Bills Due

I guess it's too late for a spoiler alert. Sorry about that. So, now that you've seen the title of this post, you already know which team my crystal ball is predicting will rule the NFL during the 2022 season. No need to read any further. But if you must, go ahead and keep on reading anyway.

It's always dicey when your pick to win the Super Bowl is a team that has never won the Super Bowl. But this time it just makes too much sense; and I'm sure my crystal ball, aka CB2, isn't the only one that thinks it's a no brainer that the Buffalo Bills will be the team celebrating underneath the confetti shower following Super Bowl 57, to be played 5 months from now on the home field of the Arizona Cardinals.

Rambunctious

"What the hell's going on out here?!"

Coach Lombardi screamed it so eloquently all those years ago during one of those rare times when things weren't going the Packers' way. And today I'm the one screaming it, because something has gone amiss in the NFL over the past few seasons. I mean, whatever happened to the NFL I used to know? Certain things that used to be sure things aren't anymore. I'm talking about three things in particular that, before each season started, were given. Automatic. No matter what you knew you could depend on them to come through for you. But not anymore. Tom Brady-led teams took a hatchet to two of them.

Brownie Points

The final game of Week 11 of the 2018 NFL season sure was one to remember; but unless you're a fan of the Kansas City Chiefs or Los Angeles Rams, you may have deleted it from your memory banks by now. That was the Monday night the Chiefs, in the middle of Patrick Mahomes' sensational first season as their starting quarterback, put a season high 51 points on the board at the L.A. Memorial Coliseum, only to lose the game because the Rams scored 54. But here in the House of Dread the game is remembered more for something other than the one in which the Chiefs became the first team in league history to score 50 or more points and not win. And that something other is something that still bothers me today almost 3 years later. You see, that game was the last one (ever?) in a Chiefs uniform for RB Kareem Hunt (photo on right).

Ah yes, the Chiefs stuck gold twice in the 2017 Draft. Mahomes, picked in the 1st round (10th overall), seems headed for the Hall of Fame. And then midway through the 3rd round they picked Hunt, who did nothing but be a star for them from Day 1. Hunt led the league in rushing in his rookie season and scored 25 touchdowns in his first 27 career games. But everything came to a screeching halt before Game #28.

Fool's Steel

Week 12 of the 2020 NFL season ended a couple of days later than scheduled; and after they defeated the Baltimore Ravens on a late Wednesday afternoon at Heinz Field, the Pittsburgh Steelers were 11-0, stood as the league's only remaining undefeated team, and seemingly were well on their way to the Super Bowl my crystal ball predicted it would win. But things certainly changed in a hurry, didn't they Steelers fans? What looked like was going to be a march to the championship turned out to be fool's gold - or in this case fool's steel, if you will. The Steelers suffered their first loss 5 days later and staggered to the finish line, dropping 4 of their final 5 regular season games (and needing to rally from 17 points behind in the one game they did win), barely hanging on to win the AFC North division title, and then exiting the playoffs far short of the Super Bowl with a wretched 48-37 first round home loss to the Cleveland Browns, a game in which they trailed 28-0 in the 1st quarter and turned the ball over 5 times.

Edge of Fame

On more than one occasion over the years I have wondered out loud who would be the first player with dreads inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame; and the two likeliest candidates that always came to my mind were Larry Fitzgerald and Marshawn Lynch. Well, the final answer is ..... none of the above ... because someone else has beaten those two to it. While Fitzgerald - currently mulling retirement - and Lynch - recently retired (maybe) - are still years away from worrying about what to say during their induction speeches, three weekends ago it was none other than Edgerrin James with a microphone in front of him and his bust - with dreads - next to him while proudly accepting the honor of the first with dreads to be enshrined in Canton.

When I began this blog almost exactly 13 years ago in late August 2008, James, picked 4th overall by the Indianapolis Colts in the 1999 NFL Draft, was in the latter part of his career; and it never occurred to me that he was Hall of Fame bound because (I'll admit it) I had forgotten how great he was during the prime of his career.

Lovable Loser

Once upon a time ..... back in the early days of man ..... back when you couldn't watch TV shows on your phone or computer; heck, back when you didn't even have a portable phone or computer; back when there was no such thing as the internet; back when there was no cable or satellite TV to bring hundreds of channels into your home; yes (no sense denying it) back when I was a teenager ..... way back then there were only a precious few channels available in any particular area, and you needed to attatch this funny-looking thing called an antenna to the roof of your house to more clearly see those channels. In days such as these a sports fan like myself (from day 1 of my life) found the options for sports programming to be, to put it kindly, limited. So please forgive me that in days such as these if, in order to satisfy my need for sports, I turned to the wild and wonderful world of pro wrestling.

DG178 - Part 1

You are forgiven if you are unable to remember the contents of the first ever dread gallery I did featuring basketball players. Hastily prepared and posted a couple of weeks (or so) before Christmas in 2008, DG#30 covered the first month of the 2008-09 College Basketball season, and all I can recall about it is that I had to look high and low and far and wide just to find enough players to make a dread gallery. Of the handful of players with dreads that I did find, most played for the so called mid-major and low-major teams that you rarely see on television. Dreads were few and far between in the big, power conferences. And the story was the same in the NBA. You had to look even far-er and wider to find dreads in the Association. So small was the roster of NBA players with dreads back then that it could be tallied with just the fingers on your two hands.

But things are different nowadays. Just a bit. I mean, it seems like every team - pro, college, or wherever - has at least one player with dreads. Many teams have more than one. Dreads have become so commonplace on the basketball court that it's unusual - and disappointing - to see a game without any. Rather than a look at all the dozens of players with dreads currently on basketball teams, dread gallery #178 will focus mostly on a small number of players from a select few games.

But first .....

DG178 - Part 2

You have arrived at the College Basketball section of dread gallery #178; and we'll lead off Part 2 with a player I was finally able to welcome to the house this season, his 3rd and final collegiate season. Chicago native Ayo Dosunmu made a lot of Illinois fans happy (including this one) when he decided to stay home and play for the Fighting Illini. And after thrilling those fans with several late clutch baskets to help win games, the 6-5, 200-pound baby-faced assassin is moving on to what hopefully will be a long and successful NBA career. Dosunmu, who goes by his nickname Ayo instead of his real first name Quamdeen, went the freeform route with his dreads; and he stayed the course, resisting his family's desire for him to cut his hair, even though it sure took its time forming into dreads. Finally in his junior season (see photo above from the game at Nebraska on Feb. 12) it started to look enough like dreads for me to welcome him to the house, and we're glad to have him.

On Feb. 23, three nights before and about 88 miles northwest of where the NBA game between the Pistons and Kings, featured in Part 1, was played, Dosunmu was one of four players with dreads in uniform as Illinois faced Michigan State at East Lansing. This is the first of 4 games to be featured in Part 2 of DG178. I was unable to find a video of the whole game, but I'm cautiously confident of the parts of the game that most of the photos happened.

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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