There are many superlatives to describe Hall of Fame wide receiver Jerry Rice – dominant, un-coverable, durable and these are just a few. For 20 seasons, Rice was simply one of the best receivers in all of football. Six times he led the NFL in single-season receiving yards and touchdowns, a three-time Super Bowl champion, including MVP of Super Bowl XXIII, a 10-time First Team All-Pro and holds all-time records in receptions (1,549), receiving yards (22,895), touchdowns (197) and all-purpose yards (23,546).

Rice spent most of his career donning the red and gold of the San Francisco 49ers, where he won his three Super Bowls. Rice would move across the bay to Oakland, spending four productive years with the Raiders, before spending his last regular season with the Seattle Seahawks in 2004. Giving it one more go, Rice signed with the Denver Broncos for the 2005 season, however, after playing a couple of pre-season games and not wanting to be last on the depth chart, the future Hall of Famer decided to call it a career.

Finding game used Jerry Rice items are always a “get” for collectors, however, finding a game used Jerry Rice item from his brief stint with the Denver Broncos is extremely rare and Goldin Auctions is proud to offer the very helmet Rice wore during the 2005 pre-season with the Denver Broncos that has been conclusively photo matched to the August 27, 2005 game between the Broncos and Indianapolis Colts at Mile High Stadium in Denver. This navy Riddell helmet features the Broncos’ logo affixed to each side of the helmet with orange stripes that moves to a point on the front. The Schutte facemask is also navy blue and the inner padding is still intact, along with the hard plastic and padded white chin-strap. The back of the helmet has “BRONCOS” at the base and to the left of the orange center stripes is the NFL shield and “19” sticker, while to the right of the stripes is an American Flag decal. Rice has also signed this helmet on the right side in silver marker and inscribed “#19”, his number with the Broncos.

This is a special opportunity to acquire, by all accounts, the last helmet ever worn by the greatest wide receiver in NFL history. Photos online show Rice wearing this very helmet throughout the 2005 preseason.The unique alignment of the mask clip by the left ear hole with the plastic overlapping the mask bar is an exact match to several shots. In addition, markings on the shell and face mask have been conclusively photo matched (Getty 80023816) to the Broncos' 37-24 win over the Colts on August 27, 2005. Rice played very little in the team's final preseason game on Sept. 2 against Arizona before announcing his retirement a few days later. This helmet comes with a LOA from Resolution Photomatching (425364), who have photo matched this helmet to the August 27th pre-season game. There is a Letter of Provenance from a longtime PR Director and VP of Marketing of an NFL team who developed close relationships with several players, coaches and executive in in his LOA states that “I do hereby attest that prior to this offering the aforementioned property belonged solely to myself.” There is also a LOA from JSA (Z83372) for the signature.

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