For Keyshawn Johnson, memory lane is a fashion runway. At least that’s what it transforms into every NFL draft season, as players, fans and reporters alike strut up to the receiver turned ESPN analyst and sashay him back down the catwalk of a sartorial choice that he still can’t shake. “People you run into, they’re always like, ‘Ah, man, I remember when you had that suit on!’” Johnson says. “I guess I was the first guy to really dress up or something.”
The year was 1996, long before Dante Fowler Jr. donned a pair of spiked golden loafers that could’ve been cobbled out of a medieval morning star, before Ezekiel Elliott bared his belly button in a crop-top tuxedo. Unlike today’s era of sleek, custom-tailored fits, the boldest statements on draft days then were either hilariously plain—see: Drew Bledsoe in jeans and a button-down—or plainly hilarious, as in Emmitt Smith's mock turtleneck/yellow polka-dotted vest ensemble that one Cowboys executive later characterized as that of “a confused bumblebee.”
Then along came Johnson at Madison Square Garden, first overall to the hometown Jets out of USC, shaking the hand of professorial commissioner Paul Tagliabue while sporting brown alligator shoes; a brown alligator belt; and a brown pinstriped cream suit featuring a knee-length, double-breasted jacket adorned with gold lion’s head buttons. “People act like mine was so far out of the box,” Johnson says. “I don’t understand why. I guess it was just fresh.”
