2016 NFL House Calls

192 times during the 2016 NFL regular season a player with dreads took one to the house - a small increase over the total of 190 house calls in 2015. The 192 TD accounted for 14.7% (roughly one out of every 7) of the 1,307 touchdowns scored by everybody during the season. There were 5 players with dreads who scored at least 10 TD - a small increase of one over the 4 who reached double figures in 2015. RB LeGarrette Blount, who previously had never scored more than 7 TD in any regular season, took individual honors, finishing with 18 TD. Blount scored in 13 of the New England Patriots' 16 games - scoring one TD 9 times; two TD 3 times; and scoring all three of the Patriots' touchdowns in their 31-24 home loss to the Seattle Seahawks in Week 10, including a 13-yard run around left end (photo above) for a 21-19 New England lead in the 3rd quarter. Blount's 18 TD were second only to the 20 scored by Arizona Cardinals RB David Johnson among all players.  

DG170 - Part 1

We interrupt our regularly scheduled dread gallery to bring you a different regularly scheduled dread gallery. In other words .....

I'm still planning to do two more college basketball dread galleries, but they're on hold for now because it's time for our annual DG featuring another class of NFL rookies with dreads. I try to finish this DG before the preseason gets too far underway because some of these guys aren't going to be around for long, and I want you to be able to say hello to them before it's time to say goodbye. Most of these rookies, however, will make it at least through the entire preseason, and the rookies that are 2017 draft choices most likely will make their teams' opening day rosters. Right now this year's class includes 30 players that were drafted; but I'm undecided on whether a couple of draftees have dreads or not, so that total could increase to 32.

2017 marks the 14th straight year at least one player with dreads has been picked in the 1st round of the draft - a streak that started when Larry Fitzgerald was picked #3 overall in 2004. And not just the 1st round; in all 14 years at least one player with dreads was taken in the first half of the 1st round, including at least one in the top 8 in 11 of the 14 years. Six times during those 14 years a player from a team in the SEC was the first player with dreads picked, with Vernon Hargreaves (Florida) being the most recent (2016).

DG170 - Part 2

Part 2 of dread gallery #170 features the rest of the NFL's 2017 class of rookies with dreads, specifically all of those trying to earn jobs with teams in the NFC.

The NFC West is the division with the most players with dreads drafted this year with 6; and the NFC West's San Francisco 49ers take honors for the team that drafted the most players with dreads ..... which is kind of a huge surprise, because since I started this blog the 49ers have been a team that every year consistently has very few players with dreads. And if you look at their draft history, it's easy to see why. Prior to 2017 the 49ers in their entire history had drafted only 6 players that had dreads when they drafted them. Maybe this is the year, under new management, they stop treating players with dreads like they had leprosy.

1. Three of the 49ers' 10 draft picks this year have dreads; and as he meets the media on Apr. 28 - the day after he was drafted - former Alabama LB Reuben Foster explains how he feels about being the first player with dreads the 49ers drafted in the 1st round since they picked Vernon Davis 11 years ago. No, actually he's talking about how relieved he is that he didn't fall to the 2nd round of the draft. Talent-wise Foster should have been the first player with dreads picked. But thanks to offseason surgery on his shoulder and other off-the-field issues he wasn't picked until #31 overall, the second last pick of round 1.

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DG169

Continuing our way too late look at the 2015-16 College Basketball season, in dread gallery #169 we'll begin taking a look at how the seniors did in the final year of their careers - and I'm talking about the seniors who had dreads throughout their careers, not the one-year wonders we saw in DG167. Then in the second half of DG169 we'll look at some players with dreads - most of them not seniors - who played on teams where at least two of their teammates also had dreads.

1. He may not have been one of the best players with dreads, but Marshall G Justin Edmonds certainly was one of the players with the best dreads. Edmonds, a 6-4, 227-pounder, looks to makes his move against G Robert Hubbs (left photo) and defends a shot by G Kevin Punter (right photo) on Nov. 19 as Marshall, instead of playing a cupcake at home, opened the season with a tough road game against Tennessee. Edmonds finished with 11 points, 3 rebounds, and 5 assists in the Thundering Herd's 84-74 loss. He played 31 minutes that night; and apparently the coaching staff must not have liked what they saw - because he didn't play more than 16 minutes in any game for the rest of the season. The Herd went on to lose their first 6 games before finally getting their 1st win on Dec. 9.

DG168

For the most part dread gallery #168 is a continuation of what we saw in DG167 - that is, players who had dreads for the first time during the 2015-16 College Basketball season and players with dreads playing on Division 1 teams for the first time in 2015-16. In DG168 we'll focus mostly on the players who transferred to D-1 teams from junior colleges. But before we get to them, let's start with three more players just getting their dreads started for the first time. This trio of star players made major contributions on successful teams in 2016 and hope to some day be making their contributions on teams in the NBA.

These days anything goes when it comes to hairstyles for athletes; so when someone starts letting his hair grow longer, it doesn't necessarily mean he is planning on turning it into dreads. Maybe a couple of years ago it did; but not anymore. So whenever there is a player with short hair who begins to grow it out, I don't really keep track of him as closely as I used to. In the case of SMU F Ben Moore I can't honestly say I even noticed him at all during the first three months of the season; but even if I had, I wouldn't have expected him to suddenly convert his hair into dreads. So it definitely was a pleasant surprise when on Jan. 30 .....

1. ..... he suddenly did convert his hair to dreads, debuting his beginner dreads during the Mustangs' home game against Memphis, and debuting them the right way, at that. It's nice to see someone start his dreads with dreads on the sides of his head too instead of having partial dreads like so many do now. Moore has a couple of close encounters with F Dedric Lawson in these two photos. The caption for the right photo said that Moore had his shot blocked by Lawson; but that doesn't show up anywhere in the official game play-by-play. More likely this is the play early in the 1st half where Lawson was called for a foul on Moore - even though it looks like Lawson has all ball and it's actually Shaq Goodwin who's hitting Moore's arm. On the left Moore goes to the floor trying to make sure SMU doesn't turn the ball over on a possession early in 2nd half. With Moore contributing 12 points, 8 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 blocked shots in 33 minutes in his first game with dreads, SMU improved to 19-1 with an 80-68 win over Memphis.

DG167

 OK. Let's see. Where were we? Oh, that's right, DG166 .....

After I finished DG166, it was the middle of last November, which meant another season in College Basketball was about to start. And since I never did a First Look post from the previous season (2015-16), I decided to start the new (2016-17) season with a look back at 2015-16 - just so you could get caught up with all of the new players with dreads. At the time it seemed like a good idea, but then .....

I blew it. Instead of being satisfied with the photos I already had saved, I decided to go back and save some more. Actually there were a lot of players I didn't have any photos of; so I needed to save some more. But instead of looking for photos of only those players, I decided to get more photos of everybody. Time passed - weeks. After finally saving enough pictures, I had to go through them all to see which ones were worth posting. Usually for me that doesn't take very long; but this time it took an eternity.

My Brother's Sleeper

There's just something about twins - something different, something special. Without knowing (and not particularly wanting to know) the fine details of the rules of genetics, I still marvel at whatever it is that allows two babies born at virtually the same time to grow up and live their lives while looking exactly (or almost exactly) alike. Unlike those of us with older and younger siblings, it seems like twins are meant to always be together. They belong together. And their role in life seemingly should be to continually tease us, torment us, trick us, play games with us - always keeping us guessing as to which one is which.

Twins that are athletes usually remain teammates throughout their high school and college careers. It's their choice to. But on the rare occasions where both twins are talented enough to play sports for a living, they no longer control their destinations and usually have to go their separate ways. Leading off this year's preview of the NFL Draft, we have the stories of not one but two prospects who figure to be playing the 2017 season on Sundays, while leaving their twin brothers behind to finish up their college careers. And if you wanted to, you could consider both of them sleeper picks.

DG166

DG166, the last of 6 dread galleries covering the 2015 NFL season, is "All About the Dreads" - meaning that most of the photos are shots of players with some of the best dreads, including many of whom were ranked in the countdown of the league's 30 players with the longest dreads that I did in my Week 22 report. Then to wrap things up we'll take a look at a few shots I saved of some of great dreads from college football.

1. S Kendrick Lewis' dreads go flying as he sends WR Doug Baldwin flying after Baldwin crosses the goal line with a 22-yard TD reception, upping the Seahawks' lead to 21-6 over the Ravens during 3rd quarter in Week 14. Lewis had 3 tackles (1-2) and Baldwin scored 3 TD in Seattle's 35-6 road win.
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DG165

Even though the number of players with dreads in the NFL keeps on increasing, there still by far are more players that don't have dreads than do. But be that as it may, on every given Sunday at some point players with dreads from opposing teams will oppose each other one-on-one. Several of these one-on-one duels are featured in dread gallery #165, which goes by the title of "Close Encounters of the Dread Kind." Every photo in DG165 will have at least two NFL players with dreads in action from the 2015 season.

1. In a preseason Week 2 duel of sick dreads, Cardinals WR Larry Fitzgerald and Chargers S Jahleel Addae were still on the field late in 1st quarter, with Fitzgerald making his only catch of the game and Addae getting the last of his 3 tackles (3-0) at the San Diego 30-yard line after a 5-yard gain on 4th and 4. The 16-play, 50-yard drive ended 10 plays later with a FG, giving the Cardinals a 9-0 lead in a game that the Chargers came back to win 22-19.
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DG164

The photos in dread gallery #164 don't fit one specific theme, so I guess "Anything Goes" is as good a title for it than any. It's kind of a smorgasbord of some of the interesting, eventful, painful, and unusual things involving some of the NFL's players with dreads during the 2015 season.

1. Panthers WR Kelvin Benjamin runs after the catch past Bills CB Stephon Gilmore during Week 1 of the preseason. Benjamin had 3 catches for 36 yards, including a 2-yard TD, in the Panthers' 25-24 road win; but those would be his only stats for the 2015 season. 5 days later he suffered a torn ACL injury in a joint practice between the Panthers and Dolphins and missed the rest of the season. Thankfully he appears to be fully recovered and has caught 21 passes in the Panthers' first 5 games of 2016.

DG163

"Before and After" is the theme for DG163. No, these aren't going to be photos of players before and after they've cut off their dreads. I'm talking about before and after the game. Since you really need to wear a helmet when you play football, it's difficult to get a good look at what the players look like while the game is underway. But when those helmets come off before and after the game, it gives photographers plenty of opportunities to get some clear, close-up shots. In dread gallery #163 here are some of those shots, as we look at what some of the NFL's players with dreads were up to before and after their games during the 2015 season.

1. As I mentioned in my dreads focus reports, there certainly was no shortage shortage of sick dreads in the Buffalo Bills' secondary in 2015. CBs Mario Butler (#39), Stephon Gilmore (#24), and Ron Brooks - three of the seven DBs with dreads on the Bills' roster - head to the field for warmups at Ralph Wilson Stadium before playing their season opener against the Colts.
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DG162

"Act like you've been there before" ..... "Just hand the ball to the ref" ..... "Don't do anything to draw attention to yourself" ..... I'm sure you've heard those words over and over - coming out of the mouths of the haters of fun in football. Don't worry; you're not likely to ever hear them coming out of my mouth. Football is a very tough and emotional game; and when you make a play that helps your team win, emotions should be expressed, not suppressed. I don't know about you, but I love watching football players celebrate (and occasionally making fools of themselves). Just as long as you don't do it up in the face of your opponent, because then it's taunting not celebrating.

When talking about the NFL, some people jokingly say that the letters "NFL" stand for "No Fun League"; and that's true in some instances. But for the most part in the NFL, if you want to celebrate, you can; and unless you go a bit too far over the top (talking about you, Antonio Brown), you won't get penalized for it. By now you've probably figured out the theme for dread gallery #162 is "Celebrate". Here's a look at how some of the NFL's players with dreads did it during the 2015 season.

1. RB Chris Johnson gives thanks after scoring his 1st TD in a Cardinals uniform on a 6-yard run, upping Arizona's lead to 21-0 over the 49ers on the first play of 2nd quarter during Week 3. After he scored a career low 2 TD with the N.Y. Jets in 2014 and was told not to bother to come back for the 2nd year of his 2-year contract with them, it looked like Johnson's streak of scoring at least one TD in 7 straight seasons might be over. But after signing with the Cardinals halfway through the preseason, he went on to have a productive season, scoring 3 TD, before going on IR after breaking a bone in his leg (the first serious injury of his career) in Week 12.
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