Coach: Glenview resident, ex-Chicago Bear Baschnagel recalls 'uniform police' days

Football fans are about to become deeply entrenched in the coming days with the NFL playoffs in full swing.

Not many fans are too worried or concerned - or even pay much attention - to the way players dress for these big playoff games, but there is a little "game behind the game" that goes on prior to the start of each contest.

It has to with uniforming, or maybe better yet described as the lack thereof. Despite all the cries for individuality and creativeness among today's players, they are nevertheless bounded, and sometimes hounded, by a strict league uniform code.

And, for 23 years, longtime Glenview resident Brian Baschnagel was that guy. The one doing the hounding. During Bears home games at Soldier Field, he was the guy hired by the NFL to be what's called the "official inspector," which believe it or not, they have for every game from preseason to playoffs.

Not surprisingly these uniform inspectors are not real popular with the players, although Baschnagel did come into it with a little extra street cred, having been an All-American wide receiver at Ohio State and an ex-NFL player himself, having played nine seasons in Chicago for the Bears after being drafted in 1976.

"That helps," says Brian, "but not that much, because most of the modern players have no idea who I was or when I played."

OK, so much for street cred and a sadly aging fandom, but Baschnagel remained undeterred.

"I enjoyed the job," he said. "It kept me involved and around the game, the teams and the players."

So, what does the inspector do, and what are the regulations players must abide by?

"I would usually get to the stadium about two hours before gametime and get out on the field early," says Baschnagel. "That way I could watch players warm up and catch any of the potential violations before gametime, thus helping prevent any of them from getting fined. I would write down all the infractions, and then give it to each team's equipment manager. The NFL discouraged us from going up to individual players and confronting them."

"The most important thing the NFL stresses," says the ex-receiver turned uniform inspector, "is that all players on each team are dressed the same. Socks, pants, jerseys, helmets etc., and the socks are supposed to be knee high with pants down below the knee so that no skin on the leg is showing." (a rule Baschnagel says they usually have a little flexibility in enforcing.)

What about the logo's on shoes, and messages such as "equality" or "Black lives matter" that players wear on the back of their helmets?

Inspector Baschnagel explains, "Everything like that, logos or wording on the helmet, has to be approved beforehand by the league office, otherwise it is not allowed."

Based on what we have seen the past few years, it sounds like somebody in the league office has been awfully busy!

Brian, a Glenview resident for 35 years, along with wife Mindy and kids Luke, Mallory and Allie, has had a few confrontations over the years, but overall got pretty good compliance from most of the players and teams.

"I do remember one time at the NFL Pro Bowl game in Hawaii, though," says Baschnagel "I was assigned as one of the official inspectors. Soon to be hall-of-fame running back Marshall Faulk came out for the warmups and had the famous Jordan Nike stick figure logo on the back of his shoes. That's a problem. I came over to him and nicely explained that he couldn't wear those shoes because that logo was not approved and not allowed. Marshall then nicely explained to me he didn't really care - he was going to wear them anyway."

"Now, I knew the fine was going to be $100,000 from the NFL front office and back in those days (1993-94), even for NFL players, that was a big financial hit, and I really didn't want to be the guy to report it and have him lose all that money. I reminded him again, and even told the equipment manager, but Faulk kept on wearing them and basically said he really didn't care."

The teams went to the locker room after warmups and then came back onto the field for the game, and it was pretty packed on the sidelines with all the players and other dignitaries standing around. When the game was about to start, Marshall was sitting on one of the benches, so I got down on my hands and knees, crawled through the crowd of people and peaked underneath the bench. Sure enough, he had put black tape over the logo. Problem solved, and a lot of money saved."

Just one of many stories, I'm sure, Baschnagel has stored away in his back pocket of NFL memories after doing this job for 23 years (and playing for nine seasons).

So, as you watch the upcoming playoff games, keep an eye out for any uniform infractions. See if any of the players are "testing the waters," as they say.

Brian has no worries, though. He retired from the inspector position a couple years ago.

"Somebody else's job now," he says, smiling. "Now I can just sit back, watch and enjoy the games."

• Jon Cohn of Glenview is a coach, retired PE teacher, sports official and prep sports fan. To contact him with comments or story ideas, email jcsportsandtees@aol.com.