The Secret To Being A Great NFL Linebacker In The ‘90s Was All In The Facemask
Throughout the 1990s, Chris Spielman and Greg "Avoid" Lloyd were arguably the NFL’s two most well-known enforcers. If they weren’t leading the league in tackles, they were setting the pace for weekly intimidation: Eye black and untucked jerseys for days. A general nonchalance towards the suggestion of mouthpieces combined with a love for inflicting pain on ballcarriers.
Playable characters in the real-life version of NFL Blitz.
Before the days of spread offenses and RPOs, the NFL was much more about running through someone than running around them. This was an era in which you were more likely to see Lawrence Taylor pass a drug test than draw a flag for roughing the passer. A body-altering collision by way of a middle linebacker was able to change a game in the opposite way of modern-day targeting calls. And Spielman and Llyod were certified collision experts.
What made these two linebackers so feared, so consistent, and often imitated but never duplicated, was not the weight room, performance enhancers or their football IQ. Nope. It was what they were wearing…
And I’m not talking about those giant shoulder pads.
Like Pete Sampras and his tennis racket or former Bull Horace Grant’s goggles, Spielman and Lloyd had a very distinct piece of equipment as part of their arsenal. Both LBs took the field in the uncommon, and now seemingly extinct, Riddell VSR2 helmet. If you were a fan of World League Football or American Gladiators (yep, they wore ‘em too), you know exactly what I’m talking about.
Linebacker Chris Spielman racked up more than 1300 career tackles in his familiar lid. (Photo by George Gojkovich/Getty Images)
(Getty Images)
Riddell’s VSR2 was equipped with an extra-thick cage that stretched from what seemed like the forehead to the chin. This was a helmet/facemask pairing that, like AOL, Crystal Pepsi, and MTV’s Total Request Live, is largely synonymous with the ‘90s and only the ‘90s. Toss Necessary Roughness in the VCR, and you’ll find Sinbad and Kathy Ireland sporting similar cages for the Texas State University Fightin’ Armadillos.
Linebackers Were Among The Few To Rock The Infamous '90s Facemask
Take a peek around the NFL during the time when Spielman and Lloyd were manning the middle for their respective teams, and you’d be hard-pressed to find many other players - with the exception of a few offensive lineman (hand up Willie Anderson!) - wearing the same lid.
Why? Well, we can’t say for certain. But my guess is that few, if any, professional players felt they could match the intensity and performance of Greg Lloyd and Chris Spielman (a duo who combined for more than 2,000 career tackles) and considered themselves unworthy of such headgear.
Greg Lloyd was a tackling machine who wore an unmistakable piece of equipment. Mandatory Credit: Rick Stewart /Allsport
Fittingly, Y2K hit shortly after both Spielman and Lloyd hung up their cleats and - poof! – the recognizable lids were suddenly no more. Not so coincidentally, linebacker play quickly regressed. Thumpers who proved capable of roaming sideline-to-sideline in Riddell’s finest were replaced with smaller, quicker players who appeared more concerned with offseason three-cone drills than bone-crushing tackles.
Gone were the Riddell VSR2s, Spielman, and Lloyd.
And so too was the most identifiable aspect of elite 1990s linebacker performance.
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