NFL Player Troy Polamalu is notorious for his supersized hair, his shaggy mane reaches a metre out in all directions and that's when it's curly! It's so big it barely fits in his helmet and most of it tumbles out the back.
Polamalu's trademark hair won him a sponsorship deal with Head & Shoulders, under the umbrella corporation of Proctor & Gamble. The multi-national decided to protect their interests by taking out insurance on the Pittsburgh Steelers defender's hair to the tune of $1m.
Proctor and Gamble took out the policy with Lloyds of London, the insurer would not reveal what the policy covers but experts assume it involves damage, discolouring and natural hair loss.
The defender has been tackled several times by his long hair, which he claims is the most painful thing that has happened to him in a game. In 2006 he was grabbed by Larry Johnson of the Kansas City Chief's and pulled down by his hair as he was running for a touchdown after intercepting a pass.
The NFL governing body currently has no rules on having long hair and an estimated 10% of players now have hair protruding from the back of their helmets, something that has become somewhat of a trend.
The league also has no rules on tackling by means of pulling hair as their rules predate the hairy trend when every player had short to medium hair. Some also claim that with hair that long, spectators are unable to see his name and number on his shirt but as he is the only player with 3 foot hair, it's difficult to mistake him.
In 2008 the NFL's governing body proposed new rules that hair must be kept under the helmets and away from player's names but this was rejected. Some players have had second thoughts about their hair length, in 2003 Edgerrin James of the Indianapolis Colts was brought to the ground by someone grabbing his hair, the next day he turned up for training with his head shaved.
Polamalau has not seen hairdressing equipment or a salon chair for over a decade, that last time he had it cut was early 2000.
0 comments:
Post a Comment