Sock 'fashion' in the NFL 2014

[LEWJ]

Slightly off-topic... Patriots are still using those three stripe socks, which I believe are Adidas-"designed" and extremely out of place.

Interesting to me that they've held on this long. Especially now that Nike is the supplier.

[guest23]

For reference, football players have been wearing lycra/spandex tights since they became popular in the sportswear market in the late 80's. Examples in the nfl would be andre reed and thurman thomas. A good example in college back then would be the skill position players at tosu, terry glenn and galloway wore silver tights. It seems that they fell out of fashion in the late 90's which may have coincided with the advent of more restrictive shoe contracts that require appropriately branded socks/cleats/accessories. I always assumed that in the nfl they disappeared about a decade ago due to more stringent uniform enforcement but it's pretty obvious now that players have gone above and beyond anything we've seen since the nfl has been on tv.

The one thing that does make sense though is a two piece sock. Tube socks are simply not good and it makes sense that a player can wear whatever type of interior sock they want as long as their shin/calf is wearing the appropriate design.

[TheOldRoman]

The one thing that does make sense though is a two piece sock. Tube socks are simply not good and it makes sense that a player can wear whatever type of interior sock they want as long as their shin/calf is wearing the appropriate design.

Why are tube socks not good? Game socks aren't from a pack of Hanes you'd buy at Walmart. They're now Nike-branded and feature some silly design on the underside that is supposed to increase breathability and arch support or something. If, like you said, players were wearing this back in the day, then today's players could pull their socks up over the tights as Thurman Thomas and Andre Reed did.

I think the players should be forced to wear the issued game socks just like the rest of the uniform. This isn't about comfort or any great advance in technology, it's about fashion. However, if the NFL/Nike wanted to, I think you're right that they may be able to devise a new type of sock, possibly two-piece. However, every player needs to take the field wearing the same thing. And that picture of Frank Gore is ridiculous, for his pants as well as his socks. With those pants, he looks like an extra in White Men Can't Jump. But the NFL allows it since they either ignore such foolishness or give it a miniscule fine.

[JayMac]

Those Frank Gore bicycle shorts are horrible. It's a simple rule: pants go past the knees.

[CLEstones]

With all the college uniform trends, do you think they players are doing it so it feels more like college? I believe almost EVERY college has the socks that only come up to mid calf. Is it possible? I think college uniform socks looks infinitely better than the NFL socks up to the knees. Could it be something that just looks "cooler?"

[guest23]

The one thing that does make sense though is a two piece sock. Tube socks are simply not good and it makes sense that a player can wear whatever type of interior sock they want as long as their shin/calf is wearing the appropriate design.

Why are tube socks not good? Game socks aren't from a pack of Hanes you'd buy at Walmart. They're now Nike-branded and feature some silly design on the underside that is supposed to increase breathability and arch support or something. If, like you said, players were wearing this back in the day, then today's players could pull their socks up over the tights as Thurman Thomas and Andre Reed did.

I think the players should be forced to wear the issued game socks just like the rest of the uniform. This isn't about comfort or any great advance in technology, it's about fashion. However, if the NFL/Nike wanted to, I think you're right that they may be able to devise a new type of sock, possibly two-piece. However, every player needs to take the field wearing the same thing. And that picture of Frank Gore is ridiculous, for his pants as well as his socks. With those pants, he looks like an extra in White Men Can't Jump. But the NFL allows it since they either ignore such foolishness or give it a miniscule fine.

To clarify, In the past nfl examples I cited players did not wear team issued socks at all...they wore colored tights and slightly above ankle length white socks giving the nfl sock effect.

With the league's current position of fining not being an effective deterrent at all I am not sure where they are going from here. Doing a mandatory sock check of each player pre game just does not seem effective at all.

[TheOldRoman]

I looked up pictures of Andre Reed and Thurman Thomas. After a quick Google search, I found no pictures of Thomas in which he wasn't wearing full socks. The only picture I found of Reed with tights showing was during Super Bowl XXV.

And the reason fining hasn't been an effective deterrent is because the fines are asinine. It's a drop in the bucket for these players, basically like the Average Joes whose jobs allow them to wear jeans to work on Fridays if they pay $5 to charity. The guy making $400,000 a year apparently doesn't think twice about giving up $5,000 a game (if they even fine him), and the guy making millions certainly doesn't. But if you start doubling and tripling the fines for each occurence, that would change. Honestly, it's a team uniform, which is a requirement for the job. Most jobs have a required dress code. I can't show up to work on a business attire day wearing shorts because I find them more comfortable or fashionable, and the NFL is far more concern with its appearance than my company, seeing as we rarely ever see our clients.

[Sport]

I looked up pictures of Andre Reed and Thurman Thomas. After a quick Google search, I found no pictures of Thomas in which he wasn't wearing full socks. The only picture I found of Reed with tights showing was during Super Bowl XXV.

And the reason fining hasn't been an effective deterrent is because the fines are asinine. It's a drop in the bucket for these players, basically like the Average Joes whose jobs allow them to wear jeans to work on Fridays if they pay $5 to charity. The guy making $400,000 a year apparently doesn't think twice about giving up $5,000 a game (if they even fine him), and the guy making millions certainly doesn't. But if you start doubling and tripling the fines for each occurence, that would change. Honestly, it's a team uniform, which is a requirement for the job. Most jobs have a required dress code. I can't show up to work on a business attire day wearing shorts because I find them more comfortable or fashionable, and the NFL is far more concern with its appearance than my company, seeing as we rarely ever see our clients.

The solution isn't fines because NFL players don't care. Chad Johnson used to pay like 5 grand a game so he could wear an orange chinstrap. I think some guys wear their socks incorrectly simply because there is an incorrect way to wear their socks.

The solution is more simple than fines: if they aren't wearing the proper uniform then they don't get to play. Want to wear goofy looking socks? Then you're not playing in the game until you fix them. I'd extend this to Chris Hovan jerseys, Frank Gore pants, anything that violates the uniform. Let's look like professionals.

[TheOldRoman]

I looked up pictures of Andre Reed and Thurman Thomas. After a quick Google search, I found no pictures of Thomas in which he wasn't wearing full socks. The only picture I found of Reed with tights showing was during Super Bowl XXV.

And the reason fining hasn't been an effective deterrent is because the fines are asinine. It's a drop in the bucket for these players, basically like the Average Joes whose jobs allow them to wear jeans to work on Fridays if they pay $5 to charity. The guy making $400,000 a year apparently doesn't think twice about giving up $5,000 a game (if they even fine him), and the guy making millions certainly doesn't. But if you start doubling and tripling the fines for each occurence, that would change. Honestly, it's a team uniform, which is a requirement for the job. Most jobs have a required dress code. I can't show up to work on a business attire day wearing shorts because I find them more comfortable or fashionable, and the NFL is far more concern with its appearance than my company, seeing as we rarely ever see our clients.

The solution isn't fines because NFL players don't care. Chad Johnson used to pay like 5 grand a game so he could wear an orange chinstrap. I think some guys wear their socks incorrectly simply because there is an incorrect way to wear their socks.

The solution is more simple than fines: if they aren't wearing the proper uniform then they don't get to play. Want to wear goofy looking socks? Then you're not playing in the game until you fix them. I'd extend this to Chris Hovan jerseys, Frank Gore pants, anything that violates the uniform. Let's look like professionals.

Suspensions could work, but I don't think the NFL would want to go down that road because they really don't want to suspend (important) players and hurt the ratings for big games. I think fines could work if they increased them. As I said, guys don't mind paying $5,000 to wear socks like a jackass, but they might mind if they had to pay $10,000 the next game, then $20k, $40k, $80k, $160k, etc. Drastically increase the fines to the point where the player is donating his entire check to the United Way and guys will stop laughing at the fines.

Of course, people will say "they fined a guy $100,000 for wearing the wrong socks, but $5,000 for a late hit knocking out a QB?!" The difference is, the late hit is a spur of the moment thing, likely unintentional, while the socks are thought-out and intentional. An equivalence would be if a player laughed at a $5,000 late hit fine and said "No problem. I'm going to play the same way Sunday, and I'll gladly exchange $5,000 for knocking their QB out of the game again."

[guest23]

I looked up pictures of Andre Reed and Thurman Thomas. After a quick Google search, I found no pictures of Thomas in which he wasn't wearing full socks. The only picture I found of Reed with tights showing was during Super Bowl XXV.

And the reason fining hasn't been an effective deterrent is because the fines are asinine. It's a drop in the bucket for these players, basically like the Average Joes whose jobs allow them to wear jeans to work on Fridays if they pay $5 to charity. The guy making $400,000 a year apparently doesn't think twice about giving up $5,000 a game (if they even fine him), and the guy making millions certainly doesn't. But if you start doubling and tripling the fines for each occurence, that would change. Honestly, it's a team uniform, which is a requirement for the job. Most jobs have a required dress code. I can't show up to work on a business attire day wearing shorts because I find them more comfortable or fashionable, and the NFL is far more concern with its appearance than my company, seeing as we rarely ever see our clients.

Too bad your google search did not bear much fruit because it was a small fashion trend (never claimed it was widespread) worn by multiple players during the time window outlined. These weren't the only players in the nfl that did it either and the fashion trend trickled down to college and high school especially in cold weather. Unfortunately I didn't digitize my collection of street & smiths, lindy's, and sporting news football annuals or journalize my thousands of hours football watched where I can properly cite my observations, so you're just going to have to accept my word that it was a mini trend.

My question to you is why don't you think the league has cracked down harder? My thought is that they're going go easy on this one until they come up with an efficient enforcement system. Keeping players off the field simply is not realistic in their eyes. Maybe they can do full uniform checks during their 15+ mandated tv timeouts and send players off the field.

[St Louis Cardinals]

I think this is getting a bit ridiculous. Outside of these boards, how many people do you think notice? And out of those people, how many do you think care? The difference I think between a NFL player and a business man is that the NFL players are playing a game for their living. Why not have a little fun? The league obviously has more important issues to deal with.

[Sport]

I looked up pictures of Andre Reed and Thurman Thomas. After a quick Google search, I found no pictures of Thomas in which he wasn't wearing full socks. The only picture I found of Reed with tights showing was during Super Bowl XXV.

And the reason fining hasn't been an effective deterrent is because the fines are asinine. It's a drop in the bucket for these players, basically like the Average Joes whose jobs allow them to wear jeans to work on Fridays if they pay $5 to charity. The guy making $400,000 a year apparently doesn't think twice about giving up $5,000 a game (if they even fine him), and the guy making millions certainly doesn't. But if you start doubling and tripling the fines for each occurence, that would change. Honestly, it's a team uniform, which is a requirement for the job. Most jobs have a required dress code. I can't show up to work on a business attire day wearing shorts because I find them more comfortable or fashionable, and the NFL is far more concern with its appearance than my company, seeing as we rarely ever see our clients.

The solution isn't fines because NFL players don't care. Chad Johnson used to pay like 5 grand a game so he could wear an orange chinstrap. I think some guys wear their socks incorrectly simply because there is an incorrect way to wear their socks.

The solution is more simple than fines: if they aren't wearing the proper uniform then they don't get to play. Want to wear goofy looking socks? Then you're not playing in the game until you fix them. I'd extend this to Chris Hovan jerseys, Frank Gore pants, anything that violates the uniform. Let's look like professionals.

Suspensions could work, but I don't think the NFL would want to go down that road because they really don't want to suspend (important) players and hurt the ratings for big games. I think fines could work if they increased them. As I said, guys don't mind paying $5,000 to wear socks like a jackass, but they might mind if they had to pay $10,000 the next game, then $20k, $40k, $80k, $160k, etc. Drastically increase the fines to the point where the player is donating his entire check to the United Way and guys will stop laughing at the fines.

Of course, people will say "they fined a guy $100,000 for wearing the wrong socks, but $5,000 for a late hit knocking out a QB?!" The difference is, the late hit is a spur of the moment thing, likely unintentional, while the socks are thought-out and intentional. An equivalence would be if a player laughed at a $5,000 late hit fine and said "No problem. I'm going to play the same way Sunday, and I'll gladly exchange $5,000 for knocking their QB out of the game again."

I'm not suggesting suspensions. Your escalating fine scale would work, but I don't think it's necessary.

I'm suggesting that during warmups the guy who is already at every NFL game monitoring uniforms tells the officials which players are cleared to play and which aren't. The officials let the player and coaches know that said player can't come into the game until his socks/jersey/pants etc are fixed. If Frank Gore runs on the field and rolls down his socks in the huddle then flag him and he has to come off the field. It sounds ridiculous and people will say "they're just f****** socks", but I doubt players and coaches will risk not having their best players on the field or getting a penalty for something like wearing your socks incorrectly.

It's like how major league pitchers aren't allowed to use multi-colored gloves. Their options are either wear a normal looking glove that's a single color or you don't pitch in the game. Either wear the right socks or you don't play.

[TheOldRoman]

I looked up pictures of Andre Reed and Thurman Thomas. After a quick Google search, I found no pictures of Thomas in which he wasn't wearing full socks. The only picture I found of Reed with tights showing was during Super Bowl XXV.

And the reason fining hasn't been an effective deterrent is because the fines are asinine. It's a drop in the bucket for these players, basically like the Average Joes whose jobs allow them to wear jeans to work on Fridays if they pay $5 to charity. The guy making $400,000 a year apparently doesn't think twice about giving up $5,000 a game (if they even fine him), and the guy making millions certainly doesn't. But if you start doubling and tripling the fines for each occurence, that would change. Honestly, it's a team uniform, which is a requirement for the job. Most jobs have a required dress code. I can't show up to work on a business attire day wearing shorts because I find them more comfortable or fashionable, and the NFL is far more concern with its appearance than my company, seeing as we rarely ever see our clients.

Too bad your google search did not bear much fruit because it was a small fashion trend (never claimed it was widespread) worn by multiple players during the time window outlined. These weren't the only players in the nfl that did it either and the fashion trend trickled down to college and high school especially in cold weather. Unfortunately I didn't digitize my collection of street & smiths, lindy's, and sporting news football annuals or journalize my thousands of hours football watched where I can properly cite my observations, so you're just going to have to accept my word that it was a mini trend.

My question to you is why don't you think the league has cracked down harder? My thought is that they're going go easy on this one until they come up with an efficient enforcement system. Keeping players off the field simply is not realistic in their eyes. Maybe they can do full uniform checks during their 15+ mandated tv timeouts and send players off the field.

I'm not saying you're lying. Chill. I'm just saying that in my quick search it looks like both Reed and Thomas wore socks pulled up over the tights most of the time. And I do remember seeing several players in the '90s whose socks had fallen and revealed they were wearing tights underneath. There may well have been more prominent players who wore tights instead of high socks, but I didn't start watching football until 1994 and those were the days of SDTV, anyway, so I probably missed some.

But I think we need to look at more than just guys who wear tights. The majority of players wear their socks wrong, and it seems like most of them don't wear tights. For every guy who wears tights, there's a couple guys wearing 2-3 pairs of socks pulled to various heights. It's not like Nike performance socks are akin to asking baseball players today to wear long sleeved wool uniforms. Plenty of players are comfortable enough in socks to wear multiple pairs of them at a time. The idea some have that we need to remove or drastically alter football socks because they obstruct the players isn't true.

[doctorpeligro]

I didn't realize, until I saw this photo, that the upper (colored) part of the sock is sewn onto the distal end of the pant legs:

[leopard88]

I didn't realize, until I saw this photo, that the upper (colored) part of the sock is sewn onto the distal end of the pant legs:

Are you sure about that? I'm pretty sure that is just a seam at the bottom of the pants.

[PackerFan98]

I didn't realize, until I saw this photo, that the upper (colored) part of the sock is sewn onto the distal end of the pant legs:

Are you sure about that? I'm pretty sure that is just a seam at the bottom of the pants.

I think he means look at the pants in the locker next to Matthews.

[Echo]

Is this a NFL fashion police fine as well?

Mike Williams was fined $11,025 for wearing red tights against the Chargers a couple of weeks ago.

He should have worn the team-issued blue and white, but that’s not how he was feeling when he woke up Sunday morning. We all know, how you dress can influence your entire day. So, he went with it.

“I try to put all the attention on me. Because everything I’ve been through, I know I can handle it,” Williams told ESPN. “I even do a big show before the game, let everybody know what I’m dressing on. Make fun in the locker room, just put all the attention on me so everybody else can go and play.”

“If we win, it’s all worth it. When you lose, that’s when you’re like, 'Should I do it?' But the money goes to somewhere good,” he said.

[guest23]

I didn't realize, until I saw this photo, that the upper (colored) part of the sock is sewn onto the distal end of the pant legs:

Are you sure about that? I'm pretty sure that is just a seam at the bottom of the pants.

The trend of sewing the sock upper (colored section) into the pants is a relatively recent trend and player specific. There were a couple of equipment manager interviews on uniwatch that confirmed this. At least this makes sense to me as a player if you don't like the fit of the team issued sock and hate having to continually pull your socks up.

As far as the warmup uni check goes there's a slight problem with that given the current trend of wearing pregame/warmup specific attire that's totally non compliant (cam newton's custom cleats/the original ocho cinco jersey). So you'd have to police that then also the players go back into the locker room and don't reappear before kickoff. That means you'd have to enforce uni regulations in the locker room right before they take the field for kickoff.

[leopard88]

I didn't realize, until I saw this photo, that the upper (colored) part of the sock is sewn onto the distal end of the pant legs:

Are you sure about that? I'm pretty sure that is just a seam at the bottom of the pants.

I think he means look at the pants in the locker next to Matthews.

That's what I get for not looking more carefully.

[TheOldRoman]

Mike Williams was fined $11,025 for wearing red tights against the Chargers a couple of weeks ago.

He should have worn the team-issued blue and white, but that’s not how he was feeling when he woke up Sunday morning. We all know, how you dress can influence your entire day. So, he went with it.

“I try to put all the attention on me. Because everything I’ve been through, I know I can handle it,” Williams told ESPN. “I even do a big show before the game, let everybody know what I’m dressing on. Make fun in the locker room, just put all the attention on me so everybody else can go and play.”

“If we win, it’s all worth it. When you lose, that’s when you’re like, 'Should I do it?' But the money goes to somewhere good,” he said.

That right there is ridiculous. He just felt like wearing red socks. A modern day Forrest Gump. Obviously, putting on a show and alerting people as to what he's "dressing on" didn't help the team as much as he had hoped. It's ridiculous that someone would ever think it would be acceptable to wear red tights in lieu of striped blue socks. But this shows perfectly the attitude of the players. If $11,025 is no big deal, then next time add a zero to the end of that number.

You can't wear whatever you feel to work unless you're a tattoo artist or telemarketer. If the Packers are wearing their home uniforms, Aaron Rodgers can't come out in the tan pants because he thinks they're more comfortable. If the Ravens are wearing purple, Joe Flacco can't wear a black jersey because YOLO. Wearing random color socks is no different.