**For a better view of the pictures below, you can click on the individual pictures to make them larger**
When I think of wearing a sweater, I think of a cold atmosphere where you need to bundle up to stay warm. Many football coaches are seen wearing them as they patrol up and down the sideline during a football game, which is quite fine as the weather outside can be fairly chilly at times. Former Ohio State Football Coach Jim Tressel is a prime example of proudly wearing his sweaters to games (did the man even own anything else?) I must say that during a football game, I would prefer seeing a coach in a sweater or a nice polo versus looking like a slob as I feel New England Patriots Head Coach Bill Belichick does when he wears his hooded sweatshirts.
However, when it comes to basketball, I don’t often feel that is a place for sweaters to be worn. Almost all basketball games are held indoors, (with the exception of the “Carrier Classic” games) and majority of the time, arenas are not a cold atmosphere – they are usually quite the opposite. Most coaches will wear a suit or business casual attire that makes them appear very professional as they are working the sidelines with their team. That is not to say that sweaters are not business attire; sure they can be dressed up and worn to look very professional. But, if I were a coach, in an arena where the temperature is usually fairly warm and the game intense which can cause you to become heated and animated, I do not think I would want to be bundled up in a thick sweater where one is prone to sweating ‘to death’. No assistant coach is going to want to have to deal with their head coach passing out from a heat stroke caused by wearing a sweater during a game (by the way, to my knowledge that has never happened).
Thinking of coaches and sweaters, aside from Jim Tressel, the one person I always think about when it comes to sweaters is the Assistant Coach of the Duke Women’s Basketball team, Al Brown, whom I have affectionately named “Sweater Man”. Every time I go to a Duke game, I absolutely dread seeing him walk onto the court primarily because of his awful, horrendous, disgusting, ultimate lack-of-taste sweaters. I would love to ask him “What are you thinking? Are you color blind? Do you just grab something in your closet? Why in the world do you even own such hideous looking pieces of garments?” (But more importantly why does some company even make them?) I don’t know whether “Sweater Man’s” goal is to draw attention to himself (which he surely does) or whether he just has absolutely no sense in fashion whatsoever. Either way, I find them absolutely distasteful – they make me dizzy and nauseous; I can’t even bear to look at the Duke sideline during a game because of “Sweater Man” and his glowing attire. Why can’t Coach P. pull him aside and dress him more appropriately? I am sure somewhere someone out there must have told him that they think he looks good in his sweaters, but that person needs to be slapped with the smart stick because, in my opinion, they are the worst looking things I have ever seen. I don’t even think my Grandpa (who has a very unique dress himself) would wear something so appalling. For working at Duke University, from which I am sure he draws a very profitable salary, and whose campus has a close proximity to a Nordstrom, someone please save us and take the man shopping! Shock me at the next Duke game and have him in a suit or dress shirt or something, I would be immensely grateful. But until then, “Sweater Man”, carry on your tradition, and if there is a “tacky sweater party” ever again, you’re on my team!
Another thing that annoys me is the sweater vests with patterns. If you’re a coach and you’re going to wear a sweater vest, be like Tressel and wear a solid color sweater and not these pattern type sweaters. Former Wake Forest Head Coach Mike Peterson decided to come to the ACC Tournament in 2011 wearing a sweater vest. Granted, his sweater vest wasn’t the worst I had ever seen, but hello!, it’s Tournament Time and of all times that you should want to wear a suit and dress for the occasion, I would think it would be during a tournament, especially the ACC Tournament! And let me not even get started on women wearing sweater vests – I could go on a real tangent with that one, but I’ll just let you look at the picture of Anne Donovan, head coach at Seton Hall University. Wow, that’s all I can say without getting my foot caught in my mouth.
You’re probably reading this thinking that I just have an absolute distaste for sweaters, but that’s not true because I own a fair share myself. But I just feel that if you are going to wear a sweater and be a coach or assistant coach, you just need to learn to match or maybe just wear solid colored sweaters over top of dress shirts or something. For example, Geno Auriemma, the infamous Head Coach at the University of Connecticut, recently worse a black sweater overtop of a dress shirt with a pink necktie (during the Play4Kay awareness month; props to Geno for doing that!). Overall, I think this look (in comparison with those above) is very dapper. Geno really pulled this outfit off quite well. Initially he had a black suit jacket on top of the sweater – that was a tad bit too much, and obviously he realized how hot it gets in an arena as he immediately started shedding clothes. Nonetheless, I think he looks very classy in his black sweater, and when wearing his glasses, he looks very professorly!
So there you have it, my not-so-fond take on sweaters in the sporting world. I’m sorry if I have offended anyone but I do believe there is a time and place for sweaters. I just do not feel that place is on the sideline at a basketball game. ESPECIALLY, if your sweaters are so hideous that they could quite possibly glow in the dark.
PS: And, just for the record, I have just returned from the ACC Tournament, where Duke claimed the championship; and lo and behold, Al Brown aka “Sweater Man” came out looking like a human Easter egg in his latest sweater. Lord, please help that man!
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