a new one. There is a little hand pump that fills the helmet with air to the correct size when the helmet is on the players head. Equipment managers have all of this on the sidelines in cases and if you ever see them in a bind, there is a good chance the helmet could have been made quicker...these guys are like pit crews in NASCAR...

That's pretty much what I figured, but Snee told me that the equipment guys didn't want him to give up his helmet before the end of the season. It may have just been them being lazy, but if it really only took 10 min, I can't imagine that is the case.

But, what did end up happening is that he sent me the helmet after the last game of the season, but he was an alternate for the Pro Bowl and he ended up having to play in it. I asked him if he needed it back and he said that he'd just use that time to start breaking in a new one for the next season.

So, it obviously wasn't too big of a deal for them to do in a couple weeks (after he sent it to me but before he needed it for the Pro Bowl), but it seems unlikely that if it were to take just 10 min they would tell him not to get rid of it till the end.

[OaklandAsFan]

I bet it would be the same if a baseball player "accidentally" threw his fielding glove into the stands. He would be dead set on getting that back no matter what! It isn't like a ball, or even a bat where you just grab another and go on. I'm not saying I agree that the fan should not be allowed to keep the helmet, I'm just saying I can see why it was a bigger deal than a ball or something else that is easily replaced. Of course, maybe he should have considered that before he threw it. What if it had broken?

this actually happened to me a few years ago. I was sitting in the front row of an A's game and Frank Menechino came off the field and was pissed about a play and threw his glove. It hit the top of the dugout instead of going into the dugout and flew up into my lap. He stood there looking at me waiting for me to give it back. Had it been anyone worthwhile I may have put up a fight but since it was a "nobody" I threw it back to him. He ducked into the dugout and came back out with a bat and handed it up to me and said thanks.

[ncbadges]

I'm guessing a football player breaks in a helmet for a season to fit his head just right. Its the most important piece of safety equipment a player has in his job, I still can't see why he is expected to give it away. I don't think that was his intention when he threw it in the crowd. If I leave my keys or cell phone behind, I don't think I would be out of line to expect them back and not leave them as a souvenir for someone.

I think I'm in the minority here though.

"Leaving" your keys somewhere and intentionally "throwing" your 5 pound football helmet into a crowd are two different things. The fan should've been allowed to keep it.

ncb

[tkd7]

"Leaving" your keys somewhere and intentionally "throwing" your 5 pound football helmet into a crowd are two different things. The fan should've been allowed to keep it.

ncb

Again I'm in the minority here but I don't think Jacobs intention was to throw his 5 pound helmet into the stands as a souvenir. I've never seen a fan keep a basketball when it goes into the stands in an NBA game.

[skinsfan0521]

Again I'm in the minority here but I don't think Jacobs intention was to throw his 5 pound helmet into the stands as a souvenir. I've never seen a fan keep a basketball when it goes into the stands in an NBA game.

No, I don't think that his intention was to throw it into the stands, but it was his fault. In your basketball situation, the ball gets blocked or thrown into the stands during the normal play of a game. I would expect that if the ball was thrown into the stands out of anger, the fan would keep the ball.

Just my opinion, but I think there's a line between normal play and some idiot throwing his equipment around in anger.

[tkd7]

No, I don't think that his intention was to throw it into the stands, but it was his fault. In your basketball situation, the ball gets blocked or thrown into the stands during the normal play of a game. I would expect that if the ball was thrown into the stands out of anger, the fan would keep the ball.

Just my opinion, but I think there's a line between normal play and some idiot throwing his equipment around in anger.

Fair enough. I think that there is enough outside stimulous at a NFL game (crowd noise, stadium noise, coaches yelling, etc.) that I'm willing to forgive the "idiot" for a momentary lack of judgement.

We'll agree to disagree on this one.

[Ripken]

So if the guy had managed to escape with the helmet, what would it have brought on the open market?