College FB '13 Dread News - Week 4

There wasn't any one game that I watched from start to finish this week, and none of the games I watched portions of was going to be in the running for this week's house of dread award; so I started paying closer attention than usual to the scores flashing at the bottom of the TV screen. When the score Middle Tennessee 42 Florida Atlantic 35 came up, I thought I had my HOD winner. Well, not quite; but the small crowd on hand for FAU's home opener (much less than the announced 13,911) did get to see several players with dreads in prominent roles for both teams. MTSU vs. FAU - last year it was a Sun Belt Conference game. This year - still a conference game, but now in CUSA instead of the SBC. And for their first ever league game in CUSA the Blue Raiders (according to the MTSU website) took the field wearing white helmets for the first time in 35 years.

I figured MTSU against FAU would contend for HOD honors because MTSU has a couple of WRs with dreads, while FAU has a couple of WRs, a TE, and a starting RB with dreads.

College FB '13 Dread News - Week 3

After Arizona State and Wisconsin last met in Week 3 of the 2010 season, I wrote something about the ASU players leaving the field at the end of their 20-19 defeat that afternoon at Madison knowing that they should have won the game. Well, the shoe was on the other foot late last Saturday night at Tempe as the Badgers walked off the field knowing they should have won following a controversial 32-30 defeat to the Sun Devils. Turnabout was or was not fair play - depending on whose side you were on.

UW fans and players will insist that the dawdling Pac-12 officials were directly responsible for the loss, their utter incompetence in the closing seconds denying the Badgers a chance to kick a last-second FG that would have won the game. ASU fans would probably counter that yes, the officials blew it, but that there were a whole bunch of questionable calls that went against the Sun Devils in that game three years ago. Just to name a couple, in fact, I remember an obvious pass interference penalty in the end zone by a UW DB that wasn't called in the 2nd half as well as a TD catch by WR George Bell in the 1st half that didn't count only because none of the TV cameras provided a conclusive-enough view of him getting one foot down in the end zone before his other foot landed out of bounds, even though we all know that's exactly what happened. So now the two teams are even, right? 

You know, the more I watch Melvin Gordon, the more he reminds me of another RB I like, who plays on Sundays - and not only because he wears a red and white #25 jersey and has dreads.

College FB '13 Dread News - Week 2

After just two weeks of the 2013 season there's already one thing that has become very clear: if you are a running back with dreads, the competition for spots on my postseason all-America with dreads team is going to be stronger than ever before. Of the 7 running backs with dreads for FBS teams who rushed for over 1,000 yards last season, five are back in 2013 (with only Eddie Lacy and Andre Ellington having moved on to the NFL). Joining those five and Kansas State senior John Hubert (who was about 50 yards short of 1,000 in 2012) in the competition are several freshmen along with a couple others who are not freshmen but who figure to be carrying the ball a lot this season. It's not at all out of the question that at least a dozen FBS running backs with dreads will top the 1,000-yard mark by the end of the season. And it's possible that a half dozen of those will be from teams in the SEC. 10 of the 14 teams in the SEC have at least one RB with dreads who has carried the ball already this season. Todd Gurley and Keith Marshall of Georgia and Jeff Scott of Mississippi were featured in last week's report. So let's take a quick look at the RBs from the other 8 teams this week.

Florida sophomore Matt Jones (photo above), who came on strong late last season, made his 2013 debut this week after missing Week 1 (and a lot of training camp as well) with a viral infection.

College FB '13 Dread News - Week 1

Two of the very best players with dreads in college football were on the national stage last Saturday night as Georgia and Clemson - schools just 75 miles apart - met for the first time in 10 years. Not only two of the best players with dreads, Georgia sophomore RB Todd Gurley and Clemson junior WR Sammy Watkins are two of the best players period, and they did not disappoint in a game ESPN saved to be telecast in primetime on ABC. There were 4 ties and 2 lead changes, and in the end Clemson held on for a 38-35 home victory in a battle of two teams that coming into the game had realistic dreams of going undefeated this season. But only Clemson's dream remains alive after the Tigers beat the Bulldogs for the first time in 23 years. The game lived up to its billing as a matchup of two high-powered offenses against two mediocre defenses. More than 1,000 total yards were amassed by the two offenses, with Georgia finishing with a 545-467 advantage. And to the surprise of nobody Gurley and Watkins accounted for more than one fourth of those yards.

Oh Brother, Here we go again

Yes, it's that time of the year again - the first week in September. Time for the beginning of another NFL season. And in the house of dread, that also means it's time to take a look at what my crystal ball (which I simply call "CB") is predicting will happen during the season. At this time a year ago, in a stroke of genius (or maybe it was just dumb luck) CB predicted the Harbaugh brothers (John and Jim) would be shaking hands after their teams (Ravens and 49ers) met in the Super Bowl. And now what? CB says it's going to happen again? Well, as Lee Corso says, not so fast! Although CB thinks the 49ers and Ravens will both make the playoffs this season, neither one will make a return trip to the Super Bowl. Instead, if CB is correct, there will be a different pair of brothers shaking hands on the field following the NFL's first ever cold weather Super Bowl.

If you've ever taken a boring tour or two in your life, then that hilarious commercial - the one where the Manning brothers, Peyton and Eli, and their father, Archie, are part of a group taking a tour of ESPN - really hits home. Although that commercial makes fun of the sibling rivalry between Peyton and Eli, I'm sure there's at least one competition that still exists between the two in real life. And in that competition, the scoreboard currently reads: Peyton - one Super Bowl victory, Eli - two Super Bowl victories. Now as fierce a competitor as Peyton is, and as great a player he still is at age 37, do you honestly believe he's going to retire from the NFL having won fewer Super Bowls than his little brother?

Well, CB thinks Peyton is fixin' to change the score this year. Not only will he lead the Denver Broncos to victory in the Super Bowl, he'll do it with Eli's team - the New York Giants - on the opposing sideline.

DG149

The NFL 2012 season in review is the focus of dread gallery #149. I was hoping to do more than one DG on the NFL (you may remember I somehow did six in one week last year); but I'm out of time; so I'm going to try to stuff all the best photos I saved from last season plus some other extras into one giant post. Same as with college football, I wasn't able to visit anywhere near as many websites as I wanted to; so no doubt I missed out on a whole bunch of great shots. But I saved a lot of great shots too; hopefully you will enjoy them. Only about 50 or so of the NFL's players with dreads will be featured; so you might be seeing some of the players I like over and over. I'm not going to check the game situation for each photo as thoroughly as I normally do, because I just didn't have enough time to. So here we go with NFL '12 in the house of dread.
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1. After playing three seasons in college at Alabama (where Coach Saban stifles dreads), rookie RB Trent Richardson finally gets a chance to unleash his dreads as he takes the field for his 1st NFL game on Sept. 9 at Cleveland. Richardson had a tough opener, rushing for only 39 yards on 19 carries in the Browns' 17-16 loss to the Eagles.