Brandon Jacobs helmet goes into the stands

[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.