“Natty Dressers Disappear From NFL Sidelines”
When it comes to life, there is really only one thing that changes at a constant rate: time. As every second goes by, the time changes and we get older. With the change in age and the change in culture, we, as human beings, change too. We change the way we talk, the way we walk, and even the way we dress. Of all the things changing, the way football coaches are dressing for game day is being criticized. Why on earth would it matter how the coach dresses? Guess what; it doesn’t.
It is has been said that coaches should dress professionally during games. Depending on the sport, it makes sense for the coach to dress more professionally. For example, if you see a basketball coach during a game, he (or she, don’t be sexist) will probably be dressed professionally. If you go to a soccer game or, in the case of this article, a football game, the coach will more than likely be dressed in athletic pants and a dri-fit shirt. The difference in the way coaches dress is due to two things: how much the coach moves, and the climate. Using the basketball coach as an example, they don’t have much space to walk around, albeit some walk all over the place anyways. The average high school and college basketball court is 84 feet in length meaning each half is 42 feet. If you look at an average basketball court, the bench is about a foot away from the sidelines. The bench area is about 28 feet and with a bench area on each half of the court, this takes away 56 feet from the 84 leaving 28 feet. If you figure each coach can go up to the half court line, this leaves about 14 feet per coach to move around and yell at his players. But then you have to figure that the coaches need to keep out of the way of the score keepers so they should probably stay about 5 feet away from the edge of the booth. Once you take away those five feet, a basketball coach is left with 9 feet to move around. Now compare that to a football coach’s wiggle room. Unlike the basketball coach, a football coach has a set space that he’s not supposed to go out of. This space is from one 25 yard line to the other 25. When one looks at that, it can be seen that a football coach has 50 yards which is about 17 times the amount of space to move around and yell at his players. A coach can easily start to sweat from moving around in that much space. And believe me, from my experience, they do. If the weather is hot too, said coach will sweat even more! Now, if a coach dresses in comfortable clothes such as athletic pants and dri-fits, they won’t sweat as much. Coaches should be more worried about the game at hand than if the deodorant they are paid to wear actually does protect against sweat for 48 hours.
It really shouldn’t matter what a football coach wears while coaching. As long as he has something on, most fans could care less about what the coach is wearing. Football isn’t taken any less serious. It’s still a bunch of big guys running around throwing a ball, hitting each other, and sometimes kicking. Because of the intensity of some of the hits and amazing plays, most people focus more on those instead of focusing on 49er’s coach Jim Harbaugh’s pants. That’s the way it should be.
It’s kind of ridiculous to think that our generation has to complain about something so they choose their favorite football coach’s attire. Out of all the things going on in professional football these days, it has come down to that. Why don’t people complain about the way some players represent their team and their city? There are players out there going out and getting drunk 24/7. There are players going out doing drugs and committing crimes and the fans still decide to complain about a coach’s attire? If this generation wants something football related to complain about, they should be complaining about their favorite player’s poor reputation. Now not everybody will agree with the following statement but there are way worse things to be complaining about. If people must complain, a player’s reputation is the way to go.
As life goes on, there will be things to complain about and that’s a fact. When life brings you trials, you do as any defensive line would do and plow right through it. What makes us amazing is our ability to bounce back from trials. Hopefully we can remember that and drop the silly things that stand in our way from appreciating the blessings in this lifetime.
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