What's Your Favorite/Least Favorite NFL Helmet?

[Braden]

Favourites:

Bengals

Seahawks

Rams

Chargers

Saints

Least Favourites:

Titans

Bills

Cardinals

Panthers

Lions

[CubsFanBudMan]

This is easy for me: Dallas Cowboys.

It's the reason I'm a fan (and in some ways, foreshadowed landing on this board). As a 5-year-old I was shown a catalog with all of the helmets pictured and was told to pick one (thanks, generous uncle). And I stayed true to the team. I didn't pick my other teams that way, but it's how I became a Cowboys fan. It was my favorite helmet then and still is.

[IceCap]

Bring these back full time

Now that I think about it I would have the say the Pats helmet is the worst in a close tie with the Panthers. Obviously as a Jet fan I am biased, but the flying elvis is stupid. The old Pat the Patriot helmet was really cool and having him on a Navy blue helmet could be cool, but the helmet with no stripes with the weird Patriot is just strange to me.

If they brought back Pat the Patriot he would need a face lift, like what they did to the Dolphins logo in '97.

[Gothamite]

Least favorites:

Vikings- For some reason...the white design they have on the side that is suppose to resemble horns, is terrible looking, and it doesn't look anything like horns.

Nonsense... its not only beautiful, its brilliant, and it looks exactly like a horn. Colors are perfect. Its not only the best designed football helmet ever, its probably the single best designed human object in written history.

I'm not kidding.

I'm a complete homer, but I'm pretty sure I'm also serious about this... its that good. You can say I only think that because they're my team, but you'd have that backwards. They're only my team because I believe everything I've just written. My love of the team clearly followed my realization of the genious of the helmet.

I know were all intitled to our own opinions, but it baffles my that anyone can disagree with this obvious truth.

Conitue on with your discussion of the second best helmets.

A few years ago, you may have been able to make that argument.

But they managed to screw up a beautiful helmet when they ruined the rest of the uniforms, and now it's New Coke.

[Gothamite]

If we're going to get into favorite all time helmets then I need to dig a little deeper. My favorite non active helmets are

Always looked good from that angle, but really silly when the wordmark pointed backwards. Bad design.

[Gobbi]

My favourites in no order:

-Dolphins (I love white helmets, and these colours are great!)

-Eagles (My favourite team, but still great design)

-Redskins (Awesome colour combination, great facemask)

-Chargers (Again, white helmet, but I just think it looks really sharp)

-Buccaneers (Love the pewter colour and the logo is fantastic)

-Ravens (The black and purple look great together and combine for a mean looking helmet)

Least favourites:

-Patriots (I don't like silver helmets, and the red facemask definitely doesn't help)

-Panthers (Again with the silver, stripes are silly too)

-Bills (Everything on it is too big)

-Rams (not a pleasant mix of colours)

But IMO the absolute best helmet of ALL time is definitely this....

[oldschoolvikings]

Least favorites:

Vikings- For some reason...the white design they have on the side that is suppose to resemble horns, is terrible looking, and it doesn't look anything like horns.

Nonsense... its not only beautiful, its brilliant, and it looks exactly like a horn. Colors are perfect. Its not only the best designed football helmet ever, its probably the single best designed human object in written history.

I'm not kidding.

I'm a complete homer, but I'm pretty sure I'm also serious about this... its that good. You can say I only think that because they're my team, but you'd have that backwards. They're only my team because I believe everything I've just written. My love of the team clearly followed my realization of the genious of the helmet.

I know were all intitled to our own opinions, but it baffles my that anyone can disagree with this obvious truth.

Conitue on with your discussion of the second best helmets.

A few years ago, you may have been able to make that argument.

But they managed to screw up a beautiful helmet when they ruined the rest of the uniforms, and now it's New Coke.

The overdone uniform messes up the helmet?

Not seeing the logic.

[IceCap]

Least favorites:

Vikings- For some reason...the white design they have on the side that is suppose to resemble horns, is terrible looking, and it doesn't look anything like horns.

Nonsense... its not only beautiful, its brilliant, and it looks exactly like a horn. Colors are perfect. Its not only the best designed football helmet ever, its probably the single best designed human object in written history.

I'm not kidding.

I'm a complete homer, but I'm pretty sure I'm also serious about this... its that good. You can say I only think that because they're my team, but you'd have that backwards. They're only my team because I believe everything I've just written. My love of the team clearly followed my realization of the genious of the helmet.

I know were all intitled to our own opinions, but it baffles my that anyone can disagree with this obvious truth.

Conitue on with your discussion of the second best helmets.

A few years ago, you may have been able to make that argument.

But they managed to screw up a beautiful helmet when they ruined the rest of the uniforms, and now it's New Coke.

The overdone uniform messes up the helmet?

Not seeing the logic.

I think he's saying that the highlights added to the horn when they redid the uniforms ruined a great look.

Myself, I disagree. I think the highlights made a somewhat abstract design more "horn like," adding to the look of the helmet. The helmet change is one decent thing to come out of the uniform change, IMO.

If we're going to get into favorite all time helmets then I need to dig a little deeper. My favorite non active helmets are

Always looked good from that angle, but really silly when the wordmark pointed backwards. Bad design.

Isn't that true for any wordmarked helmet though? I don't see how this one is any worse then, say, UCLA or UF.

[BBTV]

Least favorites:

Vikings- For some reason...the white design they have on the side that is suppose to resemble horns, is terrible looking, and it doesn't look anything like horns.

Nonsense... its not only beautiful, its brilliant, and it looks exactly like a horn. Colors are perfect. Its not only the best designed football helmet ever, its probably the single best designed human object in written history.

I'm not kidding.

I'm a complete homer, but I'm pretty sure I'm also serious about this... its that good. You can say I only think that because they're my team, but you'd have that backwards. They're only my team because I believe everything I've just written. My love of the team clearly followed my realization of the genious of the helmet.

I know were all intitled to our own opinions, but it baffles my that anyone can disagree with this obvious truth.

Conitue on with your discussion of the second best helmets.

A few years ago, you may have been able to make that argument.

But they managed to screw up a beautiful helmet when they ruined the rest of the uniforms, and now it's New Coke.

The overdone uniform messes up the helmet?

Not seeing the logic.

I think he's saying that the highlights added to the horn when they redid the uniforms ruined a great look.

Myself, I disagree. I think the highlights made a somewhat abstract design more "horn like," adding to the look of the helmet. The helmet change is one decent thing to come out of the uniform change, IMO.

If we're going to get into favorite all time helmets then I need to dig a little deeper. My favorite non active helmets are

Always looked good from that angle, but really silly when the wordmark pointed backwards. Bad design.

Isn't that true for any wordmarked helmet though? I don't see how this one is any worse then, say, UCLA or UF.

Those are not italicized. Big difference.

[oo_nrb]

I see a lot of people liking the Seahawks helmet, to which I have to say no no no no NO! Unless someone can describe to me why putting a blue logo on a blue helmet is a good idea...

this will always be better than this .

It doesn't make any sense to have a predominantly blue logo on a blue helmet with a blue/navy facemask, and it ESPECIALLY doesn't make sense to wear a blue on blue on blue helmet on top of a blue jersey on top of blue pants.

[/rant].

[Jigga]

Cincy. Lions would be second if they got rid of all the black.

I agree 100% the lions need to get rid of the black...NOW and make these they're new uni's w/o the black facemask:

Yes, because every HS JV team should look just like that!

[Island_Style]

The Bengals get top vote for me. I fell in love with those at a young age. A very unique helmet. Uniqueness done right always gets my vote.

The Browns are the polar opposite of the Bengals. No uniqueness, completely boring. They are last place for me.

[TFoA]

Cincy. Lions would be second if they got rid of all the black.

I agree 100% the lions need to get rid of the black...NOW and make these they're new uni's w/o the black facemask:

Yes, because every HS JV team should look just like that!

Exactly. I wore uniforms like that playing in elementary school. I know that the Lions play like one, but come on now. What they have now, as bad as it is, is still better than them basically wearing practice uniforms.

[Cujo]

The Good:

The Bad:

The Ugly:

[IceCap]

Cincy. Lions would be second if they got rid of all the black.

I agree 100% the lions need to get rid of the black...NOW and make these they're new uni's w/o the black facemask:

Yes, because every HS JV team should look just like that!

Exactly. I wore uniforms like that playing in elementary school. I know that the Lions play like one, but come on now. What they have now, as bad as it is, is still better than them basically wearing practice uniforms.

Agreed. The black isn't even the real problem with the Lions' uniform set. Just they way it's used.

[BigShoop]

Favorite: Buccaneers (They are pirates...and their helmet has their battle flag...and the colors "pop"...and it's modern, yet not over the top...what more could you want?)

Worst: Panthers/Texans (No other reason than the logo is too big.) Design-wise, the Bengals/Rams are ridiculously ugly.

[seahawk9]

by the way, you forgot to include seattle in the list of teams with the same colored facmask as helmet. although your picture doesnt show that, the picture is inaccurate, the helmet and mask are the same color.

Seahawks facemask is navy-helmet is slightly lighter slate metellic blue

[sweeper13]

Least favorites would be the Broncos and the Redskins

Favorites overall would be the Jags and Chargers

[BallWonk]

My current favorites are the Vikings and Rams. I'm generally not a fan of helmets that are just white with a logo.

But the best helmet of all time is this:

Redskins helmet from 1959-1953ish. Change the feather colors to yellow and white, and it's what the Redskins should wear today.

[John in KY]

I would put the eagles at or near the top but i hate how the wings wrap around the front, it looks bad to me. Does anyone know why they do this?

When they did the last redesign they did that to make the wings flow into the helmet sweatband. All of the previous versions of the wings were on helmets designed before every single helmet had a sweatband-type front bumper. For example, here's a game-worn 1960 Eagles Riddell TK suspension helmet that shows the wings go all the way to the center ridge(from Helmet Hut):

Even the last design from 1974 was done when quite a few players still wore suspension helmets without sweatbands. Also, at that time the Eagles (like the Steelers and Cowboys) had a lot of players wearing the clear shell Maxpro helmet that also didn't have the sweatband. In the 1970s they typically just put the wings on the shell and then installed the sweatband over the wings. The close-up is of a repro 1979 Jaworski from Helmet Hut; you can see how the wing decal is under the sweatband (and the Dungard mask); the other shot is of Jaworski in 1979:

Sometime in the 1980s the Eagles just started applying the wing decals outside of the sweatband as on the photo below of Keith Byers; they did it this way until the current helmet design came out in 1996: