Lacy dreads thought, but shave on way
Hair today, gone tomorrow. Sort of.
Green Bay Packers running back Eddie Lacy had a flashback to high school during Friday’s 2110 exhibition victory over the San Francisco 49ers in Santa Clara, Calif..
Lacy, running free down the right sideline with his trademark dreadlocks streaming behind him, had one man to beat, veteran safety Gerald Hodges. Hodges, trying to make the stop, reached out, trying to catch hold of anything to slow, or hopefully stop Lacy.
What he got was a fistful of dreads.
“It definitely hurts,” Lacy, whose dreadlocks are long enough to cover the top of his number, told USA Today’s Ryan Wood. “The first thought in my mind was a word I can’t really say.”
According to NFL rules, hair long enough to reach a player’s jersey is considered part of the uniform and it’s perfectly legal to grab it.
Lacy, along with every other long-haired NFL player, knew this, but, until Friday, never had a reason to be concerned. Lacy told Wood a defender hadn’t tackled him by his hair since he was a high school junior, eight years ago.
Lacy also admitted he was scared.
“For my legs,” Lacy said. “They’re important. Because that’s how most guys hurt their knees, because you get pulled from the back. Which is why the horse collar rule thing [exists]. So luckily that didn’t happen.”
Lacy went to say that his hair, which he hasn’t cut in a year, is “longer than I want it.”
After Friday’s game, Lacy said, he’s “debating” getting a haircut when he goes home to Louisiana during the Packers’ bye week in late September.
“I don’t know how many more of those I’d like to experience,” he said of hair pulls. “We’re in camp. So I’ve got to wait until I get out of camp, and then I’ll assess it.”
On Saturday, Lacy clarified his plans, tweeting that he’s “not cutting my hair completely off just trimming it.”
Judging by Friday night’s game, just a few inches could mean another touchdown for the Packers.