Bill Belichick has a unique sense of style — to put it nicely — when it comes to his choices in sideline attire, and the main component of his coaching wardrobe is of course sweatshirts with their sleeves cut back.
It turns out there is a hilarious reason behind why the New England Patriots head coach has been so committed to his wholly original hobo-chic sense of style through the years.
Belichick came up with the sleeve-cutting routine during the Patriots’ victory over the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl XXIX, as recently chronicled by Tom E. Curran of NBC Sports Boston.
“Belichick was driven to distraction by his sleeves in the Patriots Super Bowl XXXIX win over the Eagles. Belichick was just fiddling and tugging and tucking until finally he rolled them up inside themselves,” Curran wrote. “The next season, Belichick took action. In the fall of 2005, Belichick walked into the team’s equipment room, laid a gray sweatshirt on a table and he then lopped off both arms right below the elbow.”
“’My arms are too short,’” Belichick reportedly told someone in the equipment room.
The fact that Belichick’s decision to lop off a chunk of the sleeves on his sweatshirts was inspired by function over form is hardly surprising. That being said, there certainly are better options than the one Belichick settled on.
Not that the curmudgeonly coach has likely given a second of thought to what others have to say about his somewhat slovenly appearance while attending to his coaching duties … nor to how he appears while wearing it, presumably.
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