Rembrandt Of The Rams

"I spent the better part of my life in football, and I'll be best remembered for some work I did with a paintbrush, but that's O.K.," Gehrke says. "I've been called the Da Vinci of football helmets, and that's not all bad."

And which helmets, apart from the Rams', are Gehrke's favorites? He has always liked the Colts' horseshoe. "It's simple, it's an identifiable symbol, and you can see it from the stands," he says. "The Vikings' helmets are pretty good too, and so are the Eagles'." What about the headgear of the Cleveland Browns, the only NFL team without a design on its helmets? "Well, since they're the only team without a logo, you'd have to say at least it's unusual," he says. "Besides, how the heck are you going to show a Brown?"