Grizzly Adams (and Taylor Potts) DID have a beard...
By mark rogers
March 21, 2009
In a very recent development disclosed from a very reliable source, Texas Tech QB Taylor Potts has done it...he has shaved his grizzly, burly, Harley Davidson, man beard.
As many of you have probably seen the aforementioned facial frenzy, Potts' beard rivaled many of the all-time great melon, man-marks of all time.
The beard must have taken a series of steps (and maybe even days) to shave. It had the square footage of a small Jacuzzi, was thicker than Burt Reynolds' chest wig, claimed the lives of several rather large insects and had a squirrel named Buster living in it. Buster has since relocated to a nearby park in Lubbock.
Taylor's beard brought to mind many great beards in football history. And we're not talking about the "I don't feel like shaving so I'll just let the scruff grow out" beard that Brett Favre and Kurt Warner sport (Koy Detmer also has a legendary scruff that violently crawls all the way down his neck onto his shoulders and upper arms).
We're talking about the kind of beard that said, "Hi. I'm Taylor. I'm a college student and play football for Texas Tech...but if I felt like it, I could survive in the woods eating wolves, snakes and grass, fight Kodiak bears for fun and make my own knives and arrows by taking cactus leaves and other poisonous plants and sharpening them with my teeth. So leave me alone."
It helped that the beard was coupled with a 6'5", 250 pound bohemeth of an individual.
NFL greats Ron Jaworski, Donovan McNabb, Mike Holmgren and Jerome Bettis also currently sport very nice beards.
But don't worry. Taylor's face was not without grizzly hair for long. He is in the process of growing out the super-huge, mega-man mustache.
A superb move in my opinion. A move that will only separate him from the rest of the great college football players next year...well, that and the fact that he'll be the only QB throwing for 500 yards a game.
So with the knowledge of the burgeoning stache...let's bring to light the great mustaches in football history: Mike Ditka, Ben Davidson, Marvin Harrison, Franco Harris and Bill Cowher. They will always be remembered for what they did on the field and what grew above their upper lips.
The Dallas Cowboys certainly have their own Mustache Memorial Club. Herschel Walker, Emmitt Smith, Michael Irvin, Drew Pearson, Cliff Harris and Nate Newton all wore the stache and Star proudly.
And there's no shortage of NFL QBs with the stache. Think of Joe Montana (who had one for a few seasons), Joe Namath, Jake Plummer, Randal Cunningham and Quincy Carter...yes I just dropped a Quincy Carter reference.
And let's not forget the facial hair of public figures outside the football realm: Dr. Phil, Hulk Hogan, Zorro and Santa Claus. All great men because of what grew or continues to grow on their faces.
As Potts is about to take center stage as the QB of the most prolific offense in college football history, he will be forever linked with the great facial hair phenoms in football lore.
Let's just hope he ends up more like Joe Montana than Dr. Phil - who I believe was cut from his high school powder puff team.
So as we prepare for the 2009 college football season...just remember three things:
Grizzly Adams (and Taylor Potts) did have a beard, I wouldn't cross either Big Foot-esque creature, and I can't wait to see that stache.
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