Growing playoff beards in sports is not uncommon. Neither is having a beard and being a winner. While we aren’t saying that having a beard will make you a better athlete, there certainly are some serious beards in sports, and they seem to find themselves in some favorable positions to win. With the Panther’s Greg Olsen and Ryan Kalil sporting the hashtag #BeardGang and making it to Super Bowl 50, it only seemed appropriate to take a look at some of the winningest beards throughout sports history. Who knows, the two Panthers may even be able to join our list come next week.
Matt Light
Had to start with a home-state success story. Matt Light is a 3x Super bowl champ and a 5x AFC Champion, all during his decade long career at New England. It could of been his 6’5’’, 305 lb stature that helped him land a starting spot in 153 of 155 games, but he did also rock a beard so who’s to say.
Brett Keisel
As much as it pains me to include a Steelers player on the list, you gotta respect a beard like Keisel’s. The guy has won 2 Super Bowls and 3 AFC Championships all while sporting “Da Beard.” Each season he’d put on a “Shear Da Beard” event to shave his beard and raise money for charity, which ended up making this a little easier for me.
James Harden
If you were thinking “Harden doesn’t have a ring!” you’d be right. But he did win a gold medal on behalf of the United States in the 2012 Olympics, so his trademark beard gets a spot on our list.
Brian Wilson
The relief pitcher for the Giants when they won the World Series in 2010 is not known for being understated, and his gloriously black face trophy makes sure you know that he has one of the best beards in sports.
Phil Jackson
The coach with the most championships in NBA history was also fairly successful during his playing career, winning two championships during his time at the Knicks. It was during his time there he sported one helluva beard, a winner in it’s own right.
Randy Moss
While Moss hasn’t ever won a Super Bowl, I’m pretty sure he’s won every other accolade and award possible. Honestly, look at
this wikipedia page. Did you know there were that many things to win in football? Though he’s rocked less beards than awards, he still earned this spot.
Johnny Damon
The long lost cousin of Matt Damon (it’s true, don’t fact check it) has won two World Series, one with the Yankees and one with the Red Sox. This has made him a traitor in Boston, and clean-shaven in New York. But at one point in time he had a hair/beard combo for the ages.
Mike Commodore
Commodore is a bearded winner for multiple reasons. The first being his 2006 Stanley Cup win with the Calgary Flames. The second is shaving his head post-finals for organizations that helped the Jimmy V Foundation cancer research. Putting locks of any kind towards a cause is something we can all root for.
