Super Bowl 2018: Why does Bill Belichick always wear a hoodie?

Patriots coach Bill Belichick has become famous for sporting hoodies on the sidelines.

The colors don’t always remain the same, and the sleeves may not always be attached, but you can be certain on every New England game day, the coach will be taking the field with it on.

And the reason behind it all is peak-Belichick.

According to Yahoo! Sports columnist Dan Wetzel, the tradition started back in 2003, when the NFL entered into an apparel deal with Reebok. That agreement stated that the league’s coaches would be required to wear the company’s gear. Belichick scoffed at the idea that coaches should be models on the sideline and decided to wear the most simple option: a grey hoodie.

In true Belichick fashion, the coach wouldn’t simply acknowledge Wetzel’s discovery, instead dancing around the explanation without giving a true answer.

Belichick wouldn’t confirm the genesis of the story when I asked him about it in 2012. He didn’t deny it either or stop the line of questioning or explain much of anything though.

He just, as is his way, changed the subject, claiming he liked the hooded sweatshirt for practical purposes.

“It’s comfortable,” he said. “I carry stuff in my pouch.”

What about chopping off the sleeves?

“I have short arms,” he noted.

That single act of (alleged) modest rebellion birthed the most famous look in the NFL.

The style has become as synonymous with Belichick as his short, grumpy press conferences. The hoodie has attracted a cult following. There are those who track his record in different color sweatshirts and stores that market the simple garb just by attaching his name to it.

Even the Patriots’ team website sells a “Belichick Hoodie,” though it only comes in one color, navy, and you’ll have to cut the sleeves off yourself.

It’s gotten to the point where it becomes noteworthy to see Belichick without the hoodie at any league event. There are even prop bets placed on what color his hoodie will be for the Super Bowl on Sunday.

And then, of course, there’s the greatest dividend of the whole trend — the birth of the laziest Halloween costume in history. All you need is a tattered Patriots hoodie and a menacing scowl.

All of this because the coach didn’t want to be seen as a model on the sidelines for Reebok, or any other company’s, apparel.

Talk about your all-time backfires.