Jim McMahon Jersey - Zanebats on Ebay

[mvandor]

Can Bear fans give me their opinion on this McMahon jersey? I know seller is well regarded here for his baseball stuff, but he earlier sold a McMahon away jersey that IMHO was very problematic and did NOT match any exemplars. This jersey he thus far can't tie to a specific year making it REAL tough to research. He's talking to his source to try to narrow it down but I believe the away he sold eventually traced back as a presentation jersey, and I'm concerned that's all this is as well. Sleeves and cut just look too retail, much of McMahon's career he had cut off or lineman type sleeves.

Pic below is closest to this jersey I could uncover.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=200337079560

[5kRunner]

Re: Jim McMahon Jersey - Zanebats on Ebay

From what I remember, McMahon never wore the full sleeves with all three stripes. I did find a couple other pics though.

[5kRunner]

Re: Jim McMahon Jersey - Zanebats on Ebay

I just remembered that the Bears added the "GSH" to the sleeve in 1984 after Halas died in 1983. Those top two pics are from 1982, so they couldn't be the exact jersey, but are other examples of McMahon wearing the non-cut sleeve.

The pic with Payton is from 1984.

[reed1216]

Re: Jim McMahon Jersey - Zanebats on Ebay

I would LOVE to own a legit McMahon Bears jersey, but there does seem to be a lot of them, many of which either show little to no wear, or have issues with the sleeves. I've learned a long time ago that if you have doubts on an item, they're probably justified. While tempting, I think I'll wait for one to surface that doesn't raise as much, or any doubt...

[TriplexXxSports]

Re: Jim McMahon Jersey - Zanebats on Ebay

The McMahon that was sold earlier as a 1985 'GAMER' was revised to an early 90's that was worn in a photo shoot. That raises a flag to me.

Purchased from the equipment manager with no papers? Maybe.

The cut looks good, sleeves are correct length. Never seen that style of tag though and I do not remember the added length for McMahon.

It is my understanding that all 80's Bears jerseys had the size on the tag itself, not an attached tag. Don't take my words as the gospel about that tag......

The man to ask about this is 34SWTNS. He could tell you for sure.

Sure is a nice vintage jersey though......

[34swtns]

Re: Jim McMahon Jersey - Zanebats on Ebay

Completely, 100%, without a shadow of a doubt......not a game worn McMahon.

The larger Wilson tag wasn't used on Bears gamers until long after Jim's departure, McMahon-era Wilsons also did not have a care tag (you can see it through the mesh on the auction jersey) not to mention the weird "extra length" tag which was never used during McMahon's tenure (in fact, I've owned a couple dozen Bears gamers from the 80's-early 90's and never once seen a tag like this....ever). Jim only wore full sleeves through 1984 and for a couple of games in 87-88 (long before this jersey was made). The lack of space between the "Mc" and the "Mahon" is also a red flag.
All of this coupled with the fact that this same seller sold an obviously bogus McMahon "gamer" last week, well, you do the math. The seller has sold some legit game-issued Bears stuff recently but most of those items were of 1990's-era origin.

Here's a real McMahon gamer from 1987-88.
It didn't come from "an equipment manager", it came directly from Ray Earley, the Bears equipment manager in the 80's.
It doesn't have a lot of wear but it does have some small snags and pulls which is more than I can say for the above-mentioned "gamer".