What to Wear: Coaching Edition

Watching the the last few weeks of the NFL this year made me crazy.  Every time I saw a coach from one of the teams, he was dressed like he had just got off his couch.  Here is this guy, the head coach in one of the biggest sporting events in the USA and he is wearing sweats and cut offs.  Would the top coaches in other sports do this?  

The coaches in the NBA set a standard.  Look at Phil Jackson.  You think that guy would wear a t-shirt to a playoff game?  To any game? 

Basketball coaches show up wearing suits.  Every game.  Not just the playoffs.  That's how it should be.  They should look like the boss.  Coaches need to be professional and they need to look professional.   

Another example of professional looking coaches can be found in the NHL.  The players are on the ice getting bloodied up while the coach is dressed in his finest suit making the call on which warriors to send in next.  The way it should be.  

When I brought my argument to Cari, she very quickly explained away my problem.  The guys in suits are coaching indoor games.  The NFL is (mostly) outdoors.  Why would a coach want to be out in the sun for four hours dressed in a suit?  I didn't want to accept her simple explanation and continued my research.  I thought it was a poor excuse.

Next I examined Major League Baseball.  Baseball is an outdoor sport,  more outdoors than most football even.  It turns out coaches in the MLB wear a team uniform.  This is pretty unique in professional American sports.  Wearing the team uniform is part of the baseball tradition for managers and I like it.  Baseball is about tradition and I wouldn't ask them to wear a suit.  At least they aren't wearing their pajamas like the NFL coaches.

I wonder if this would be a solution to our poorly dressed NFL coaches.  There is usually a large crowd on the sidelines during a game and I worry that the coach might blend in too much if we made him wear a team uniform.  Before you know it, he'd be lost in the crowd and people would be grabbing his butt.  Besides, this is a baseball tradition.  Let's not ruin it by carrying it to the NFL.

After evaluating the options and weighing the concerns of being outdoors (sometimes) for NFL coaches, I'd like to propose a new standard in coaching wear.  NFL coaches should wear a suit. Be the boss and look the part.  Be respectable and don't look like your coaching this game from an Xbox.  

In fact, Mr. NFL coach, why don't you look back to how your hero's did it.  Lombardi and Landry wouldn't wear sweats to a playoff game.

And they coached when football was actually outside.