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Saints rookie Porter Gustin is hard to miss on the practice field.

Every day of on-field work since training camp began a little more than two weeks ago, Gustin stands out with his No. 58 jersey pulled up, leaving his midriff exposed.

But most of all, there’s the athletic shorts, which Gustin either tucks in or rolls up high, a sight that brings back memories of OP corduroy shorts or the NBA shorts of the 1980s.

“We refer to those as the Larry Bird shorts,” linebackers coach Mike Nolan said with a chuckle. “Some guys are bringing it back.”



When asked about how Gustin wore his shorts, coach Sean Payton said the players all have their individual fashion.

But then Payton could barely contain a grin before jokingly putting the blame on head equipment manager John Baumgartner.

“At first I got mad at Bum,” Payton said. “But he said those were the requested sizes.”

There’s more to Gustin than just his fashion sense on the football field, of course.

The 6-foot-5, 260-pound Gustin joined the Saints in late April as an undrafted free agent out of USC, where he played outside linebacker and totaled 21.5 sacks.

Those days are over now, as Gustin has made the switch from outside linebacker to defensive end and he’s quickly becoming comfortable with the new position.

“I think defensive end has a lot of similarities to what I did in college,” Gustin said. “The outside backer is the SAM (strong side) backer here, so there are a lot of similar things. A couple of adjustments with putting my hand on the ground and a couple of other things, but I think it’s been a good transition.”

As to why he prefers to practice with his shorts up high, there’s an easy explanation going back to his high school playing days.

“I’d get really sweaty in practice and my shorts would be soaked, dripping and flapping around on my knees,” Gustin said. “I just got tired of it and I didn’t really like it, so I started tucking them up and it went from there. I did it in college, I do it now and it’s just hard to go back once you start doing it like that.”

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Beastmode

He's not doing it to be cool or as Payton said a "fashion" thing. It's because of the sweat and flapping around of the material which makes sense to me.

The USMC wears these kind of shorts. When I went from the USMC to the Army Guard they had longer, baggy shorts which I could not stand for the same reason. Uncomfortable, hot and retains sweat.

Not sure who thought it was a good idea to have longer, baggy shorts but it seems to have started with the NBA and then just accepted. From a functional standpoint shorter is better, especially in La. Outside of exercise I like wearing shorter cargo shorts but they are difficult to find. I've only found one company that makes a good pair. Rest of them almost to my knees which is uncomfortable IMO.

foreverfan

Smashmouth and Bobby Hebert love those shorts.

Beastmode

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So which one looks more ridiculous.

Rugby Saint II

Cool shorts.(literally) It makes me think of Magnum PI. By the way rugby shorts have about a 4 inch seam, which is very short but cool.

K Major

I could care less what Porter wears on the practice field.

Can he stay healthy ? Can he make the Saints team better? Can he improve the pass rush?

jeanpierre

Feel ya, Brother. Am worried about our pass rush as well...

The Dude

Shorts and high rise striped socks making a comeback. So are Mom Jeans

foreverfan

My wife just bought some mom jeans... She looks a lot better than me in Magic Johnson shorts.

Cruize

He made one good play working off the block and making a tackle. Other than that, he looked like an UDFA that will do well to make the practice squad.