The 1995 version of the Mullet

Thanks to my girlfriend Anna, there’s been a whole lot of talk about my hair these days! It all started when I was talking about my Hogs’ (Arkansas Razorbacks college football team) quarterback Ryan “Mallett”… My girlfriend thought she heard me talking about my old “mullet”; the hair style I wore through most of the eighties and into the nineties. She yelled out “Hell ya – you should grow back the mullet!” HaHa! I said “no hun… Mallett… Mallett!” Of course, it didn’t take long for Anna to turn this into a thing… That’s how this whole “bringing back the mullet in 2011″ issue got started! Man… as if life wasn’t complicated enough already! HaHa!

Anyway, next thing you know people are voting on whether I should “rock the mullet” next season on Twitter and Facebook! For the moment, I haven’t decided what to do, but let’s just say that I haven’t totally ruled it out. I have a warning for Anna though… She should be careful of what she asks for, because chics dig the mullet! HaHa!!!

You probably didn’t know it, but this isn’t the first time my hair has talked about in public. In fact, all this talk about my mullet has me remembering the first time. It’s also the story of how I earned a nickname that has been with me for most of my life.

Of course, I’ve been called a bunch of things during my life – HaHa! – some names better than others! The one name that has stuck with my friends, family and with those that know me best is “Lion”. The reason for that goes back many years… before the PGA made me famous. It also revolves around another one of my life’s great loves – the game of football.

As a kid, my Dad worked in nuclear powerplants (yes, just like Homer Simpson – Doh!). Because of that, we moved a few times while I was growing up. At one point, we lived in Missouri and I played high school football for the Helias Crusaders of beautiful Jefferson City. We were a 3A school in those days and I was a place kicker. In fact, I was a pretty damn good kicker by any measure. I kicked 46 yard field goals in high school – a long way for a teenager! So, even before I was known to “Grip it ‘n Rip it”, I was doin’ the old “Snap it ‘n kick it”! Distance has never been a problem for me…

Back to my hair for a minute… If you can picture it, I looked like something right out of “That 70s Show” in high school, with a big bushy head of long white-blond hair. It was a big doo and parted down the middle! With a helmet on, my hair poured out all over the place and stuck out prominently from the back, ringing my head like a mane.

Anyway, somehow we ended up playing a 6A school and should have lost the game. Instead, I kicked two field goals and we won it 6 – 0. the next morning’s newspaper read “Lion wins game for Crusaders”, or something like that. When I strutted into school that morning, it became pretty obvious that the name “Lion” was going to stick… and it has to this day. My hair was like my trademark, so that’s also when I started slowly sculpting the famous mullet I had when I won my first major on the PGA in 1991! Let’s face it, except maybe for Dog the Bounty Hunter, has anybody rocked the mullet better than me?! No way!

I’m not sure that the world is ready for me to “bring back the mullet”. I think rocking the Loudmouth pants on tour this year was about as much as some people could handle. Then again, Loudmouth is everywhere now, right! Everywhere you look there are awesome people wearing Loudmouth pants and not only on the golf course either. You’ll find them in unlikely places like on the sidelines at Canadian football games or you’ll recognize them on the Norwegian Olympic curling team! So, if I grow the mullet, should I expect to see mullets everywhere? Maybe I’ll start another fad and we’ll see mullets on CNN, in Congress, and in the Senate next year… maybe even a few mullets on the Supreme Court!? Everybody knows I’m a trend setter! HaHa!

Heck, maybe we should find a way to rig the new John Daly Ro Stroke game to give players an option to play as the Lion with or without rocking the mullet!?

Anyway, so now you all know how I became the “Lion”. Truth is, I’ve always liked what that name implies. Like my song says “I ain’t perfect”… but I like to think that I still have a few Lion-like qualities beyond just my blond hair – mullet or no mullet! HaHa!

Talk to you again soon!
JD

Let us know your thoughts on if JD should bring back the mullet.