Hats off as NFL celebrates 100
Christian McCaffrey admitted he’s an unlikely brand ambassador for a clothing company.
“I used to not care at all about what I wore,” the Panthers running back told USA TODAY. “I’d wear one of every color. My mom would even call me out. Once I got older, it became a way to express myself. I don’t think I’ll ever be expressing myself like Cam (Newton), but it is something I take pride in now.”
McCaffrey was tapped last month as one of New Era’s latest brand ambassadors. The Buffalo-based hat maker has brought in his former NFL receiver father, Ed, for the rollout of the Official NFL Sideline Collection that launched Monday. Each of the 32 teams will have unique home hats this season that reflect the decade each was founded as the NFL celebrates its 100th season.
“They look great,” said Ed McCaffrey, who wore three different logos in his 13season career. “The fashion now is nowhere near where it was when I played.
“When I think of caps, I associate
them with victory. You put one on when you’re taken out of the game (as a starter). You were winning and stood on the sideline as the clock ticked down. I was fortunate to be able to get that opportunity at the end of so many games in my career.”
Ed McCaffrey, a three-time Super Bowl champion, retired at 35 in 2003 and acknowledged a lot changed before his son was drafted by the Panthers in 2017 – and not just fashion-wise.
“I ate fast food early in my career because I didn’t really understand the role nutrition played,” Ed McCaffrey said. “Christian entered the league with the knowledge it took me five, six, seven years to get. I hung around the league long enough to learn how to take care of my body. Christian has surrounded himself with great people and he’s a hard worker. He’s a student of the game and takes a great pride in staying healthy.”
That dedication this offseason didn’t go unnoticed as photos from the Panthers’ workouts in April hit social media, with many observers noting McCaffrey appeared to have added significant muscle since the end of the 2018 season.
He told USA TODAY he’s roughly the same weight as last season (listed at 5-11, 205) and he “didn’t do anything crazy special” to get jacked.
“My body is in a good position right now,” McCaffrey said. “I haven’t gained more than a pound or two. My aim going into every offseason is to maximize my speed. It was a lot of hard work.”
McCaffrey said minus the footballspecific drills, he did linear training, which typically involves heavier weight training at lower reps with a couple of days off between the muscle groups worked. It’s more of an old school approach to weight training, but maybe not quite as much of a throwback as some of the hats in New Era’s new line.
The caps for the Cardinals, Bears, Packers and Giants – whose NFL lineage traces to the 1910s and 1920s – are made of a wool fabric to simulate hats worn in the day. Teams founded in the 1970s like the Falcons, Bengals and Saints have trucker-style caps with a foam front and mesh backing.
“We sat down with the league several months ago to talk about what we could do to commemorate the NFL’s 100th season,” said Ryan DiNunzio, New Era’s director of football and soccer. “We wanted to celebrate it in an authentic way, so we started to think about how we could separate the teams into decades.”
He said there were discussions to use Zubaz – the zebra striped attire that had a brief run in the 1990s – before a color block approach was used for recent NFL entries like the Panthers and Texans.
“I gave a lot of that kind of gear to my family, like the Zubaz,” said Ed McCaffrey, who is the head football coach at Valor Christian High School in Highlands Ranch, Colorado. “I saved some stuff, but not the Zubaz.”