Bet leaves Bruss with unplanned hair loss
MADISON – During an otherwise nondescript day last winter, Wisconsin teammates Tyler Beach and Logan Bruss were jousting and jawing in the weight room.
“We both wanted to push each other,” said Beach, a redshirt freshman offensive tackle from Port Washington High School.
Bruss, a redshirt freshman from Kimberly who is vying to be the No. 2 right tackle, recalls the day vividly.
“We were smack-talking back and forth,” he said. “Then we decided on a bet. And here we are.”
Here turned out to be a makeshift barber shop after Beach bested his buddy in the weight room.
With Beach wielding the clippers, Bruss was left looking like he was wearing an old leather helmet designed by Nike.
Imagine a beige base with dark brown splotches ap-
plied haphazardly. Imagine an ugly checkerboard.
“It was hilarious,” said redshirt junior offensive tackle Jon Dietzen, who has been known to fashion his bright red hair into a mullet. “I was blown away. I didn’t know about the bet but I busted out laughing the first time I saw him.”
Beach, 6-foot-6 and 311 pounds, and Bruss, 6-5 and 303, agreed to the ground rules.
They would take their best efforts during summer workouts in three categories – bench press, squat and power-clean – and total the combined weight.
The winner was the barber. The loser was the victim. “Whoever lost had to sit quietly for a buzz job,” Beach, who is getting reps at both tackle spots, said proudly. “We both competed really hard because (neither) of us wanted that nasty haircut.
“In the end, I beat him by 40 pounds ... and got to shave his head. When I started cutting it I really didn’t know what I was doing.
“I started with lines coming across. And then me and my buddies trimmed it up and went down the middle.
“It ended up looking pretty awesome.”
Awesome? Beauty is in the eye of the barber.
Whenever he venturing out anywhere in Madison – either alone or with Beach – folks on the street gawked.
“It was funny,” said Bruss. “I would be on my moped and everybody would be laughing at my haircut.”
Beach added: “We’d walk into a place to get some food and all the girls would be laughing at him.”
Bruss was allowed to get a second cut this week. Part of the deal was he had to keep the cut for a week.
His head is completely shaved now and all remnants of Beach’s, um, handiwork are gone.
Will Bruss get a chance for revenge?
“We’ll do the same thing next year,” he said.
Bring it on, Beach says.