On This Date – April 9th, 1945: NFL Mandates All Players Must Wear Socks

On this date – April 9th, 1945 the NFL commissioner at the time decided that he needed to shake things up. Bare legs were not for him. On this day, it became mandatory for NFL players to wear socks. We take things like this for granted. Don’t worry, the NFL is always on top of things. From now on, NFL players were going to wear socks.

I’m not going to act like I know what was going on during April 9th of 1945. I hate when people do that. Half the people debating the MJ vs LeBron topic weren’t alive to even watch MJ. Why are you arguing about something you have no first hand knowledge of? However, I would assume a large portion of players were going on there barefoot so things had to be done.

Around that time, the NFL was tinkering with its uniform policy. A lot of those rules are still intact today, including the sock rule. Over time, the rules about how players can wear their socks got more specific.

“The stockings worn by players must be white from the top of the shoe to mid-calf and an approved team color from mid-calf to the bottom of the pant leg, which is pulled down below the knee.”

“NFL players are required to dress to the highest levels of professionalism. A player’s appearance on the field conveys a message regarding the image of the League and directly affects the League’s reputation and success.”

This is a really good blog detailing all of the intricacies of what is ok and not ok to suit up for with the NFL uniform. It’s more detailed than you might think and players are fined all the time. If we learned anything today, it’s that we literally had to tell players to wear socks. Not a joke.