Threads Report: The Fox NFL Sunday Crew

At The Players’ Tribune, we know it’s not just what you wear on the field, but what you wear off of it — or in this case, on and off the set.In the latestThreads Report, four members of theFox NFL Sundaystudio team — Michael Strahan, Terry Bradshaw, Jay Glazer and Curt Menefee — show how they express their personal styles both on and off the set, anchored by their on-set attire, designed by Michael Strahan.

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Michael Strahan

Aim for Timelessness
When I see a picture of myself in 15 years, I don’t want to say, “What the hell was I thinking?” I learned that from pictures in high school of me wearing shorts that were “basketball” short. Or when I got my first contract and started buying purple or yellow suits. Who wears that? I see pictures of me in shirts with purple, brown, yellow, blue — all these colors. It looked like somebody ate a smorgasbord, then had an accident on the shirt.

My style is sensible, classic and modern. It’s about being yourself, but doing it so that you can look back and respect yourself and the decisions you made.

Being Independent
I’m not afraid of not blending in. I mean, walking around my whole 44 years with this gap in my teeth, you gotta be pretty confident. That’s the great thing about fashion: You’re allowed to be different. You’re allowed to wear whatever the heck you want and create your own look. There are no boundaries or limits to what you can do.

Detail in Design
I love design. I love the shape and size of the lapels. I love the buttons. I love the fabrics. How it fits, and all the little details.

In a lot of ways, I think about my father. Sometimes I’ll look at something and say, “I can’t see my dad wearing that. He wouldn’t wear that.” And if I feel like I can’t put a family member in it, I’m not gonna put somebody else in it.

Watches
I’m a watch fanatic. Hublot. Audemars. Panerai. Whatever your mood is can be displayed by your watch. If you’re feeling really smooth about yourself, like James Bond, maybe you want a streamlined watch, something sexier. If you’re doing something that’s rugged, you wear a watch that’s a little stronger, that can take a beating.

I’m not a guy who’s necessarily going to have rims on a car or gold chains around my neck, but with a watch, I get these custom straps from Horus, a buddy of mine’s company. It adds a little bit of swag. A lot of people have a watch, so you can add your own personality.

Pocket Squares
I don’t wear a pocket square on set because the all other guys do. That’s the reason. Just to be different. I want to stand out a little bit. Everybody notices. The first time somebody said, “Why doesn’t he wear a pocket square,” my defiant side said, “Now I’ll never wear one!”

And if everybody else didn’t wear a pocket square, I would. Away from the set, I wear a pocket square all the time. I’m not anti-pocket square. It’s just about being different.

Athleisure
Sometimes, I’ll go to GMA, and right before, I have to work out. I won’t have time to go home in between, and even though I change into a suit, I can’t go show up there looking like a bum. They might not let me in the door. So I wear these pants that look like I could wear them to lunch or the gym. You can’t tell the difference. I play golf in pants that look like slacks, but really, they’re stretchy fiber workout-type pants.

Athleisure has come a long way. It’s like, Why didn’t somebody think of this before?

On the Guys Wearing His Clothing Line on the Show
At first, I was nervous, but not anymore. They absolutely love it, and I’m proud and honored by it.  

Glazer always says, “It’s the best suit I’ve ever had.” His look has turned into slacks with one of the dress shirts, a tie and a vest over it. He thinks it makes him look slim. (It ain’t happening!)

Terry Bradshaw

Suspenders
I started wearing suspenders on the set because battery packs are so heavy and I got tired of pulling up my pants. So I went with the suspenders, and I like them. They’re just really easy. Now I wear suspenders with all of my suits, slacks and sport-coat combinations. I clip them on at home, too. Stick them on my blue jeans and strap them over my t-shirt.

Ties
I love orange ties and blue ties. Purple, too. So many people talk about my ties. When I speak at an event, I wear bright ties with my suits, and I get tons of compliments. People ask why, and my answer’s always been, “I like happy ties.” I don’t like a subdued, low key, business, CEO look.

My wife and I, our house is a happy house with happy colors and even happy furniture. It’s bright and makes you feel good. My ties do, too.

The Ring
I wear my Louisiana Tech class ring every day. It’s gorgeous. Simple. People are a little curious when they see it, and always ask if it’s a Super Bowl ring. I’m proud of those, don’t get me wrong, but I love my university. I would see people wearing Naval Academy rings, military rings, Harvard rings, and just think, “Gosh, those are really pretty.” They’re kind of understated and don’t draw your eye.  

The Super Bowl rings of my era were a little cleaner, a little smaller. Now they’re just like, “Let’s see how gaudy we can get!” Did you see our new Hall of Fame ring? It’s huge. It’s a weapon.  

Personal Style: SlobI hate tucking my shirt in. The only time I tuck a shirt in is when I’m on this show. Even when I speak at an event, if it says “business casual,” that means no tie, and I can pull my shirt tail out.I’m a bum. I’m seriously sloppy. I wear flip flops on the ranch. (I’m very careful around the animals.) But no one has ever complained about the way I dress, and maybe it’s because I’m a celebrity. Don’t take this the wrong way, but celebrities can dress kind of dumpy and we’re seen as “creatives.”I went to a restaurant in L.A., and I had on black warmup pants. Cotton! With holes in them! Plus, tennis shoes, and a blue t-shirt with an orange-ish suede, rawhide-looking jacket over it. My wife says, “Just don’t say anything to anybody about it.”So what did I say, right off the bat?“Look, I want to apologize. I don’t have slacks on.”“Mr. Bradshaw, please. Come on in.”You get away with murder.

Jay Glazer

Tailoring
I’m built like a little white Mike Tyson. I’m 5’7”, 210. I’ve got a 33-inch waist and wear like a 48 or 50 short in a suit. So that’s beyond bizarre, and I can’t take anything off the rack. I used to be too lazy or busy to get everything hemmed and tailored. But it’s nice that I have this job that gets things tailored for me, because doing everything myself would get expensive.

I hope this thing I have going lasts a while, because if not, I’m screwed.

Vest
I was just doing t-shirt and jeans all the time, because when I tried nicer stuff, I didn’t like how I looked. Now I’ll wear a dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up, and then one of Stray’s vests. Nobody looks at me now and thinks I’m fat because the dress shirt looks boxy and I have a round face. It clarifies things. Look, if you’re going to work out as hard as I do, you might as well get credit for it.

So I’m still a t-shirt and jeans guy, but I’ve gone “vest.” Big time.

Stray is my brother, you know? So when I found out we’d be wearing his clothes, I was hoping to mess with him like crazy on it. Just destroy him. Part of me was definitely hoping this line would be complete crap, like a Kangol and fat shoelaces, just so I could kill him on it. But you know what? I friggin’ love it. I told him, “You know what, dude, I’m making this part of my style.”

And he’s laughing at me.

“You’re really making this your style?”

“As much as it pains me, I am. I love it.”

“I’m glad. I can get you a discount.”

Hublot Watch and #22KILL Ring
I’ve never really been a watch guy, but at times in life when I’ve done something huge or that I’m really proud of, I’ll buy one as a way of marking that moment. My first was a $2,000 Cartier when I got my first full-time job after like 12 years of working on my own. I went up to Truckee, California to train with Brian Urlacher, and left it there. He said, “Don’t worry about it. I’ll put it in my bag.” Which he did, but he went home his bag got boxed up because he was moving. So right now that watch is somewhere in an attic at Urlacher’s palatial farm estate.

When I launched my foundation — MVP, for Merging Vets and Players — where I take former NFL players who are struggling and match them with combat veterans who are struggling, I couldn’t have been more proud and passionate. To mark that moment, I bought a Hublot with red, white and blue in it. I almost always wear a ring on my right pointer finger, for a cause called #22KILL, for the 22 vets a day who commit suicide. It’s just something I wear to raise awareness of that.

Regrets
Back in the days when I was covering the Giants for like $9,400 a year, I used to wear a friggin’ duster and ride around on my $1,000 motorcycle like I was Mad Max. The bike was all I could afford to go back and forth to the stadium, but that was the dumbest style in the history of life. It would be January and I looked like the guy from Dumb and Dumber with frozen snot on my face.

And we had this horrible Affliction craze in the fight game. I actually signed a deal with them for a little bit, and regret that entire part of my career, no doubt. I wish Affliction and Ed Hardy would have fought themselves, and we never would have worn it. It’s terrible.

Curt Menefee

Host Style …
I live in Southern California, and I’m in a t-shirt, shorts and flip-flops every single day of my life (that I can get away with it). On set, it’s a 180. You want to have a little bit of style, a little bit of flair, but you have to be careful. If you try a tie bar that draws attention away from you, or an outrageous tie or suit, people aren’t paying attention to what you say. They’re thinking, Wow, what the hell is he wearing?

… and Host Tailoring
I’m a big guy, so the whole key is to try and accentuate the positive and lowlight the negative. I have very broad shoulders, so I make sure the fit is good there, and then the waist is made as small as possible. Then with the pants, I’ve always had bigger thighs and quads, even as a kid. So those have to be tapered properly as well, otherwise they’ll be big and comfortable on the thigh, but lower on the leg, they flap around.

Then there are the little things. How a suit fits when I’m sitting down. I’m at a desk a lot, and I move my hands a lot, too. So my suit jacket sleeves are a little bit longer than what people would wear to the office. I need that space so when I sit down and bend my elbows, the sleeve doesn’t pull halfway up my wrist.

Classic Style
I don’t do skinny ties. I don’t adjust the lapels a lot. As far as cuts go, and ties, I’m pretty standard and basic. Where I get my visual interest in mixing colors and patterns.

Color Palate
I don’t know if it’s because of his eyes, his hair, his warm heart — whatever it is — a bright, light green color is fantastic on Jimmy Johnson. It does not work for me. So everyone’s different. I don’t know if it’s the aura you carry, the smile on your face, or what, but there are just certain colors that work for certain people that don’t work for others.

Piaget and Rolex Watches
I have a Piaget watch that I wear most of the time, but I do have a classic Rolex my wife bought me that I’ll wear on air at times of special meaning to us. We met in October, so I’ll wear it during that week we met. Something that’s a sign to her, that nobody else knows. Something personal to us.

Vests Gone Wrong
I spent three years in Dallas, and the station I worked for often allowed me to wear a collared shirt and a colorful vest instead of a tie. And that vest became my “thing.” I always had these bright, flowery vests with different patterns and all kinds of weird stuff. It worked in Dallas. But when I went to New York, I remember the general manager saying, “I don’t think you should wear those.” But it was my “thing.” I liked them. I wore them for two or three weeks, and got ravaged over it.

And the colorful vests suddenly disappeared.

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A special thank you to Victoria Trilling, Head Wardrobe Stylist for Fox Sports.