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the marino "gamer" h&s has listed looks great, has a lot going for it imo, but there are a few glaring issues that i would want put to rest before i spent "marino game used" bucks on it. the helmet is a rawlings "aims" (advanced impact management system) model which a few pros wore back in the day, including marino who sported it from 1986-1988 (mike webster of the steelers and jerry holmes of the jets were a couple of other guys that wore this type of rawlings as well). it's attributed to marino's 1986 season but i would say that's out given the decals are wrong for that year and marino's actual '86 gamer had a vacant drill hole that this helmet lacks. 1987 and 1988 are also problematic given that marino used double side facemask clips during those years (pictured below) and there is no evidence that the h&s helmet was ever drilled for the extra facemask clips. fwiw the helmet decals match very well to marino's 1987 helmet. so before i dropped big bucks on this helmet i would want to see a photo circa 1986-1988 that shows marino wearing a rawlings "aims" helmet without a vacant drill hole and without double clips - if an interested party could track down a 1987 photo of this, it would be tough to argue that this wasn't marino's gamer imo. especially if it was fitted with the leather rawlings jaw pads marino wore with this helmet...
the photo on the left is the h&s helmet, the center photo is from 1986 and the photo on the right shows marino's 1987 and 1988 double facemask clip setup. needless to say the h&s helmet doesn't match...
btw this particular type of helmet, a rawlings "aims" (or anfl), is not uncommon on ebay, especially in white. here are a few that have sold at auction which were made into reproduction dolphins helmets...
h&s has a couple of other helmets listed that look interesting at first glance but also have issues when looked at more closely. for example the 1987 randall cunningham "gamer" is problematic because it's a riddell vsr1 which i don't believe cunningham ever wore. if you look at the game photo below (right) you will notice a crown air valve circled in yellow, a valve which the h&s helmet doesn't have - that's because cunningham isn't sporting a vsr1 in the photo. and of course the high chin strap snap on the h&s helmet is postioned wrong - in fact it's rendered useless behind the facemask...
the other h&s helmet that's problematic is the gastineau "gamer". gastineau wore an air-power helmet (bike) during his first seven years in the league (1979-1985) and then he switched to a riddell for the remainder of his career. the photo on the right is from 1985, the last year he wore an air-power (bike) - notice that the nose bumper in the game photo reads "bike" while the h&s helmet reads "a(h)ir". the thing is the "a(h)ir" nose bumpers didn't replace the "bike" nose bumpers until around 1987 or so, after gastineau had stopped wearing this type of helmet. in other words the "a(h)ir" bumper wasn't available, wasn't introduced, until after gastineau had sitched to a riddell. is it possible that gastineau used this helmet during a game or two after swicthing to a riddell, after the "a(h)ir" bumper was introduced? could it be an old gastineau helmet that was refitted with the newer "a(h)ir" bumper only to be regulated to his backup or issued to another player? anything is possible i suppose. but wouldn't it be nice to simply find a single shot of gastineau sporting such a helmet among the many photos of him available? or a photo that showed the same sort of makeshift "99" that appears on the h&s helmet?
frankly, these three helmets remind me of quite a few others i've seen in the past; helmets that closely resemble what the player wore (correct era, facemask, etc.) which have been signed by the player, usually years later. and with the sig the helmet seems to mysteriously (or miraculously?) become that player's "gamer". the staubach helmet comes immediately to mind, the hauss helmet is another one...
btw i'm not saying that these helmets are beyond a shadow of a doubt bunk - i'm saying that they all have what i believe to be serious issues and that some sort of photo/film support would be required for me to believe that any of them are as claimed.
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the photo on the left is the h&s helmet, the center photo is from 1986 and the photo on the right shows marino's 1987 and 1988 double facemask clip setup. needless to say the h&s helmet doesn't match...
btw this particular type of helmet, a rawlings "aims" (or anfl), is not uncommon on ebay, especially in white. here are a few that have sold at auction which were made into reproduction dolphins helmets...
h&s has a couple of other helmets listed that look interesting at first glance but also have issues when looked at more closely. for example the 1987 randall cunningham "gamer" is problematic because it's a riddell vsr1 which i don't believe cunningham ever wore. if you look at the game photo below (right) you will notice a crown air valve circled in yellow, a valve which the h&s helmet doesn't have - that's because cunningham isn't sporting a vsr1 in the photo. and of course the high chin strap snap on the h&s helmet is postioned wrong - in fact it's rendered useless behind the facemask...
the other h&s helmet that's problematic is the gastineau "gamer". gastineau wore an air-power helmet (bike) during his first seven years in the league (1979-1985) and then he switched to a riddell for the remainder of his career. the photo on the right is from 1985, the last year he wore an air-power (bike) - notice that the nose bumper in the game photo reads "bike" while the h&s helmet reads "a(h)ir". the thing is the "a(h)ir" nose bumpers didn't replace the "bike" nose bumpers until around 1987 or so, after gastineau had stopped wearing this type of helmet. in other words the "a(h)ir" bumper wasn't available, wasn't introduced, until after gastineau had sitched to a riddell. is it possible that gastineau used this helmet during a game or two after swicthing to a riddell, after the "a(h)ir" bumper was introduced? could it be an old gastineau helmet that was refitted with the newer "a(h)ir" bumper only to be regulated to his backup or issued to another player? anything is possible i suppose. but wouldn't it be nice to simply find a single shot of gastineau sporting such a helmet among the many photos of him available? or a photo that showed the same sort of makeshift "99" that appears on the h&s helmet?
frankly, these three helmets remind me of quite a few others i've seen in the past; helmets that closely resemble what the player wore (correct era, facemask, etc.) which have been signed by the player, usually years later. and with the sig the helmet seems to mysteriously (or miraculously?) become that player's "gamer". the staubach helmet comes immediately to mind, the hauss helmet is another one...
btw i'm not saying that these helmets are beyond a shadow of a doubt bunk - i'm saying that they all have what i believe to be serious issues and that some sort of photo/film support would be required for me to believe that any of them are as claimed.
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