Players wearing flashy items

I'm not a HC yet so I'm not really sure where I stand. In my first program, the one I played in and began coaching for, our HC was a strict no individualism guy. No visors, no bands, no nothing. He doesn't even allow his players to get taped for a game unless they were taped in practice all week, or had a tweak that called for it.

If it's legal, sportsmanlike, and doesn't cause problems, I don't mind.  If anything, I think it's one more way to make football more fun for them.

It was weird to see so many kids wearing bright pink crap for half of last season.  It didn't change their personalities any.  Our leaders were still our leaders even with pink socks.  Our prima donnas were still prima donnas even with their pink sleeves.  Our hard@$$ ILB was still our hard@$$ ILB even with pink gloves.  Etc

We did look really f'n gay, though...

We don't wear any of that crap. In my mind the only reason to wear a visor, mismatched socks, one sleeve, etc. is to bring attention to yourself. That is not what I want our players to be about. None of that stuff makes you  a better football player. Being the head coach and AD I do make sure all of our sports have nice uniforms so we can feel good about how we look. I also always like to point out to my guys in pre game to look at the other teams dress and to look at all the individuals they have. My college coach always used to say "football is the ultimate team sport". My players all wear low socks, same color mouth piece, navy or white long sleeves if they want (school colors). Skill guys do not wear long sleeves because I feel the ball slips on the fabric and increases chances for fumbles. Just they way we do things.

I've never understood the we all have to wear black shoes thing

I hate are visors... not so much if it is dry, but if there is any moisture in the air, or on the ground... they get cloudy and kids cant see out of them... then you have a starter scrambling to take his visor off with a screw driver between series or between quarters

Spats also piss me off, forgot to say this in my first post...
not because of the look, but because we waste so much time trying to get the kids spatted before game time
i told all of our kids no one is allowed to get spatted this year, i told the trainers there are to be no spats this year

1. We prefer the kids to wear black shoes and white socks. But, I have a hard time demanding that they wear black cleats if we don't have some we can provide them. The socks are non-negotiable.

2. We'll generally allow whatever the governing body allows, within reason. We had a kid last year who's doctor said he needed an elbow sleeve and he went and bought a bright red one. We put an end to that in a hurry. We had another that needed a wrist brace and he chose one with team colors (navy and orange) and we made him take it off. We limit what the can wear for breast cancer awareness as well; pink socks and pink wrist bands are fine. That's it; I have had kids and parents b-tch about buying black cleats but are more than happy to pick up pink ones.

3. No visors, period. The kids that want them don't use them for a practical reason; they just want to look flashy.

As long as it is within the rules and is of team colors (Blue, White, Black), I could care less. We have some many other things to worry about as a coaching staff, why burden us with one that I do not perceive to matter?

We also do 1 game per year in pink socks. I supply the socks, they can buy them for 5 bucks after the game.

yes football is a team-sport, but we cant forget that a team is build on individuals. of course they have to be a specific kind of individuals, selfless and responsible or what we call teamplayers. but nonetheless they are still individuals with indivdual and very different characteristics, which we also bring forward in specializing kids for a position. we would not tell a QB to "throw like the other kids do, because its selfish and flashy and too individual how well he throws the ball", because its his individual part, with which he contributes to the team.

now with things like fashion, people often are quick to condemn this stuff and the argument goes like this: because it has no functional aim, there is no room for it in the game (of football). a former teammate, who has now a doctor in psychology, once told me this quote he had from a sport-psychology class: "look good, feel good, play good".

i explained this for myself like this: you think more often about something, when you feel its a bad thing and you get more affected by a bad thing emotionally. if youre not comfortable with how you look, you will constantly think about it and constantly feel bad. id argue that if players arent content with how they look, this will be more of a distraction to them than it is to dress like they want to do.

now every player (as every human being in general) has its own taste and how much they want to invest in this. and thats why you cant judge them as you cant be judged for taste of chocolate or whatever. its taste. and i think that the personal standart of how good you want to look or how good you want to play or how good you want your meal to be, is a disposition, much like taste, that you cant really affect and thus should not be judged. and both cases are analogous: if a player has no ambitions to play in the NFL, especially if he has talent, we find it sad. if he just wants to have fun with the guys and playing the game and thus attributes to the team, then we should be fine with that. we should not limit his liberty of making his own plans for life or doing what he wants to do. the same with looks.
plus if we accept what psychology might say about looking good->playing good, dressing like one wants to dress, has a function and leads to benefits for the team, which is better playing players.

so as long as looks arent distracting a player more than it would distract him, if he wasnt allowed to dress like he wants, id say let him do his thing. if he does not carry an attitude of being selfish, let him look good, while he plays good.

its your taste, one might say.

b0 - it is almost impossible to read big blocks of text (especially white on black background) such as yours without capitalization, periods, more breaks-paragraphs, less rambling.

Most of us on here are experienced coaches. Don't need lecturing.

Make your point(s) as succinct and as readable as possible - or you're wasting your time.

Just some professional suggestions.

*1.5.3 COMMENT: There are many items that would be considered to be illegal uniform adornments. Examples include but are not limited to: 1) Play cards
designed for the wrist, but strapped to the belt as in 1-5-3c(8); 2) Eye shade as
detailed in 1-5-3c(3) or that extends outside the eye socket or below the cheek
bone; 3) Bandanas and other items if exposed from under the football helmet; and
4) Bicep bands and other sweat bands not placed properly. Examples of items
that have been determined to be legal are 1) Spats that properly cover the shoes
as intended by the manufacturer; 2) Skull caps manufactured to be worn on the
head that do not alter the fit of the football helmet and are not exposed outside of
the football helmet; 3) Tinted eyewear worn on the face and under the face mask.

- Two pairs of game socks. Pull them up to their knees or if they prefer down around their calves, I couldn't care less.

- I hate elbow sleeves and sleeves in general. Like another poster said, the moisture effects the grip from my experiences.

- As for cleats, it doesn't matter to me so long as they are in a white, black or royal (or mix of all three color scheme).

- I haven't had any kids wear a visor, yet, but I agree they get foggy as all get out.

- When it comes to spatting, they are on their own. They buy the tape, unless our trainer recommends it. Granted, we haven't an issue with that over the years, either. We'll have 2-3 a year that do it. My college trainer gave us the increased injury spill, too...didn't see an increase or decrease in ankle or knee injuries.  I spatted up & I was a lineman, but I also did it b/c of having broke both ankles outside of football. 

If it's anything outside of the above, I have other things to worry about.

We designate one game a year to Breast Cancer awareness, that's where our 3rd pair of socks come in, but they are white with two, bright pink stripes at the top (New England Patriots type socks). My grandmother (breast cancer survivor & coaches wife for 37 of her 51 years of marriage thus far) even made a comment last year how ugly all of the pink was (hates the solid pink socks).

This is the one game a year where if they want pink gloves, rock'em out. Want pink wristbands? Go nuts. Pink cleats? Knock yourself out.

We have specific colors players must wear for undershirts. We also pass out game socks and go over color requirements for cleats and gloves. Other than that, the NFHS is pretty strict (and so are our local refs at enforcing) in what can't be worn. We don't spat so that's not an issue.

This summer I've been really bugged by other teams who allow their players to wear hats or visors during 7on7. Drives me nuts.

We don't allow any bling for the reasons people have mentioned. However, we had an alum playing in college who actually lost his eyesight in a game due to an injury so we don't have anything against visors.