Mike Nolan scores one for the suit Mike Nolan is dressed to impress on the sidelines this season, and the 49ers coach may reignite a trend

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When Mike Nolan, head coach of the San Francisco 49ers, takes the field Monday in the season opener against the Arizona Cardinals on "Monday Night Football," he will have already won an important victory - the right to wear a suit on the sidelines.

While most men look for excuses to dress casually, Nolan has fought long and hard for the right to dress up, sparking a controversy that has made him a coach who stands for old-school values, a symbol of a new direction for a struggling team and a suited hero among football fans and fashionistas. Nolan came in at No. 11 on Esquire's Best Dressed list for 2007.

The sartorial struggle began in 2005, when Nolan was hired as the head coach of the ailing 49ers and said he would like to wear a coat and tie on the sidelines as a tribute to his father, Dick Nolan, another suited hero, who was head coach of the 49ers from 1968 to 1975, and had just been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.

After 18 years as an assistant coach for other NFL teams, Mike Nolan not only relished the opportunity to lead the 49ers in the top coaching spot but also wanted do it with style.

Retro style, to be exact.

49ers10_0090_KW_.jpg The San Francisco 49er's head coach Mike Nolan runs down the field in the 4th quarter of the game against the Green Bay Packers at Monster Park in San Francisco on Sunday December 10, 2006. Kat Wade/The Chronicle Mandatory Credit for San Francisco Chronicle and photographer, Kat Wade, No Sales Mags out less 49ers10_0090_KW_.jpg The San Francisco 49er's head coach Mike Nolan runs down the field in the 4th quarter of the game against the Green Bay Packers at Monster Park in San Francisco on Sunday December 10, ... more Photo: Kat Wade Photo: Kat Wade Image 1 of / 4 Caption Close Mike Nolan scores one for the suit 1 / 4 Back to Gallery

Nolan said the suit would be a tribute not only to his father but also to all the other great coaches of his father's era who had worn suits, such as Vince Lombardi, Tom Landry and Weeb Eubank.

That's when he ran into a corporate wall - or, rather, two corporate walls: the NFL and Reebok. The NFL has a reported $250 million licensing agreement until 2012 mandating that coaches as well as players wear Reebok sportswear exclusively during games.

Still, Nolan persisted with his petition to dress for success. After many league committee meetings and corporate negotiations with Reebok, a compromise was reached last year when Nolan was allowed to wear a suit, but only for two home games.

There was another stipulation. Reebok would make the suit. Reebok is in the sportswear business, so it was no surprise that its first foray into formal menswear was somewhat comical. The black suit it cobbled together did not exactly have Giorgio Armani worried - nor even the menswear designers at Sears or J.C. Penney.

Football fans might not be the most fashion-forward people in town, but even they realized that the suit was more befitting a toll-booth operator than a man of Nolan's stature and dignity.

And it angered them.

So they protested. The sports blogs started buzzing, e-mails were fired off to the NFL and Reebok, and a grassroots support group culminated in some Niners fans wearing suits to home games last year to show allegiance to Nolan's cause.

This year, the corporate behemoths seemed to take note, if ever so lethargically, that the tide of publicity was clearly against them, for they further loosened their sartorial stranglehold on Nolan by granting him permission to wear the suit for all of the 49ers' eight home games. But for away games he would still have to wear league-approved windbreakers, hoodies and other sports gear.

They hired a real menswear designer, Joseph Abboud Apparel, which furnished Nolan with not only a suit but also an entire sideline wardrobe that includes blazers, pleated pants with cuffs, and dark suits in worsted wool and silk blends. Of course they couldn't stop there. His jackets and blazers will be lined with the team's colors, and the ties will have tiny logos embroidered into the pattern.

But Nolan, who is supported by the 49ers franchise as well as sports fans, would like to wear a suit at every game.

"I keep trying to push it all the time," he said. "I find that all the players, all the coaches would like to see it. I've never heard anybody say anything different. But at the same time, Reebok makes the call on that."

So the suited fans are likely to be out in force for "Monday Night Football," in full view of the estimated audience of more than 12 million viewers.

Never before has a single suit sparked such controversy in the world of sports. Dan Reeves was the last NFL coach to favor the formal sideline look, but the Atlanta Falcons hired him in 1997, and he quietly succumbed to NFL rules and slipped into league-approved apparel.

The sideline suit has never been seen again, except for Nolan's brief fashion statements, and the game attire worn by NFL coaches has gone steadily downhill ever since.

The most egregious offender is Bill Belichick, head coach of the New England Patriots, whose signature ratty hoodie with the sleeves cut off has been described as "the panhandler look" or "homeless chic." There is nothing chic, of course, about looking homeless, but that's not the problem. The problem is that Reebok has no problem with Belichick's wardrobe.

Nolan's continuing fight to dress like an adult in a position of authority is a testament to the suit's enduring symbolic power. Nothing says "I mean business" like a suit. There is no civilian garment that commands more authority.

"I did it primarily because of my dad," Nolan has said many times. "But also out of respect for the league and the organization and guys who have done it in the past. Had he not worn a suit, I might have had a different outlook on it."

But what Nolan hasn't said but is clearly implied in his actions is that suited coaches represent a bygone era of the NFL, when the league didn't have the serious image problem that it has today.

Adam "Pacman" Jones, cornerback for the Tennessee Titans, has been suspended for the entire 2007 season because of his involvement in a Las Vegas strip-club brawl that resulted in a triple shooting. Michael Vick entered a guilty plea on federal dogfighting charges on Aug. 27. That same week Lance Briggs, a linebacker for the Chicago Bears, was charged with a misdemeanor and two traffic citations when police found his Lamborghini wrapped around a telephone pole.

The Philadelphia Eagles seem to hold the record for more player arrests than any other NFL team - more than two dozen last year.

Add to that the growing number of player DUIs, bar brawls, wife beatings and drug charges, and you'll see why the NFL has recently earned the sad moniker, the National Felons League.

Nolan's attempt to resurrect the suit as a symbol of old-school rectitude and team unity, virtues that seem to be lost on some of today's NFL players, might seem quaint, but it's a trend that is gaining traction.

Jack Del Rio, coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars, has also received permission from NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to wear a suit to all eight of his team's regular-season home games. And 49ers assistant head coach Mike Singletary expressed a wish to wear a suit when he becomes head coach.

Yet the NFL and Reebok continue to stand in their way. The irony, of course, is that coaches like Nolan are being thwarted by the very people who would benefit most from an image makeover that can only help a sport that is being increasingly regarded as rife with thugs rather than role models.

The NFL and Reebok have every legal right to enforce a dress code that is clearly stated in the contract all coaches sign. But they are spectacularly missing the bigger picture.

Since Nolan began his battle with the NFL fashion police almost three years ago, his father's health has deteriorated to the point where he sometimes does not recognize his son. Dick Nolan is also suffering from prostate cancer that has spread.

Yet the league still won't let Mike Nolan wear a suit as a tribute to his father at every game. By cracking down on good guys like Mike Nolan they ultimately look like villains, and that can't be good for a business that thrives on a positive image.

This is an example of how you can be right and really be wrong.

One would think that in a high-visibility situation like this, especially one in San Francisco, where they're looking for things to protest, some VP, accountant, publicist or attorney at a huge multinational company like Reebok would have foreseen the public relations problems that have erupted from the company's position to adhere to the bottom line rather than to respond magnanimously to an issue that transcends short-term profits and corporate policy.

One would have also thought that after the initial howl of protest from fans Reebok would have relished the opportunity to rush through the dress-code exception for Nolan to become part of the tribute instead of behaving in a manner that perpetuates ill feelings toward big business.

Nevertheless, Nolan might do what fashion designers have been trying to do for decades - resurrect the suit as a statement of authority and style.

If Nolan does succeed, he will have accomplished this not only without the help of one of the largest apparel companies in the world but also in spite of it.