For NFL players, football is a game of preservation. For fans in stadiums and in front of TV sets, it's a game of presentation.
No sports league has a stronger marriage with television than the NFL, as evidenced by its new eight-year, $17.6 billion TV contract. No league has a keener interest in showcasing its athletes and sponsors at their eye-pleasing best.
That's why while the Packers and Lions are knocked down and bloodied in tonight's game, televised nationally on ESPN, they'll also be expected to keep their uniforms neat and commercially correct.
NFL players wear their socks according to league standards. They keep their jerseys tucked in. They keep do-rags from hanging out of their helmets. They display logos only of companies that are NFL licensees.
If they don't, it's costly. The NFL has a strict system of inspection and fines, from $5,000 to $100,000, to make sure uniforms are, well, uniform.
"The NFL wants to present a professional product on the field for the fans and to protect the business relationships that surround the game," said Chris Widmaier, NFL director of corporate communications.
All NFL stadiums have uniform inspectors, and Greg Boyd, a defensive lineman during 1977-84 for the Broncos and four other NFL teams, fills that spot at Mile High Stadium. He's executive director of the Colorado office of Communities in Schools, a nationwide dropout-prevention program, and his friends can get confused about his Sunday job.
"They'll say, `So you design the uniforms?' " Boyd said, laughing.
"I tell them, `No, I just make sure they wear them the way they were designed.'
"A lot of guys will say, `If I wear my socks up or down, how does that affect the way I play?' They have not yet understood this is about show business and the networks and pro lines who have paid to use NFL licensing."
This is about show business and the networks and pro lines who have paid to use NFL licensing.
Remember the uproar created by Bears quarterback Jim McMahon when during the 1986 season he wore a shoe company headband, unlicensed by the NFL? McMahon was warned not to wear the headband in the Super Bowl by then-commissioner Pete Rozelle and complied by wearing a plain headband on which he wrote "Rozelle." McMahon avoided a fine that today would be $100,000.
"The league wants everybody to look presentable because we represent them," Arizona running back Adrian Murrell said.
"On the other hand, sometimes it's a little redundant with some of the things they try to enforce: `Hey, Murrell, get those socks up!' Sometimes I get messed up and my shirt comes out and I don't have time all the time to put it back in."
High school and college players are also subject to uniform regulations set by the National Federation of State High School Associations and the NCAA. Unlike the NFL, though, game officials are the sole uniform inspectors for high school and college games -- and violators are not fined.
In the NFL, regular-season fines for sloppy uniforms start at $5,000. Fines for unlicensed logos start at $10,000 and can reach $100,000 for the Super Bowl.
"Nothing against NASCAR, but we don't want decals stuck everywhere," said Ed Reynolds, a former Patriots linebacker who is NFL assistant director of football development and oversees the inspectors.
"We don't want a guy sitting on the sidelines with `Joe's Bar and Grill' on his head.
"If the Chiefs are playing the Broncos, it's a big game, and if a guy can sneak (an unlicensed logo) just for a few seconds, it's worth a tremendous amount of money to the company he's trying to exhibit."