Overruled

Pandemic? What pandemic? You didn't really think the National Football League was going to let a little old pandemic stop it, did you? No, sir. The calendar has rolled around to September again; and although we may remain locked in the grip of the worst health crisis of our lifetime, there's too much money to be made. So - pandemic be damned - the NFL is going full steam ahead with its 2020 season. Well, at least that's the plan. Indeed while the NFL is open for business, it certainly won't be business as usual. I mean, football (and the other sports too) with no fans in the seats? It just ain't right. But I guess it's better than no football at all.

Anyway, I waited until Labor Day (6 days ago) to consult my crystal ball, aka CB2, and get its forecast for the 2020 season. And, I don't know, maybe it got confused because there weren't any preseason games this year to get at least a glimpse of how all teams are going to look .... because its prediction for the two teams it expected to meet in Super Bowl 55 was so ludicrous that it was flat out unacceptable. So, like a 5th grade teacher unhappy with shoddily done homework turned in by a student, I instructed CB2 to "do over."

10 Down, Victory To Go

I have to admit it was looking kind of bleak. It was just past the midway point of the 4th quarter of Super Bowl 54 and the Kansas City Chiefs were trailing the San Francisco 49ers 20-10. The Chiefs' normally explosive offense hadn't scored a touchdown since the 1st quarter, had turned the ball over on both of their possessions in the 2nd half (on the first 2 postseason interceptions of Patrick Mahomes' career) and was facing a 3rd and 15 from their own 35-yard line. But little did we know it (although we should have) the situation wasn't bleak at all. Actually the Chiefs had the 49ers right where they wanted them.

You remember what happened next. A blown coverage by the 49ers left WR Tyreek Hill open for a 44-yard reception to convert that 3rd and 15. And all of a sudden, like one light turning on and the one right next to it shutting off, the Chiefs could do no wrong, while the 49ers collapsed like a house of cards. Three Kansas City touchdowns in a span of 5:01 later it was S Tyrann Mathieu (not 49ers CB Richard Sherman) and teammates celebrating under a confetti shower (photo above) after the Chiefs had won 31-20 for the franchise's first Super Bowl victory in 50 years.

DG177 - Part 1

Never mind that the 2019 NFL season is already finished, here in the House of Dread my calendar says that it's still 2018. So now - finally and better late than never (right?) - are some of the photos I saved of the NFL's players with dreads from the 2018 season, all crammed into one mega dread gallery. Part 1 of DG177 focuses more on the dreads themselves, and then in Part 2 we'll look at some of the accomplishments and happenings and highs and lows involving the players. There are so many photos available (close to a thousand) for every NFL game; and although I'd love to, there's no way for me to view all of them. So I apologize if there are no photos of your favorite players or dreads. I'm only including the best of the few that I saved.

When I said mega dread gallery, I meant it. There are even more photos than usual. But hey, a lot of us have a lot of time on our hands these days, so there's no reason for you rush through it. Take your time, and hopefully you'll enjoy.

And away we go.

1. We begin the "Helmets Off" section with a look at Saints RB Alvin Kamara with his dreads flowing at full blast for a change as he stretches before the preseason Week 3 game against the L.A. Chargers. Once the regular season began though more often than not he kept his dreads reduced, which unfortunately has been his custom throughout his career (although I am happy to report he finally broke that custom in 2019).

DG177 - Part 2

Now for the rest of Dread Gallery #177, and we'll continue our look at the 2018 NFL season with some of the plays where players with dreads on opposing teams encountered each other.

1. CB Lafayette Pitts gets credit for the Bills' 1st tackle of the season - and picks up their first penalty of the season as well - as he gives rookie WR Janarion Grant a rude welcome to the NFL at the 20-yard line on the opening kickoff of the Bills-Ravens game. Pitts' facemask penalty was offset by an unnecessary roughness penalty on the Ravens, so the ball remained at the 20. This was his only tackle of the game. It was the only kickoff return for Grant, who also had 54 yards worth of punt returns - 51 on the punt return featured in Part 1 and just 3 yards combined on his 5 other returns. The Ravens opened the season with a 47-3 slaughter of the Bills.
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2018 NFL House Calls

The parade of trips to the end zone by NFL players last season may not have been unending, but it sure lasted a long time. Longer than ever, in fact. The total of 1,371 touchdowns scored during the 2018 regular season were the most ever, smashing the old record, which was set in 2013, by 33 touchdowns. How many of those 1,371 were scored by players with dreads? I'm glad you asked, because that's what this post is all about. For the record 259 of the 1,371, or 18.9%, were scored by 60 different players with dreads. The 259 house calls, an average of slightly more than one per game, are also a new record; and the 18.9% is a nice increase from 17.9% in 2017. A little later we'll take a look at some photos and videos of several of them.
  
Los Angeles Rams RB Todd Gurley certainly had plenty to smile about. Again. Shown in the photo above making his exit after his 3-touchdown day at Seattle in Week 5, Gurley for the second consecutive season led everyone - that's with or without dreads - in individual touchdowns.

We Taking L's

Only 9 months earlier he was shouting that the Jaguars were going to win the Super Bowl; but now during his media session following a Week 7 home loss to the Houston Texans, Jalen Ramsey, aka as the Mouth of the South, or at least the Mouth of Duval County, FL, was singing an entirely different tune. We taking L's? Say it ain't so. Unfortunately for Jaguars fans and for my crystal ball, CB2, which picked the Jaguars to win Super Bowl 53, it was very much so. Mercy, the fall of the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2018 was just as swift as their rise had been in 2017. And that was rather remarkable because the team that laid such an awful egg last season had most of the same players as the 2017 team that nearly won the AFC championship.

I'm With Stupid

There's no better word to describe it. Stupid. That was the first word that came to my mind after my crystal ball, CB2, revealed its forecast for the 2019 NFL season. That's because the team CB2 is picking to win the championship never wins championships. Well, almost never and certainly not lately. In its 'storied' history the team CB2 says is going to win the Super Bowl has won all of 3 championships. The first one was so long ago that there was no such thing as the Super Bowl. And the second one doesn't count either because immediately after they won it they were trounced in Super Bowl 1. So in reality just one true championship in the 59 years of their existence. That's why any mention of the Kansas City Chiefs actually winning the Super Bowl is not only stupid, it's utter stupidity. Right?

Well, I hate to admit it, but I'm actually with CB2 on this one (and not just because I'm a huge Chiefs fan). Guess that makes me an idiot too.

Quinnessential

The first two times Philadelphia Phillies outfielder Roman Quinn took the mound to pitch it wasn't serious. The Phillies were so far behind that the game was out of reach; and, rather than use a real pitcher in a game they no longer had any chance to win, they called upon Quinn to come in and get as many outs as he could and at the same time provide a little comic relief for the fans who hadn't already left. But this time it was different. This time - late last Friday night (Aug. 2) at Citizens Bank Park - with the clock about to strike midnight and with the Phillies out of options at pitcher, Quinn was brought in to pitch in a tie game in the 14th inning against the Chicago White Sox. Well, to the surprise of no one, this didn't end well for the Phillies; but they didn't go down without a fight. In fact, even though they saw the home team lose, the fans still at the park at that late hour were glad they still were, because the last two innings turned out to be the most entertaining part of the game.

If you had told Quinn when he woke up that morning that he was going to have the chance to be the winning pitcher in the game that night, he would have asked you what you'd been smoking. But in sports - and especially in baseball - these three words are always so true: you never know.

DG176

If you are an NFL team that begins a season by losing its first 2 games, you are already in deep trouble. And if you start with 4 straight losses? Well, history says you might as well pack it in and start getting ready for the next season, because ... Since the NFL went to a 16-game schedule (up from 14) in 1978, there have been 118 teams that began the season 0-4 and only one of them went on to reach the playoffs that year. So you can imagine the tension and desperation in the air in a game where the teams on both sidelines are 0-4 .....

It was Sunday, October 8th, Week 5 of the 2017 NFL season. Warm and humid weather greeted the 0-4 Los Angeles Chargers after making the 2,400-mile, cross-country flight to face the 0-4 New York Giants at MetLife Stadium. Jokes were made about the matchup being the "Game of the Weak" or "Game of the Meek". If it had been between most other 0-4 teams, CBS would have done whatever possible to broadcast the game to as few people as possible; but since it was between teams representing the two largest television markets in the nation, the game was televised live to millions more than it should have.

Actually though, despite their records there were a couple of things that made the game very much worth watching. RB Melvin Gordon (photo above) had his first 100-yard rushing game of the season and scored the winning touchdown for the Chargers; it was the second NFL meeting between old Muck City rivals Travis Benjamin and Janoris Jenkins; and, rather incredibly, not one, two, or three, but four Giants wide receivers were knocked out of the game due to injury. And oh, right, there was one other thing too: the dreads.

DG175

Dread Gallery #175 features more photos from the 2017 NFL season and includes a variety of things - some odds and ends followed by several shots to remind you just how painful playing in the NFL can be.

1. Everybody, including the game officials, thought that RB Andre Ellington scored his 1st TD of the season on this play early in the 2nd quarter in Week 4. CB Rashard Robinson knocks Ellington out of bounds, but not until after Andre gets both feet inbounds and has control of the ball for a 12-yard reception on 3rd and goal ..... but then the replay official nullified the TD, ruling that Ellington lost control of the ball when he hit the ground. The ruling was dubious, because the video was inconclusive; and in those cases whatever the game officials call is supposed to stand. But not this time. So instead of the Cardinals taking a 7-3 lead, they settled for a FG on the next play to tie it 3-3. Despite having the TD taken away Ellington made the dread stars list for the only time all season, finishing with 104 total yards (18 rushing, 86 receiving) on 14 touches as the Cardinals defeated the 49ers 18-15 in overtime.
http://arizonasports.com/story1263650/cardinals-andre-ellington-overturned-touchdown-catch/

Quarter Ton, Full Power

They tip the scales at a combined weight of a quarter of a ton (give or take a few pounds), so what they did should come as a surprise to no one; but that doesn't make what they did any less impressive. It was the late evening/early morning of May 14/15, so you might have missed what they did. I was tuning in to various things on television and changing channels often. At times I made it to the telecasts of the MLB games between the Pittsburgh Pirates and Arizona Diamondbacks and between the Toronto Blue Jays and San Francisco Giants - but just not at the right times; so it wasn't until a couple of hours later, while watching the nightly highlights show on the MLB Network, that I found out about what they did. Who are they? And what did they do? Well, the photo collage above is the giveaway answer to who they are - 1B Josh Bell of the Pirates and 3B Vladimir Guerrero Jr. of the Blue Jays. And in their respective games that night they both blasted a pair of mammoth home runs, with the shortest of them measuring in at 438 feet.

DG174

During my 2017 NFL dreads focus I put in CAPITAL letters the names of 212 players whose dreads are long enough to be seen when they have their helmets on. That's an average of about 6.6 per team and 13 per game. So it's inevitable that at some point in nearly every game players with dreads from opposing teams will bump into each other. And that's what dread gallery #174 is all about. These are many (but not even close to all) of the instances from the 2017 season where players with dreads from both teams found their way into the same photos.

1. And we'll begin with a couple of instances that  RB Todd Gurley went up against players with dreads in Rams games vs. NFC West division foes.
On 3rd and 2 during the 1st quarter in Week 3 49ers LB Ray-Ray Armstrong, after running behind TE Tyler Higbee on a pick play, turns on the jets trying to catch up but doesn't get there in time to prevent Gurley from scoring his 2nd TD of the game - a 7-yard reception that puts the Rams back in front 14-7. Gurley, who scored his 1st TD on the game's 2nd play from scrimmage, added a 3rd TD before halftime and finished the game with 149 total yards (113 rushing, 36 receiving). Armstrong, starting in place of the injured Reuben Foster, had several other close encounters with Gurley. 4 of Ray-Ray's 6 tackles (4-2) were tackles of Gurley, including 1 TFL. Leading 41-26 midway through the 4th quarter, the Rams barely held on to get the road win 41-39. Here are some of Gurley's highlights in the game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVc3tVAUluo