Meet the 7 stylish NFL players ushering in a new wave of sports fashion

USA TODAY Sports/Ron Chenoy

The NFL has not, historically, been seen as a well from which the world draws its style cues. Players’ faces and hairstyles are obscured by helmets, leaving little room for on-field sartorial flair.

Meanwhile, NFL players are not necessarily known for their ace fashion sense when they’re out in the world just living their lives.

But as fashion becomes more and more democratized and style gets embraced by larger and larger swaths of culture, NFL players are discovering that they, too, like to look nice, and they might actually want to set a few trends while they’re at it.

At first, it was guys like Tom Brady sporting expensive clothes and looking like a dandy day trader, but as time has passed, more and more pros are making forays into fashion, exploring and experimenting and discovering that they can express their individuality not just with playing style and interviews, but through their choice of dress as well.

With the rise of Instagram, NFL players have found a visual medium that allows them to present themselves to the world every day—not just on game day.

If nothing else, these gridiron stars are by nature competitive dudes—once a few of them get into fashion, you can bet others will step their game up in the name of competition.

The players on this list are but a sampling of the new wave of NFL style. But if you had to choose a foundation for this wave, you might want to start here.

Cam Newton

Who else are you supposed to put at the top of a list of the NFL’s most stylish players?

The Carolina Panthers’ ace-in-the-hole rewrites the rules of style in the same way he rewrites the rules of football, whether it’s through affixing a fox tail to biker jeans for a post-game press conference, wearing those pants (you know which ones we’re talking about), or his weird slipper fascination.

Cam has been in this amazing zone for the past couple of years where anything he does is cool, just because it’s him who’s doing it. He was the MVP last season, so he can wear a Pharrell hat.

He’s so cool that he hangs out with Future, Jeezy, and Rick Ross, so it’s fine if he wears that camo suit. He is the new alpha and omega of dudes who play in the NFL wearing clothes. The rest of the world is struggling to keep up.

Victor Cruz

If Cam Newton is the eccentric genius of NFL style, Victor Cruz is the guy flying the flag of #readfourpinsonce—and we mean that in the most loving way possible.

The Giants wide receiver was the official ambassador of New York Fashion Week: Men’s, did a capsule collection with 3x1, is close with the designers from Public School, has modeled for Kith and Gap, and was recently found posing in front of one of artist Barbara Kruger’s works that, er, “inspired” Supreme.

On top of it all, the guy’s an insane sneakerhead: Check our peek into his closet if you don’t believe us.

Eric Decker

Eric Decker is from Minnesota, a place that (the late, great Prince notwithstanding) doesn’t exactly scream the word “style.”

Still, whether it’s dressing up in a smart suit or keeping it casual with his wife, country singer Jessie James, Decker manages to elevate the Midwestern farmboy paradigm to a certain degree of elegance and panache.

He’s been the subject of two GQphotoshoots, has been shot by the gawd George Elder, and walked in a show during February’s Fashion Week.