This post obviously lets us reference one of our favorite Pavement songs, but in addition to that it gets at the heart of something we don’t really like: leagues and teams legislating against appearance. In this case, the NFL is trying to get hair tucked into helmets, perhaps more for safety reasons than anything, but it’s still an infringement on some freedoms:

Troy Polamalu might not have to worry about getting tackled again by his hair.

At their meetings in Palm Beach, Fla., next week, NFL owners will consider a proposal to ban players from having hair flow from their helmets below their names on the back of their jerseys.

That might affect Polamalu’s image, but help him on the field. Two seasons ago, the Pittsburgh safety with the long ponytail had his hair grabbed by Kansas City’s Larry Johnson and was thrown to the turf after an interception against the Chiefs.

The rule banning long hair on the field was proposed by Kansas City. It does not require players to get haircuts, but does “require them to tuck it up inside their helmets,” said Atlanta president Rich McKay, chairman of the league’s competition committee.

So yeah, it’s not quite a haircut requirement, but it still seems rather silly. Agree? Disagree? Agree to disagree?

Up next: Stu’s Hunt Down

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 27th, 2008 at 10:05 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.