How former Packers running back Dorsey Levens got two Hall of Famers' helmets at the 1998 Pro Bowl

Dorsey Levens accomplished plenty during 11 seasons in the NFL.

The former Green Bay Packers running back played in three Super Bowls, the highlight coming when he rushed for 61 yards in the Packers’ win over the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XXXI in 1997.

Another pinnacle moment came one year later when he earned a trip to his only Pro Bowl after a season in which he rushed for 1,435 yards and seven touchdowns while adding 53 receptions for 370 yards and five scores.

Not bad for someone NFL draft expert Mel Kiper claimed was the most overrated player in the draft in 1994 when the Packers selected him in the fifth round out of Georgia Tech.

Levens enjoyed his time at the Pro Bowl in late January and early February 1998, and he swapped more than just stories with his fellow all-stars while in Honolulu.

Trading helmets at the 1998 Pro Bowl

Levens heard about the long-standing tradition of players exchanging helmets after the Pro Bowl, and he was bold enough to ask Detroit Lions star running back Barry Sanders.

Sanders made the Pro Bowl each of his 10 seasons in the NFL, and this was No. 9 after a year in which he rushed for a career-high 2,053 yards and was named the league’s MVP.

“I think he was just over the whole thing,” Levens said. “He was like, ‘Yeah, I don’t really do that. You can have mine if you want it.’”

Levens didn’t attempt to play cool. He wanted it. He was like many of his peers who admired Sanders and marveled at the things he could do on the field, from his explosiveness to his jump cutting to his ridiculous ability to stop and start on a dime.

When Levens recently rewatched the Pro Bowl game from that year, he saw running backs Jerome Bettis and maybe Eddie George on the other sideline both saying they wanted to watch Sanders.

Levens often sat on the bench when the Packers’ defense was on the field during the season, usually following the action on the Jumbotron.

But not when the Packers played the Lions. When Sanders was on the field, Levens stood on the sideline to watch him.

“Just to see what he was going to do,” said Levens, who was inducted into the Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame in 2009. “Hopefully, he wasn’t going to do too much against our team. But that was Barry, and he was hard to stop.”

Sanders’ generosity at the Pro Bowl allowed Levens the opportunity to find another player to trade his helmet with, and to be perhaps the only guy that year to come away with two.

Levens exchanged helmets with John Lynch, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers safety playing in his first Pro Bowl in what turned out to be a Hall of Fame career.

Two helmets. Two Hall of Famers.

“John was one of those safeties that you needed to know where he was at all times,” Levens said. “He packed a load. Just a ton of respect for him.”

Autographed helmets are up for auction

The helmets, both of which are autographed by the player they came from, haven’t seen the light of day for much of the past 25 years. They have been in a storage bin in Levens’ basement.

He never forgot that he had the helmets, but he hasn’t thought much about them.

Levens was doing his Green and Gold G Lounge podcast with fellow hosts and former Packers Ahman Green and Gilbert Brown and happened to tell the story about exchanging helmets at the Pro Bowl.

He started receiving emails a short time later from listeners who expressed interest in buying them. He never had thought about selling, but the offers were solid.

Levens did more research before his agent eventually contacted Heritage Auctions, which will be auctioning the two helmets during its Spring Sports Catalog Auction on May 11-13.

The Sanders helmet already is at $9,600 with more than two weeks remaining.

Lynch’s helmet is approaching $2,000.

It’s not that the helmets don’t have any meaning for Levens, but he does believe they will mean even more to fans.

It’s the memories of that week that Levens cherishes. He still laughs at practicing on special teams with every other Pro Bowler who never played special teams during the season and going way too hard.

At one point during a practice — more like a glorified walk-through — Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker Levon Kirkland grabbed his jersey.

“He goes, ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa, this is your first time here, huh?’” Levens said, laughing. “I was like, ‘Yeah.’ He’s like, ‘You are going way too fast. Slow it down.’”

Levens loved talking with Sanders and receiving some of his wisdom, except when he asked Sanders what he did during the offseason for workouts.

Sanders told him he got away from the game and everything surrounding it until June. Levens knew if he waited that long to work out, he’d probably balloon to 250 pounds.

That’s why there was only one Barry Sanders.

“Collectors still remember him as that magical figure, and that’s why his memorabilia is extra special,” Heritage consignment director Chris Nerat said. “His running style, his speed, he stood out as a unique running back in NFL history. He could do things that were really superhuman. … (The helmet) being from the best season of his career, I don’t know where his helmet from the (regular) season is. It’s probably in Canton or somewhere like that. So, this is the only helmet that can be obtained, probably, from that miraculous season.”

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Lynch’s helmet has the extra benefit of being worn during the Buccaneers’ divisional playoff game against the Packers a month before the Pro Bowl. It was Tampa Bay’s first time in the postseason in 15 years.

“To obtain a rock solid, historically significant helmet from one of the better defenders who is enshrined in Canton, it will definitely command heavy bidding,” Nerat said.

Dorsey Levens will keep his own mementos

Anybody who hopes an email or two might convince Levens to part with some of the keepsakes from his own career is out of luck.

Levens has enough items to fill a museum, including his Super Bowl ring and game-worn jersey from the Packers’ win and autographed jerseys (not game-worn) from former teammates such as Reggie White, Brett Favre and LeRoy Butler.

He has his helmets from his Super Bowls, including from Super Bowl XXXIX when he was a member of the Philadelphia Eagles. All three of his Super Bowl jerseys are framed on the wall.

He has the turf shoes he wore during the Super Bowl win, but he did toss the ones from the Packers’ Super Bowl loss to the Denver Broncos the following year.

Levens even has kept memorabilia from his acting career, including the wardrobe he wore in a non-speaking role as a football coach in “We Are Marshall” with Matthew McConaughey.

“It just made sense to me,” Levens said about preserving items from his career. “All of us who play in the NFL, we all dreamed of it. I know guys who only played one year that got their jerseys framed.

“It’s such a small percentage of guys that make it to the NFL. I knew I would cherish that forever.”

This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Packers' Dorsey Levens will auction his Barry Sanders Pro Bowl helmet