If the Tremendous Bowl is the N.F.L.’s largest stage, the Tremendous Bowl tunnel is its largest catwalk. And on Sunday, the Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs dressed for it.
A number of hours earlier than the groups took the sphere on the Superdome in New Orleans, images had been streaming in of the gamers of their pregame fineries. By 4 p.m. Jap time, we’d already witnessed Saquon Barkley’s Canadian tuxedo, Jalen Hurts’s very “Joker” purple sport jacket and Travis Kelce’s Ron Burgundy-ed disco swimsuit.
This season-ending outfitpalooza — the sport earlier than the sport — displays simply how considerably the N.F.L. has change into a league of preeners and peacocks up to now decade or so. It wasn’t that way back that gamers, for probably the most half, had one outfit for recreation day: a swimsuit. And sometimes a dishevelled and unhappy swimsuit at that. It was worn out of obligation greater than expression.
Oh, how that has modified lately, as soccer and style have morphed from strangers to spouses. (That is, in any case, a sports activities league with its personal style editor.)
No matter ignited the tunnel stroll revolution, it’s now its personal competitors. Gamers now enlist stylists and comfortable ever nearer to manufacturers, scrounging collectively probably the most “you possibly can’t have this” ensemble for any given Sunday.
For those who wagered that gamers would dial issues down for the Tremendous Bowl — lean towards one thing sober for the weightiest recreation of the yr — you’d have misplaced that prop guess.
This yr’s Tremendous Bowl walk-up was a buffet of furs (perhaps although, this was a nod to Broadway Joe Namath), spangled sleeveless fits and extra Louis Vuitton duffels than the personal jet terminal in Good.
There’s, evidently, no squelching the attention-seeking appetites that course by the league.
That is simply how the N.F.L. is now. It’s a league of dandies with biceps the scale of bread loaves. The gamers of their Trix-hued fits and sprinkling of spangles walked down the tunnel on Sunday afternoon providing a becoming fruits to this yr in professional soccer.
A few of Sunday’s different memorable appears to be like:
