RATING NFL HELMETS

I have been collecting and refurbishing helmets for over two years - and today I am going to list my favorites. In first place (always) is the Green Bay Packers helmet. I am partial to straightforward simplicity and an appreciation of the history involved in the development of the helmet. Early on, with the introduction of plastic helmets, Green Bay's original helmets were gold with a blue stripe as at the time their uniforms were blue and gold.
After Lombardi's arrival the Packers played the 1960 season with yellow helmets and no logo. Vince asked equipment manager Dad Braisher to develop a logo. Lombardi suggested using the letters GB. However, Dad Braisher who was living at the Union Hotel in DePere, Wisconsin, at the time, had ideas of his own. He spent hours in his room and down at the tiny bar in the hotel after hours working on a logo that he pictured as being in the shape of a football. The letter "G" lent itself to this shape much better than the two letters. Armed with his finished drawing, he presented it to Lombardi who approved it for use. The next season, wearing the new helmets, the Packers won the championship against the NY Giants, 37-0 and as they say, the rest is history.
I was shocked to find out recently that when Ron Wolf took over as GM he wanted to change the helmet color to a shiny "Notre Dame" gold. Can you imagine the fan rebellion that would have followed?
Speaking of that Notre Dame gold, my second favorite helmet is the San Francisco 49'er helmet. Here the shiny gold is much more appropriate as the term "forty niners" refers to the gold rushers of 1849. Again, I really like the simplicity of the SF. :Last year the Niners added black to the scheme and I really didn't like that at all. I was pleased to see this season that they have gone back to the original scheme.
My third place goes to the Philadelphia Eagles. Again, I like the original green as opposed to the darker green they are currently using. I think that the wings are really cool. Although I didn't picture my fourth choice, the Rams helmet is a really classy helmet that has a long and illustrious history. Just seeing the horned helmets brings me visions of Norm Van Brocklin and the great "fearsome foursome" of Deacon Jones, Merlin Olsen, LaMarr Lundy, and Rosey Greer.

LaMarr Hunt's original Dallas Texans eventually went through some changes When the team left Texas and moved to Kansas City they adapted the arrowhead as their helmet symbol and again I find it very attractive for its straight forward simplicity with absolutely no striping.

It also brings back such beautiful memories of the first meeting of the NFL vs the AFL and the trouncing the Packers laid on the Chiefs. Visions of Hank Stramm prowling the sidelines and exhorting his team to pick it up!
I know my e mail friend Kirk Roebuck is not crazy about my next choice. but again, the buffalo works really well on the Bills helmet and in this case, their latest incarnation is much better than the earlier ones. Besides, the earlier logo is tainted by one OJ Simpson - a great football player but a lousy human being.

So these are my top choices. I would give Cleveland (sorry again, Kirk) honorable mention as they are the only team that has not succumbed to having a logo at all and i think that make the helmet really pretty special. Besides, it was worn by the greatest running back of all time, Jim Brown.

Ugliest helmet? Cincinnati Bengals. Then, of course, there is one helmet I will never make a copy of for my collection because of my hate for their fans - the Minnesota ViQueens. the horns are okay I guess - but I hate PURPLE!

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Two businessmen in Florida were sitting down for a break in their soon-to-be new store. As yet, the store wasn't ready, with only a few shelves set up.

One said to the other, 'I bet any minute now some senior is going to walk by, put his face to the window, and ask what we're selling.'

No sooner were the words out of his mouth when, sure enough, a curious senior walked to the window, had a peek, and in a soft voice asked "What are you sellin' here?"

One of the men replied sarcastically, "We're selling ass-holes."

Without skipping a beat, the old timer said, "You're doing well. Only two left."

LET'S HEAR IT FOR OLD FARTS