San Francisco 49ers’ Kyle Shanahan blasts NFL’s HAT POLICY

This is not Tom Landry’s league.

The famous fedora worn by the late Dallas Cowboys coach would no longer be welcome on NFL sidelines due to copious sponsorship deals that have relegated coaches to sportswear models on Sundays.

It’s a problem that San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan is currently facing, not because he dislikes wearing hats entirely, but because he’s not allowed to don his preferred model. Speaking with the Murph and Mac podcast, the 42-year-old explained he’s being forced to wear new hats, which he doesn’t particularly like.

‘I have such beef with them right now,’ Shanahan said, as quoted by Yahoo Sports. ‘It’s a tough issue going on. They won’t let me pick out my own [hat]. They won’t let me wear any one that’s from a [previous] year, so I can’t wear like an older one.

‘I’ve got to wear the new ones that they give this year,’ Shanahan continued. ‘Unfortunately, there’s none I like wearing.

It’s unclear how the situation will be resolved. Shanahan did reference the NFL’s annual ‘Salute to Service’ initiative, which is aimed at helping military veterans, but also allows coaches and staff to wear camouflage gear.

‘Hopefully, we can figure it out or wait until Salute to Service,’ he said. ‘It’s just deals. I don’t want to go too hard and get fined or anything but trust me, I’m upset about it.’

Shanahan previously designed a hat to wear on the sidelines, but stopped wearing it last season after a disappointing 6-10 season in 2020.

The NFL has forced coaches and staff to wear team-branded apparel since the 1993 season, so while Landy’s era wore suits, their successors looked as though they raided a Foot Locker.

New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick has certainly embraced the rules, which allow him to cut the sleeves off team-branded sweatshirts while still technically complying with the NFL’s dress code.