2012 College Football Dread All-America

Unless you did a Rip Van Winkle last fall, you probably noticed that there were a lot of players with sick dreads in uniform on Saturdays in 2012 - way too many to mention them all here. Of those players some have dreads with a greater "wow" factor than others; you know, the kind of dreads that make you say, "Wow! Who is that?" the first time you see them. My 5th annual dread all-America team features 96 Division 1 players whose dreads most definitely rank high when it comes to the "wow" factor.

To even be considered for this team you must have dreads long enough to be seen while you're wearing your helmet. And I don't mean barely seen. I'm talking about long enough that the person sitting in row ZZ at the top of the stadium doesn't need binoculars to know that you have dreads.

2012 College Football Dread All-America (Part 2)

Let's continue now with more of the best dreads on Saturdays in 2012 ......

3rd TEAM

OFFENSE

• OL Jonathan Cooper - North Carolina . SR
• OL Seantrel Henderson - Miami (F) . JR
• OL Patrick Lewis - Texas A&M . SR
• OL Tyrus Thompson - Oklahoma . SOPH
• OL Brennan Williams - North Carolina . SR
• WR Javon Bell - Texas Tech . JR
• WR Kitaro Lewis - Morehead State . SOPH
• WR J.D. McKissic - Arkanas State . FR
• RB Cassius McDowell (HM) - Toledo . SOPH
• RB Kenny Miles (HM) - South Carolina . SR
• QB Devin Powell - Tulane . FR
• KR Tavares Crawford  (2) - Eastern Illinois . JR

2012 College Football All-America with dreads

In the first of my two all-America teams, we'll look at who I ranked as the best players with dreads in Division 1 for the recently completed 2012 season. Of the 48 players who made the 2011 team, 17 are repeat selections on this year's squad, while 18 others were drafted by the NFL. I'm happy to announce that the team is expanding to 72 players this season as I will be doing a 3rd team for the first time. But even with the upgrade, some really good players didn't make the cut and will have to settle for honorable mention. By my unofficial count there are 152 players with dreads in D-1 who earned all-conference honors in 2012, and 20 of those were recognized as all-America by the Associated Press. The 152 was down slightly from last year's total of 159. I tried hard not to forget or miss anybody; but if I did, please let me know.

NFL '12 Dread News - Week 22

So, where were you when the lights went out .... at the Superdome? Well, I know where the Baltimore Ravens were: 22 points ahead in the 3rd quarter and on their way to turning Super Bowl 47 into a blowout. But when played resumed following a 34-minute delay, their would-be romp over the San Francisco 49ers suddenly turned into a lot of hard work. The 28-6 lead vanished as the 49ers closed to within 31-29. But just as they did several times throughout the season, the Ravens found a way to win when they had no business winning, this time holding on for a 34-31 victory at New Orleans last Sunday night.

"It wasn't perfect. It wasn't pretty. But it was us," said Ravens Coach Harbaugh after the game. No doubt "it was us". Of the Ravens' 14 wins (including the playoffs) this was their 7th by a margin of 3 points or less. But hey, they only count W's and L's - not whether the W's and L's are pretty or not. It was the 49ers who dominated in total yards 468-367, gashing the Ravens' D for 7.8 yards per play. It was the 49ers who either scored or reached the red zone on their final 5 possessions of the game. But it was the Ravens who were celebrating when time expired, raising the Vince Lombardi Trophy for the 2nd time since the franchise began in 1996 and the first time since the 2000 season.

After practicing for two weeks, the 49ers came out and had an illegal formation penalty on their very first snap on offense. It doesn't get much worse than that. The penalty wiped out what would have been a 20-yard gain. Instead the 49ers went three-and-out on their first possession. Then the 49ers' defense took the field - and started no better than the offense.

Here's Hanley - Welcome Home!

We have just turned the page on the calendar to February, and that means the beginning of baseball's spring training is just around the corner. And I'm happy to report that we'll be welcoming a new member into the house for the 2013 season. Actually, it'll be more like welcoming home a long lost friend ....... I know I've mentioned this story a couple of times before in my MLB reports, but here it is one more time just to refresh your memory.

The last time we welcomed Hanley Ramirez into the house, he didn't stay for long. Not that he wanted to leave, instead it was his employers that made him leave. That was back in 2009, when Ramirez - the star SS for the Florida (now known as Miami) Marlins - and also outfielder Cameron Maybin showed up at spring training with their hair in beginner dreads (Ramirez left photo below, Maybin on right) . After saying nothing and doing nothing for most of the preseason, all of a sudden about a week before the regular season was to start, the team's ownership announced a new team policy: no dreads allowed - or any other kind of long hair for that matter - for anyone playing for the Marlins (rules like this can exist in MLB - but not in the NFL because the basic agreement between NFL owners and players allows players to do whatever they please with their hair). I don't know what reaction Maybin had, but Ramirez was incensed at the edict, to say the least.

At first Ramirez said he wanted to be traded but then changed his mind and took his anger out on the baseball instead, pounding it to the tune of a career high .342 batting average that season. But Hanley never lost his desire to have dreads.

NFL '12 Dread News - Week 21

Commissioner Goodell, whose bright idea it was to schedule a Super Bowl to be played in an outdoor stadium in New York (so next year, after spending a thousand bucks for a ticket but then you can't make it to the game because NYC is in the middle of a paralyzing, 20-inch snowstorm, you'll know who to blame), also is determined to add another notable accomplishment to his resume: ridding the league of the Pro Bowl.

In one form or another the Pro Bowl - the NFL's postseason All-Star Game - had been played for 61 consecutive years prior to this season. But that streak nearly came to an end because Goodell was ready to pull the plug (and you can hardly blame him) after last year's game 'featured' a complete and blatant lack of effort and intensity by the players, especially those on defense. "Well, if you don't want to play hard, then let's not play at all," was the commissioner's thinking. But apparently, the players association was not on the same page as the commish. True, most of the players do not want to play hard. But they enjoy being recognized as the best players in the league; they enjoy the camaraderie with other players; and they enjoy the chance to escape winter and take the family out to Hawaii for a nice, weeklong vacation.

Goodell ended up granting the Pro Bowl a one year stay of execution but put it on double secret probation. So the goal for the players in this year's game was to make it look like they were playing hard - but not so hard that there would be a bunch of injuries. And the verdict? The effort level last Sunday was significantly higher than in last year's game. But was it sufficient to convince Goodell to take the Pro Bowl off of death row for good? Probably. Maybe. I hope so.

I was tuned to the game but wasn't paying much attention to it. There were 13 touchdowns scored in the NFC's 62-35 victory over the AFC; and 3 of them were by players with dreads. Cardinals WR Larry Fitzgerald (photo above) had his poorest stats this season since his rookie year in 2004 (mostly because his QBs were poor); but you can't have a Pro Bowl without him, so it was great to see him on the field.

NFL '12 Dread News - Week 20

Oh brother, the one time I want my crystal ball to be wrong and what happens? Of course, it nails its prediction right on the head, correctly forecasting the Ravens and 49ers to meet in the Super Bowl. As often as CB has been wrong in the past, you'd think I'd be thrilled that it finally got something right. But for real, there was nothing thrilling about watching the Falcons blow a big lead for the second Sunday in a row. They survived the Seahawks the previous week despite blowing a 20-0 lead. But against the 49ers last Sunday, after having a 17-0 lead early vanish and become a 28-24 deficit late, the Falcons came up 10 yards short on their final chance to score, and the 49ers held on to capture their first NFC championship in 18 years.

It was not a good day last May when I watched the video of WR Julio Jones getting his dreads cut off. But with or without the dreads, it's always a good day seeing him in a Falcons uniform.

College BB '13 - First Look

At around this time last year I did a College Basketball post featuring seven newcomers, all of whom had sick dreads and all of whom were good players with bright futures. To refresh your memory and for your convenience, you may click on the link below to view that post.
http://www.yardbarker.com/forum/2/6/discussion/4_3_2_2_2_2_1/9421250

Well, all seven players still have bright futures; but as for the dreads - man, it has been almost non-stop disappointment so far this season. And, not surprisingly, at the root of the disappointment is our good old friend (not!) - reduced dreads.

• Johnny O'Bryant and Anthony Hickey - Actually the problem here isn't reduced dreads, it's no dreads (notice that their names aren't in boldface type). Both O'Bryant and Hickey cut off their dreads at some point during the offseason. I was kind of expecting this too, so it wasn't too disappointing.
• Terran Pettway - By rule Pettway can't play this season because he transferred (from Texas Tech to Nebraska) after last season. Apparently he hated Coach Gillespie so much (I don't know that for a fact) that he wanted to leave Texas Tech ASAP. But if he had waited, he could have stayed at Tech, becasuse Gillespie ended up resigning. Terran still has his dreads, and hopefully we'll them them on the court next season with his new teammate .......
• ...... David Rivers - All was going well (top photo below) until the calendar turned to 2013, when Rivers got the bright idea that he should reduce his dreads (bottom photo below). And just like that I went from looking forward to Nebraska games to ignoring them. David, come on man, your dreads deserve better than this. (Fortunately after 6 games in a row with his dreads reduced, he was back to normal for the game against Illinois last night, so hopefully his experiment with reduced dreads is over. We'll see.)

• Bryant Allen - Speaking of reduced dreads, meet the king of reduced dreads. Allen had his dreads reduced for about half of his games last season, so I knew that this year might be a problem. But I didn't expect it to be this bad. Instead of seeing Bryant on the floor with the longest dreads in Division 1, we see him with a different style of reduced dreads seemingly for every game. In the game against Dayton on Dec. 19 Allen gave us a glimpse at how long his dreads can be (photo below). But for most games he's had them reduced far more than that, and in no games have we seen them in their full glory. I hate to admit this, but I'm kind of glad to see ISU doing so poorly this season. And may their struggles continue until Bryant unleashes the dreads. 

• Rod Hall and Marcus Thornton - Finally some good news: no reduced dreads here! I have the tiny complaint that Hall (right photo below) - who last year didn't band all of his dreads, keeping a few of them loose in the back - has them all banded together this year. But that's not a problem. Both he and Thornton (left photo below) are starting and doing well so far this season.

The total number of players with dreads on Division 1 rosters dropped by 25 after last season. 14 of those players were seniors (with only Jae Crowder currently in the NBA); 5 transferred to JC or to D-2 schools (including former Utah F Dijon Farr); 3 are ex-dreads (O'Bryant, Hickey, and Missouri G Jabari Brown). And the other 3 (Rondale Livas, Martez Harris, and Terry Tidwell) - their whereabouts are unknown.

NFL '12 Dread News - Week 19

You heard it here first (in my report three weeks ago): when Torrey Smith scores a TD, the Ravens win. So when Smith burned Hall-of-Fame-bound CB Champ Bailey deep for a 59-yard TD catch (photo below) to tie last weekend's game at Denver at 7 in the 1st quarter, it was already game over right then and there. No need for all of that drama that followed later in the game; the Ravens already had it in the bag. Right??

All kidding aside, what a disastrous and heartbreaking defeat that was for the Broncos and their fans. Wow. I mean, giving up a 70-yard TD to tie the game with 31 seconds left? And not just any game, a playoff game. Are you kidding me? You don't deserve to win when you do something like that, and fittingly the Broncos didn't, as they fell 38-35 when the Ravens kicked a FG early in the 2nd overtime period.

NFL '12 Dread News - Week 18

A couple of running backs made the postseason dread stars list as the playoffs got underway with 4 games in the Wild Card round. One of them - Seahawks star Marshawn Lynch - we've all heard of. He was selected to the NFC Pro Bowl team after having the best season of his career. The other? Well, prior to last Saturday night you might not have heard of him before. He's just happy to have a job in the NFL .....

..... Of course, if you are a longtime reader of this blog, you have heard of DuJuan Harris before. His name came up several times during his solid college career at Troy (including winning my first ever player of the week award in Week 1 of the 2008 season). And it came up again during my Week 14 NFL report last season when he was a rookie with the Jacksonville Jaguars. This season the Jaguars' new coaching staff (you know, the one that just got fired after leading the team to their worst season ever) decided they had no use for Harris. He was cut near the end of training camp. And after the Steelers then took a quick look at him and said, "No, thanks," Harris found himself unemployed.

NFL '12 Dread News - Week 17

Instead of my usual weekly gavel-to-gavel viewing of the Falcons' and Chiefs' games, I gave my remotes a workout this week, constantly switching from one game to another. The result: I filled up almost 7 pieces of paper with notes from what I saw. The bulk of this week's report lists some of the highlights. Just a couple of things before we get started. I didn't watch as much of the Ravens-Bengals game as I had planned because BenJarvus Green-Ellis was injured and did not play at all, and because Torrey Smith didn't play much (most of the Ravens' starters sat out most of the game to avoid injury). And there won't be many notes from the 2nd half of the Chiefs-Broncos game - because I just couldn't take anymore; it actually hurt to watch it). Anyway, here's NFL Week 17 through the eyes of the house of dread, minute-by-minute (items in parenthesis are additional info and did not necessarily happen at the time listed).

12/30/2012

12:03 PM CT - Jacquizz Rodgers returns the opening kickoff 12 yards for Falcons against Tampa Bay

12:03 - Joique Bell does better for Lions, returning opening kickoff 30 yards to the 33-yard line against Bears

12:04 - On 2nd play from scrimmage, Bengals S Reggie Nelson tackles Ravens FB Vonta Leach after a 2-yard reception; Leach leaves the game injured

12:07 - Chris Johnson scores a 2-yard TD run for Titans against Jaguars then does a different celebration than his usual one

12:13 - Torrey Smith loses 4 on a reverse on 1st down (it would be the only time he touched the ball all game)

12:17 - Falcons CB Dunta Robinson injures himself trying to tackle RB Doug Martin then quickly takes off his helmet, revealing those super long dreads of his

12:20 - Now Falcons' other starting CB is down, as Asante Samuel aggravates a shoulder injury while making the tackle on 5-yard reception by WR Mike Williams

12:21 - Browns WR Travis Benjamin is wide open on an out route on 2nd and 7 for a 12-yard catch to the Steelers' 21-yard line

Hello

I usually change the channel whenever a commercial comes on. But no matter how hard I try, it's impossible to avoid them all. Actually though, I do like the AT&T commercial that ends with Oklahoma Coach Stoops saying "Hello" to a high school player he presumably is meeting for the first time - a player that came to his attention only after someone used a phone to capture video of that player making a spectacular play and then letting the magic of the AT&T network (and nobody else's) spread the viewing of that video like wildfire - so quickly that it allows Stoops to come and meet the player in person by the time his game is over.

Well, I was thinking of that commercial - and of videos spreading rapidly (going viral is what it is called, I believe) - after a special play during the bowl bonanza on New Year's Day. If you were watching the games, you already know which play I'm talking about (and if you haven't seen it yet, you either were in a cave all day or that was one whale of a hangover) ....... It was the 4th quarter in the Outback Bowl, and South Carolina, trailing Michigan by 1, had just stopped Michigan a couple of inches short on a fake punt on 4th down - only to have the referee signal 1st down Michigan (huh?). Since the measurement was right in front of the South Carolina sideline, the ref's call left Coach Spurrier and several players furious (I don't know, maybe it was the ref who had that hangover). Not to worry though, because Jadeveon Clowney said "I got this." 

It should never be in your game plan to leave Clowney (celebrating with fans after the game in photo above), the All-America sophomore DE, unblocked on any play.