by Karen Stevens, USC Alumna & goofy friend of the Gridiron Goddess

A new Polynesian poster-boy is jumping into USC’s offense, and he’s doing it with a gorgeous wavy mane that will cascade down his back.

The NFL is littered with long and lovely Trojan locks, think Troy Palomalu, Clay Matthews, Rey Maualuga. Even Brian Cushing sported a cool Mohawk as a rookie.

As a fan of Trojan football, I recently noticed that all the good hair graduated over the last few years… and we were drowning in a sea of crew cuts, baldies and shamefully, one or two Biebers plus a Dennis the Menace cowlick (I’m talking about you Matt Barkely!) So, where did all the Samsons go?

Sure, we have the cool dreads atop Nickell Robey and Tony Burnett, whom I have dubbed “USC Dreaded Corners”, and yes, we have an incredibly huge Age of Aquarious-esque afro sported by Khaled Holmes which although magnificent, unfortunately remains all but hidden during the game… damn those helmets!

Karen and the Trojan Manes

I freely admit I crave a more formidable hair sighting. I need to see long flowing manes wafting on the Southern California breezes as gridiron gods play their Trojan hearts out. For too long now, we have been missing the hair element we have grown accustomed to on our side lines.

And finally my dreams are about to come true thanks to incoming tight end, Junior Pome’e! His stats say he’s 6-3 and 240 but they forgot to mention the 20 plus inches of slick black tresses that tumble down to the middle of his back. Hurrah! Hurrah!

On his first day of practice, Pome’e was on the field running drills with the rest of the team but all I could see was his glorious Conan-The-Barbarian-hair, I’m sure he’s a great player but it was his locks that called out to me. And I thought to myself, now that’s a good head of Trojan hair.