GREEN BAY − When the San Francisco 49ers ended the Green Bay Packers' season in late January, cornerback Eric Stokes rushed home to Covington, Georgia.
Sure, he missed his family, but another, more pressing issue stewed in his mind: clipping his seven-year-old dreadlocks.
Stokes immediately made the 35-mile drive west to Atlanta to see his hair stylist.
"They were too long," Stokes said. "When I started back playing last year, I saw my whole name on the back covered up. I saw it on film and I was like, 'Yeah, that looks bad.