DG148

As a result of spending so much time searching for basketball photos this summer, I didn't do anything on college football. I'd estimate that of all the games from last season for which I wanted to save pictures, only about one fourth of them was I able to search all the websites I wanted to. So I can only imagine how many pictures of great dreads that I missed. From the games I did save pictures I've already posted all of the best photos I could find. But there are a few more that I didn't post that you might find interesting. Let's take a look at them in dread gallery #148, as we take a (quick) look back at last season and look ahead to 2013.
.
.

1. The season got off to a bang on Aug. 30. As South Carolina senior TE Justice Cunningham makes the catch on 2nd and 7 on the 3rd play of 4th quarter, he is hit so hard by Vanderbilt CB Andre Hal that his helmet comes off .....

Dreaded Dozen 2012

For the best players with dreads in college football I do an all-America with dreads team each year. For the best with dreads in the NFL I call it the dreaded dozen. It's a ranking of who I thought were the 12 best players with dreads for one season only, not their whole careers. And there's no secret formula or point system involved. It's entirely my opinion, complete with my own personal biases (although I try to be as fair as possible). Mostly I just go by a player's stats and whether or not he was selected for the Pro Bowl. If you disagree with the selections, it's not a problem. Please, we'd love to hear how you would rank them.

The list for 2012 is a bit different than usual - in that more defensive players than offensive made the top 10. In fact, half of the first half dozen in the rankings play D. In previous years no more than one defensive player per year has been able to crack the top 6. Seven players are repeat selections from 2011 (where a player ranked in 2011 will be noted by the number in parenthesis following a player's name), but oddly the player who ranked #1 was not one of them. And unlike the list for 2011, no rookies made the list this time. So without any further delay, here are the dreaded dozen for the 2012 NFL season.

Stark Raven

When LB Josh Bynes (photo, with the Vince Lombardi Trophy) tackled WR Ted Ginn well short of the end zone on a last-ditch, all-or-nothing kickoff return on the final play, Super Bowl 47 was over, and the Baltimore Ravens were on top of the football world. Congratulations, Ravens, on a job well done. And there was no doubt about it, right? I mean, throughout the season whenever you thought you had the Ravens on the ropes, actually it was the Ravens who had you right where they wanted. Let's see, there was that missed FG by the Dallas kicker at the end of the game in Week 6 (one of only two FG attempts he missed all season); there was that ridiculous 30-yard gain by Ray Rice on 4th and 29 in Week 12; then there was that outrageous 70-yard TD by Jacoby Jones with 31 seconds remaining at Denver in the playoffs; and finally there was the Ravens' D, after being scored upon four possessions in a row, getting the job done when they absolutely had to on the 49ers' final drive of the Super Bowl. There's a fine line between winning and losing in the NFL, and in 2012 more often than not when the Ravens needed a play made, they gone one; and whenever their opponents needed one, they didn't get it.

The Ravens' championship makes it twice in the last four seasons that my crystal ball (CB) has correctly picked the Super Bowl winner before the season began. And not only that, this time CB picked the correct Super Bowl loser too.

DG147 - Part 1

Not willing to put in the extra effort, I kept telling myself I was going to do a nice, quick dread gallery on pro basketball. And then I went through all the pictures I saved ....... Well, so much for nice and quick. Instead, dread gallery #147 will be a nice, not very quick look in two parts at basketball players with dreads who play for pay. We'll look at all 10 of the NBA's players with dreads in action from the 2012-13 season (which I will still refer to as this season even though it's already finished) along with a few (and only a few) of the many playing in minor leagues around the world. No doubt there will be several players with dreads not featured here. I don't have the time to check every single league worldwide. So if I don't include some of your favorite players, I'm sorry; it will be up to you to please let us know about them.

We'll lead off part 1 of DG147 with Gerald Wallace.

Prior to this season Wallace on many occasions had his hair in braids hanging loosely from his head, making them look like they were dreads. And on many other occasions he had braids that looked like braids, such as in the photo above from March 2011. But this season was different.

DG147 - Part 2

Let's continue now with our look at pro basketball players with dreads during the 2012-13 season in part 2 of dread gallery #147.
And we begin with a question: To reduce (your dreads) or not to reduce? For most players the answer is a quick and simple no. After all, what's the point of letting your dreads grow long if you're not going to show them off when you're on the court. Unfortunately not everyone shares my opinion. In fact, for three of the 10 players with dreads in the NBA this season you never knew from game-to-game if they were going to let their dreads flow or keep them stifled. We already saw Cartier Martin in Part 1. Now let's look at the other two.
.
.

1. For Jordan Hill there is no middle ground. When he reduces his dreads, the 6-10, 235-pound reserve center for the L.A. Lakers clumps them together so tightly that it's difficult to tell that he even has dreads. If your seats are in the upper deck, he looks like any other player with clean cut hair. And when he has them flowing freely, he barely holds them back at all, never bunching them, and wearing a band so close to his head that they get nearly full extension when he's on the court - like here on Nov. 11 as he battles for a rebound against Kings F James Johnson during 1st half at Staples Center. Hill had 8 points, 7 rebounds, and a season high 4 turnovers in 19 minutes in this game as Lakers improved to 3-2 with a 103-90 victory over Kings.