The Culture of Coaching

At the risk of becoming one dimensional, we're going to talk about uniforms again. But this is new and different, I promise.

Uniforms! Coaching Edition!

The thought occurs to me as I was watching a segment comparing the Belichek Hoodie to the Josh McDaniels Hoodie. Most everyone finds it a little silly that these grown leaders of men are walking around in sweats, but if you look around the NFL, it is a culture of crappy clothing.

Now I understand they're required to wear team apparel, but I'm not sure the kids are dressing up in Broncos gear so they can look like McDaniels. No, I think they're there for the players.

Which led me to my next thought. How is it that sports uniform culture became what it is?

A brief synopsis:
NFL Coaching Attire - Team clothing. Essentially anything that says your organization on it *

NBA/College Basketball - Suit. Or jacket and tie at the least

Soccer - Suit. Or jacket and tie again, but also with the caveat that when its cold they wear those long wool jackets.

Baseball - player uniforms.

Hockey - suits.

Cricket - who cares.

Now because Soccer and Hockey realms are the second tier of sports in America , with Basketball being essentially a 1A, it seems that we focus on the two sports that have silliest traditions of uniforms. Let's start with baseball.

Lou Piniella for example.
He exemplifies everything wrong with baseball coaching uniforms. Baseball uniforms are not flattering pieces of clothing, and putting them on some semi-overweight guys who tend to stand like Captain Morgan in the bench, chewing some gum and wearing gruesome grimaces is right up there with some of the NFL throwbacks.

Here's another thought. Baseball managers are notorious for their temper tantrums on the field. It's really their only opportunity to get their uniform dirty. Yet imagine what wearing suits to do this. (Here's a visual aid...and another...and another).It would be ten times as humorous for the fans watching, and certainly it would occur with less frequency. No one wants to mess up a $300 suit unless they're super pissed off, which means umpires would know they'd really blown a call. It could help the sport dramatically now that they've refused to open up the instant replay possibility.

Call me new age. Generation Y or X or Z... whichever we're on now, but the idea of hoodies and sweats and jerseys seems a little childish at this point. You don't see Barack Obama come out in a USA t-shirt for his press conferences, do you? There's something classier about a suited head coach. NFL teams might not have the same problem with respect for their coaches. There's even a tradition of it in the great Vince Lombardi, and he was one of the most respected coaches in NFL history.

At some point baseball and football need to grow up and join the modern world. Leave the dress up for the fans.