Antonio Brown’s Trade Offer for His Prized Helmet Is Absurdly Low

An autographed practice helmet? That’s your offer?

Antonio Brown is looking for a needle in a haystack. 

Brown is desperate to find a very particular model of football helmet (the Schutt AiR Advantage) after the NFL ruled that the one he wore with the Steelers is too old to be safety certified. (Helmets must be less than 10 years old in order to be used in a game.) He reportedly feels strongly enough about this special helmet that he threatened to retire if he couldn’t wear it. 

Brown has thus far been unable to find a suitable helmet, but Pro Football Talk’s Michael David Smith reports that he and his representatives are searching for one. That search expanded to Twitter on Tuesday morning, with Brown offering a swap in exchange for his holy grail. 

"I'm looking for a Schutt Air Advantage Adult Large Helmet that was manufactured in 2010 or after. In exchange I will trade a signed practice worn @Raiders helmet."

— AB (@AB84) August 13, 2019

An autographed practice-worn helmet? That’s your offer?

Part of the reason why Brown has been unable to find a Schutt AiR Advantage manufactured in 2010 or after is because Schutt stopped making them in 2011. He’s trying to find a very specific kind of equipment that hasn’t rolled off assembly lines in eight years. That should be nearly impossible. And yet his offer is only a signed practice helmet?

“No one wants practice helmets,” Rich Altman, owner of Hollywood Collectibles in Hollywood, Fla., told SI.com. “That’s really not a big deal.”

Altman speculated that a signed, practice-worn helmet would only be worth about $500 or $600. If the helmet is important enough to Brown that he considered walking away from more than $30 million in guaranteed salary, that’s an insulting offer. 

If you happen to find one of these helmets, tell Brown he better cut a fat check.