Saturday, Aug. 09, 2008

'Look good, play good': From helmet to cleats, many of today's football players stepping out in style

By JAMES BURNS
jburns@mercedsun-star.com

Rob Scheidt likes to think of himself as a trendsetter -- a trailblazer in the arena of football fashion.

The former Dos Palos linebacker went to great lengths to give his game-day look a signature flair during a time when many weren't.

DP's traditional blue and gold uniforms weren't enough. They needed accessories.

His, at least.

Scheidt wrapped his wrists with athletic tape. Wore elbow pads that seemed to shrink with each passing week.

And he had a towel -- you know, just in case.

"When I played I was one of those flashy guys," said Scheidt, now the coach at Merced High. "I wanted to have a certain feel. ... to feel unique against the guys you were going up against.

"It's a comfort level thing. I do believe that when you look good and you feel good, you're going to play good. I think it all carries over."

Maybe Scheidt was onto something.

More and more of today's high school and college football players are stepping out in style on Friday nights and Saturday afternoons.

From wristbands to armbands, socks to visors and streamers to sleeves, the school-issued uniform has become a canvas for teenagers to stylize and pattern.

But is it a good thing?

The kids seem to think so.

Image is everything for many of today's teen-aged football players -- and they freely admit to it.

"The older generations played football and didn't care what they looked like," Atwater senior Dexter Coward said. "As long as they got the job done, they didn't care how people perceived them. The older guys were hardcore.

"These days, image really is everything. You see NFL players wearing bands and sleeves and visors, and obviously they're successful.

"As a young player, you want to wear the same things because those are the guys you look up to. Plus, if a player looks good it probably intimidates the other team."

It should come as no surprise, then, that many of the area's flashiest game-day dressers hail from Scheidt's program -- arguably one of the most intimidating in the section.

The Sock Craze

Like Scheidt in his heyday, former Merced running back Garrett Turner found himself at the front of a new movement.

Sock fashion.

Turner was just a sophomore at Merced when he began rolling and folding mutiple socks in eye-catching patterns.

The style, he says, was born from a video game.

"Most of my styles I get from creating myself on Madden," said Turner, who also sports as many as five bracelets on both wrists -- some pink, some green. "My cousins used to say that I looked like a created player out there.

"Ever since then, I've been trying something new."

Turner no longer rocks with the multi-colored socks -- because as a sophomore at Merced College, he's bound by the NCAA's strict uniform code -- but he's spawned a legion of followers.

Merced junior running back Stephon Mathis never used to care about his appearance on the football field.

As a Pop Warner star, Mathis says he cared about one thing: how he performed.

Then he got a crash course in football fashion as freshman at Merced.

Mathis watched as the 2006 varsity team not only made winning look easy -- but really good, too.

There was Turner with his flashy socks, running loose in the secondary, and wide receiver Carter Todd with his blacked-out visor.

Mathis was sold.

He hasn't played a game since without wearing at least two pairs of socks, rolled and folded in a unique sequence.

"I've got guys like Stephon who insist that they wear three or four socks. I don't get it," Scheidt said. "I don't even know how he gets his shoes on with all that padding."