Todd Haley Can't Feel Cold, Loves Wearing Shorts

Todd Haley is a pretty decent offensive coordinator who’s far more famous for being a frothing rage volcano. He’s messed with Rapoport, gotten mad at John Harbaugh over a preseason game, and has feuded with his quarterback. Hell, he pissed off notoriously chill guy Snoop Dogg of all people.

So you might be surprised to learn that his fashion sensibilities are rather chill. ESPN has a fun blog post about Haley and his love of wearing shorts. Haley apparently has worn shorts to every practice he’s coached for over a decade. But this sartorial choice doesn’t come from a place of relaxation or some latent Sublime fandom. No, Haley’s shorts are a tough guy penance thing:

I asked Haley about this recently, and it turns out there’s an interesting backstory. Apparently Haley has worn shorts to every NFL practice he’s attended since 2001, when he was a wide receivers coach with the Chicago Bears. Being from the Pittsburgh area, Haley always admired the coaches and players from the early NFL years who played through tough conditions without heavy coats.

“I started doing it to challenge the receiver group to go short sleeves, and they said, ‘What are you gonna do?’” Haley said. “So I said shorts no matter what.”

Haley’s coached in a lot of cold weather cities, so this is impressive in its performatively macho way.

It’s going to snow in Pittsburgh next week, so if the Steelers win tonight, Haley will have his work cut out for him in practice.

Photo via AP