Before his first N.F.L. game, New Orleans Saints tight end Benjamin Watson sat in a locker room filled with the biggest, most fearsome football players he had ever seen and had one thought:

“I want to wear every pad I can get my hands on.”

Then Watson noticed that his teammates had shed all their arm, hip, thigh and knee pads. Shoulder pads had been trimmed and streamlined. Thick neck guards were left in lockers.

“Everyone was wearing as little protection as possible,” Watson said. “Guys were even cutting out the pockets in their uniforms where the pads are meant to go so they could be more form fitting.”

It was Watson’s first N.F.L. culture lesson. Excess padding was a sign of weakness; a skimpy layer of protection shouted an air of toughness.

“There’s an intimidation factor,” Watson said recently, recalling his first game in 2004. “You want to look confident and unafraid. Today, it’s even more that way than when I was a rookie.”