Comments on: Bill Belichick: cultural innovator or bobo poseur?

By: pat

pat — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 04:05:43 +0000

Sartorially, Belichick's choice isn't that divergent. Sure, on Sundays he dresses like your average cannabis-crazed fratboy, but the hoodie he favors isn't any less functional than the typical golf shirt or windbreaker seemingly favored by all other NFL coaches. Like Bobby Knight's break away from the suit-and-tie mold of college basketball coaches, Belichick's hard-won success has given him a certain amount of "fuck you" latitude in his clothing choices. His sartorial expressions are merely a byproduct of considerable success. Maybe if Norv Turner would win some games, he could wear those biker shorts I hear he favors to a game !

By: SusanA

SusanA — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 22:04:15 +0000

I have questions...
Don't true celebrities tend to define the style? Maybe others will soon emulate this look.
what did he wear in the past. Is this a new thing, or has he always been an oddball in his clothing choices? (from the previous commenter, there appears to be a pattern here, for which the hoodie is just the latest manifestation)
Functionally, there's no question that this kind of garb helps you focus your attention. It's the sartorial equivalent of headphones. Maybe he needs this sometimes.
Could it just be that he wants to set himself apart in a psychological sense, to find his own path in the game. When we make a choice to be different in one thing, it helps us find different paths in other dimensions. Get your hair colored one week, and your eyes fixed the next. It might be hard to be just like everyone else in your clothing choices, and find the winning innovative edge in your coaching choices.
I'm not a fan of the sport much, but I do enjoy watching the watchers.

By: nmf

nmf — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 16:58:07 +0000

Maybe Belichick just wants to be comfortable. Sunday, indoors in Indianapolis, he was wearing a team polo shirt, khakis and sneakers. In one picture, the shirt was partially untucked but that can happen when you are fiddling with the clunky communications gear these guys use. I can't imagine that someone who spends as much time looking at video as a pro football coach does could be unaware of how he looks so Grant's thesis is unconvincing. And I think I remember that the man was studiously under-dressed even early in his NE career so, if he is a poseur in the Phil Jackson genre, he acquired the style before he had the bona fides to justify the conceit. Or perhaps he's way hipper than we can imagine, responding to the Friday post in his own way on Sunday to keep all the critics guessing.

By: Marshall

Marshall — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 06:19:14 +0000

Maybe it's cold and there is a high chill factor. Hoods are nice when it's cold.

Obviously your friend Tom is the type of Academic who doesn't like things. For such a type the television presents a never ending picture of things-not-to-like. Things to decry. Things to worry about. Things not to participate in.

You, on the other hand Grant, like things. You like the dance, the spectacle, the carneval, så you are ready with a charitable interpretation.

You are much more fun to read than Tom.

By the way with European eyes - this guy Belichick - just looks like the typical Hollywood thug.

By: Inaudible Nonsense (DC1974)

Inaudible Nonsense (DC1974) — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 13:34:22 +0000

Didn't Phil Jackson lay claim to the bobo head coach like 20 years ago? The whole former hippy, the zen buddhism, the beard. And of course the championship Bulls and then the Lakers. In the the cult of authenticity then, Bill is just a poseur. (What a small strange clique it is which only has two members and so far apart.)

By: Tom Asacker

Tom Asacker — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 20:21:45 +0000

Is Bill being authentic with what some may view as his "ostentatious rejectionism?" If so, shouldn't we embrace him? Aren't we all for authenticity? Ah, but if authenticity detracts from our consumer experience, what then?

By: Peter

Peter — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 19:46:14 +0000

Grant --

Wearing jackets with hoods, and then wearing the hood up, has been fashionable among European teenagers for the last several years. In Britain, this fashion became a political issue a couple of years ago, when some public places (eg, shopping malls) began banning people who were wearing their hoods up, alleging that the wearers were intent on perpetrating a crime and threatening other people. The official Leader of the Opposition, David Cameron, even made a point of embracing "hoodies", as such teenagers have come to be called, to indicate the compassionate conservatism he was proposing.