Kentucky finally beats Florida!

It has been as sure a thing as death and taxes ... and Clemson losing at North Carolina in basketball. And if you're a Kentucky Wildcats football fan, you know exactly what I'm talking about.

Ever since the beginning of time it seems Kentucky has been a basketball school; but I'm sure there are a few of the UK faithful out there dreaming of the day the football team reaches the same lofty heights as the basketball program (which has won 8 NCAA championships). That day is not going to come this season (and probably no other season either), but nevertheless the 2018 season already has become a memorable one, because of what happened last Saturday night. What happened? The Wildcats beat Florida, that's what, with the final score of 27-16 at long last bringing to an end their streak of 31 consecutive losses to the Gators.

.... And We Gon Win That Bitch

For a change Jalen Ramsey didn't have too much to say; but in the few words he did say he actually said a whole lot: "We goin to the Super Bowl and we gon win that bitch." (If you'd like to hear it right from the source's mouth, here it is on this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbrqOEEFaKo

The photo of Ramsey (on the right, from the Jaguars' 1st round playoff game vs. Buffalo on Jan. 7) is just perfect, because it's a shot of the Jacksonville Jaguars' cocky, trash-talking, Pro Bowl cornerback with his mouth open. It may not be open 24/7, but Ramsey's mouth is certainly open often, especially when there's a microphone or an opposing receiver in front of it. On the night it said the Jaguars were going to win the Super Bowl he was speaking to the fans who had come to the stadium to welcome the team home following their 45-42 road win over the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 2nd round of last season's playoffs back in January, the franchise's first playoff victory in 10 years.

NFL '17 Dread News - Week 22 - Part 1

"I guarantee you we are going to win the Super Bowl next year."

               Alshon Jeffery 1/1/ 2017

Pro athletes in all sports make predictions and guarantees so frequently nowadays that whenever you hear the latest one, your reaction is usually like ... yeah, whatever. It's in one ear and out the other, especially when the one talking about winning the Super Bowl is a member of the Chicago Bears. But every once in a while, one of those predictions actually comes true. Jeffery uttered his now famous guarantee shortly after the Bears' loss to the Minnesota Vikings in the final game of the 2016 season; and he made it while not knowing which team he would be playing for in 2017, since he was set to become a free agent during the offseason. I suppose then that you have to give all the credit to the Philadelphia Eagles for recognizing that Alshon was serious about keeping his New Years's resolution. After he signed with the Eagles, was their ever any doubt it was going to be satisfaction guaranteed for Eagles fans?

NFL '17 Dread News - Week 22 - Part 2

And now, the rest of my Week 22 report, featuring a dread gallery of Super Bowl 52, between the Eagles and the Patriots. There were a handful of key players with dreads on the field for both teams. Unfortunately most of those players had their dreads reduced for the game. Thank goodness, at least, for Jay Ajayi for not having his dreads reduced. And for that he'll be getting more air time here than anyone else.


DG

1. It isn't often that LB Dannell Ellerbe's hair gets overshadowed, but this might be one of them. It's impossible to not notice Ellerbe (#57) with his extra long dreads; but in this shot even more noticeable is the green hair of CB Jalen Mills. Ellerbe, Mills, and their teammates - all with their phones, of course - are introduced before the Eagles begin their one hour session at Super Bowl Opening Night (formerly known as Media Day) on Jan. 29, six days before the game.

All in the Family

With apologies to Archie and Edith Bunker and the Meathead, this post has nothing to do with the successful sitcom that aired on CBS Television back in the 1970's. I just thought the title of that show (reruns of which are still being shown today) also would be the perfect title this year for my annual preview of the NFL Draft. What? You didn't think the small matter of the Draft already being held two months ago was going to keep me from doing a preview, did you? No way! And doing it this way is going to make this my best preview ever. I mean, it's going to be kind of hard to go wrong on my predictions of which day of the Draft all the players with dreads will be selected. Seriously though, since we already know which teams drafted which players, I thought I'd do kind of a draft preview and review all at the same time.

NFL '17 Dread News - Week 21

In the comments posted under this YouTube video someone sarcastically wrote "Is this wrap up or tackle". At least I think it was sarcastic. Now more than two months later still nobody has replied to that comment with an even more sarcastic one (although one would have been appropriate). But unless whoever left that comment was totally ignorant rather than sarcastic, they already knew the answer to the question - because this video was a video of the 2018 edition of the NFL's All-Star Game - aka the Pro Bowl. And anyone actually hanging around to watch the whole thing already knew - or should have known - that tackling isn't allowed in the Pro Bowl. Just kidding, of course. Tackling is allowed; but just wrapping up not only suffices, it's preferred.

NFL '17 Dread News - Week 20

All they did was delay the inevitable. All they really did was make it easier for their opponent. All the Minnesota Vikings did when they miraculously defeated the New Orleans Saints in the 2nd round of the NFC Playoffs was give their fans false hope. Anybody who saw the improbable ending of that game and concluded that the Vikings must be some sort of "team of destiny" obviously hasn't followed them long enough. One week later, with a chance to become the first team ever to play in a Super Bowl on their home field, the Vikings turned back into who we thought they were - the same old Vikings. The ones that always find a way to break their fans' hearts. This time it was in the form of a no-doubt-about-it 38-7 beatdown by the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC Championship Game on Jan. 21. DE Vinny Curry (photo above, raising the George Halas Trophy) and RB Jay Ajayi (first photo below) were just a small part of the huge celebration going on after the Eagles clinched the franchise's first NFC crown in 13 years.

NFL '17 Dread News - Week 19

It's difficult enough in the NFL just defeating your opponent; but when you're fighting history as well as the team on the other sideline, the wins are twice as hard to come by. Two teams found themselves in the unenviable position of trying to beat history in the two NFC 2nd round playoff games on the weekend of Jan. 13-14 - the Atlanta Falcons and Minnesota Vikings. History - and I'm talking about a combined 73 years of history - says that they couldn't both win. Because if they did, then they'd be facing each other in the next round, and one of them would advance to the Super Bowl. And that would mean that either the Falcons would end the 22-year streak of Super Bowl losers failing to return to the Super Bowl the following season, or the Vikings would end the 51-year streak of teams never playing in the Super Bowl on their home field.

NFL '17 Dread News - Week 18

It was so obvious that Alvin Kamara was going to be a special player on Sundays that even I could see it. But little did I know when I spotlighted Kamara in my preview of the 2017 NFL Draft that there actually were going to be two Special K's in this year's class of rookies with dreads. About 90 minutes or so after the New Orleans Saints picked Kamara in the 3rd round of the Draft, another running back whose name begins with K was the 3rd round choice of the Kansas City Chiefs. I actually was hoping the Chiefs would get Kamara; so at first I wasn't as excited when the RB with dreads they picked was some guy by the name of Kareem Hunt. That was just ignorance on my part. Having seen several of Kamara's games during his junior season in college at Tennessee, I was already familiar with what he could do. But having noticed halfway through his college career that Hunt's hair actually was in braids, not dreads (he's got dreads now, of course), I didn't watch any of his games at Toledo; so I didn't realize until this season how great a player he is too.

NFL '17 Dread News - Week 17

It was so unlikely and unbelievable that you would have thought it was something that only my crystal ball could have cooked up. As CB2 would have put it ......

With Ravens clinging to 3-point lead over Bengals in Week 17 nail-biter at Baltimore, Andy Dalton passes to Tyler Boyd for 49-yard TD on 4th and 12 with 44 seconds to play to give Bengals victory that knocks Ravens out of playoffs and allows Bills to clinch first playoff berth in 18 years.

I mean, that's a scenario worthy of inclusion in one of my NFL previews posts, right alongside all the other crazy and impossible Week 17 finishes that CB2 predicts every year that never ever happen. But unfortunately for Ravens fans and as you've probably heard, the impossible actually happened last Sunday (I saw it with my own eyes). Boyd really did score a 49-yard TD on 4th and 12, with the Bengals' 31-27 victory sending veteran LB Terrell Suggs (photo above), DT Michael Pierce (photo below on left), and all of Ravens Nation into devastation, and all of Western New York into jubilation. No doubt all the New Year's Eve parties in Buffalo and everywhere else that Bills fans were gathered together had a little more juice to them than normal after their favorite team clinched their first playoff appearance of the 21st century.

NFL '17 Dread News - Week 16

This is not a test. This is no drill. This is 100% not fake news. And April Fool's Day is still three months away, so this really is the real deal - the Jaguars are in. I repeat, the Jaguars are IN! That's right. When the playoffs for the 2017 NFL season begin on the first weekend of 2018, the Jacksonville Jaguars actually will be one of the 12 teams playing in the tournament. Honestly. No joke. Just as they were taking the field for their late afternoon (eastern time) game at San Francisco last Sunday, the Jaguars - thanks to the loss by the Tennessee Titans to the Los Angeles Rams - officially clinched their first ever AFC South division crown (The photo on the right is from a week earlier, after they officially clinched a playoff spot). It's been so long - 18 years, to be exact - since the Jaguars finished in 1st place that you probably don't remember that they were members of the AFC Central when they won the franchise's only two division titles back in 1998 and 1999. It hasn't been quite that long since their last appearance in the playoffs. That came - as a wild card entry - exactly one decade ago.

DG172

The number of basketball players with dreads keeps increasing with each passing year; and as it does, it keeps becoming less and less rare each year to see a game where both teams have players with dreads. But two years ago it still was an unusual occurrence. Here in dread gallery #172 we'll finish (finally!) our look at the 2015-16 college basketball season with a look at all of the photos I could find (almost all) showing players with dreads on opposing teams on the court at the same time. Then after that, there will be a couple of extras, including answers to any questions you might have about the player holding the ball in the photo on the right.