Michael Olise does not like shin pads.

So much so that when the France winger was being brought on for Leroy Sane during Bayern Munich’s 1-0 win over Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League in November, he was not wearing any.

This was spotted by the game’s fourth official Florin Andrei, who instructed the 23-year-old to put some on. Olise reluctantly tucked some into his socks before slinging them out again when officials looked away.

As Michael Olise prepared to come off the bench for Bayern in their Champions League game vs. PSG, he appeared to have a brief exchange with the fourth official.

Moments later, Olise was seen putting his shinpads into his socks, but then slyly removed his left guard and tossed… pic.twitter.com/ep0mqMLG79

— ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) November 28, 2024

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The International Football Association Board (IFAB) laws of the game state that shin pads must be worn by all players. There are no specific rules regarding size but Law 4 states that they “must be made of a suitable material and be of an appropriate size to provide reasonable protection, and be covered by the socks”.

For years, many footballers have been playing fast and loose with their interpretation of the rules. The low socks and micro shin pads trend made cool by the likes of Manchester City’s Jack Grealish and Chelsea’s Lauren James has become vastly popular in recent years.

“I don’t wear shin pads,” Olise told a fan who tried to gift him a pair recently, although the PSG incident may have been a one-off, with the 23-year-old usually spotted wearing shin protection in matches.

The former Crystal Palace player is not the only professional footballer who would prefer to enter games shin pad free if it was up to him.

“I don’t really like wearing shin pads — we never wear shin pads in the training,” former Sheffield United striker Oli McBurnie told The Athletic in November. “I want to feel how I train every day, so I wear normal socks. I cut my socks and roll them down, and then have little bits of foam that I put in like padding just to feel as comfortable.”

Manchester City’s Jack Grealish is an infamous tiny shin pad wearer (Robbie Jay Barratt – AMA/Getty Images)

Sam Weller Widdowson is credited with inventing shin pads back in 1874. He was a cricketer as well as a footballer for Nottingham Forest, later becoming the club’s chairman and a player once capped by England. It is said that Weller Widdowson cut down a pair of cricket pads and started wearing them to protect him during football matches, and that his idea soon caught on.

Shin guards in sport have been heavily influenced by greaves, an ancient armour fashioned by soldiers dating back to the Bronze Age that protected the shinbone, which has little but skin to protect it.

It was in 1990 when FIFA (making use of IFAB’s laws) ruled that shin guards must be worn by all players in every game. Before that, players could pick and choose whether they protected their shins and ankles. Back then, shin guards were clunky and protected both a player’s ankle as well as their shin.

Custom-made Diadora shin pads made for Roma’s Francesco Totti in 2006, which now appear thoroughly retro by modern standards (Giuseppe Cacace/Getty Images)

They have slimmed down somewhat in the past three decades. Now players can source credit card — or, if you like, biscuit-sized shin guards. This trend has become a worry for grassroots football clubs, some of whom have now sought to enforce bans on young players wearing them.

Penistone Church, a team from Barnsley in South Yorkshire, made headlines last August when they put a ban in place after a 15-year-old player named Alfie suffered a double leg break when getting into a challenge while wearing miniature shin pads.

“It’s not worth the extra bit of speed to have you knocked out of football for months and months. It’s not worth the risk,” Alfie told the BBC after a 50-50 tackle left him nursing a broken tibia and fibular. The shin pads the teen was wearing at the time of the tackle measured just 3cm (1.1in) by 9cm (3.5in).

@officialbhafc The world’s smallest shin pad… 🤣 #BHAFC #AFC #PL ♬ original sound – Brighton & Hove Albion FC

Warrington Town defender Peter Clarke is 25 games away from reaching his 1,000th senior appearance since his Everton debut in the Premier League in January 2001. At 42 years of age, he says he can remember the cumbersome and bulky shin pads of the late 80s, 90s and early 2000s, with their built-in ankle protectors and velcro straps. And while he wears smaller guards than the ones he started his career with, plenty of on-pitch experiences have ensured that he has never downsized too much.

“The ones I wear now are carbon fibre and they have chips and scratches in which, when I look at them, I’m glad to be wearing them,” the centre-back, who also played for Huddersfield Town, Oldham Athletic and Tranmere Rovers, says.

“Twenty years ago, tackles would fly in a lot more. I remember going into a full-blown tackle and getting hit on the shin. As the game wore on, I realised there was blood on my sock — the studs had gone right through the shin pad and left a two-inch cut down my shin. It is a contact sport and it is wise to be well protected rather than wearing the smallest shin pads possible.”

Shin pads are designed to protect players’ legs during moments of impact (VI Images via Getty Images)

His longevity means Clarke is playing in the National League North alongside team-mates at Warrington who were born after he made his first professional appearance. What does he think is the reason that more players are opting for tiny shin pads these days?

“I don’t like the feel of them slipping around, so I wear sleeves to prevent that,” Clarke says. “Whether it is that or whether it is how an individual looks when they are playing; but I’m not sure a seven-inch piece of plastic or carbon fibre is going to slow an individual down that much. I’m not entirely sure but things have certainly changed and it is not for the best in terms of player safety.”

Clarke estimates he has used five or six pairs of shin pads throughout a career that has spanned more than 25 years and saw him defend against Thierry Henry (then of Arsenal) and Cristiano Ronaldo (then of Manchester United). He makes sure his daughter and son wear adequately-sized shin pads for their own protection when playing and encourages others to do the same.

While he has opted for plainer efforts, his children have customised guards with pictures of themselves and their family on. That is something a lot of players at all levels are opting for now, with some elite players even having pictures of just themselves on their own shin pads.

Cristiano Ronaldo wore shin pads at Euro 2024 featuring images of his nearest and dearest (Marcus Brandt/picture alliance via Getty Images)

Manchester City and Brazil goalkeeper Ederson, and Crystal Palace and France striker Jean-Philippe Mateta are among those who do take to the pitch with images of their own faces tucked inside their socks.

For every Luka Modric, who wears one with photos of himself playing for Croatia and winning the Champions League with Real Madrid and the other of his wife and children, which he often kisses before stepping onto the pitch, there’s a Declan Rice who prefers to keep things simple with plain shock-absorbing material guards.

Luka Modric gives his shin pad a kiss for luck (David S. Bustamante/Soccrates/Getty Images)

England and Arsenal striker Alessia Russo has a selfie with her parents printed at the bottom of hers and above is an image of her iconic backheel nutmeg goal against Sweden at the European Championship in 2022, which was nominated for the Puskas award that same year.

Arsenal and England striker Alessia Russo’s shin pads (Molly Darlington – UEFA/UEFA via Getty Images)

For players, shin pads can serve not just as protection but as positive homages to help psych themselves up before a game. 

Former Real Madrid striker Joselu wore a picture of a dog on his shin guards for a Champions League quarter-final last season (Gonzalo Arroyo – UEFA/UEFA via Getty Images)

Some footballers opt to have their shin guards specially fitted. When former Wales international Gareth Bale was at Real Madrid, he wore a pair made by Podoactiva, a Biotechnology company that specialises in podiatry and biomechanics. It also designs custom-fitted insoles for players’ boots.

Ultimately, shin pads are there to protect players from serious injury but have also become a fashion statement — and, believe it or not, some shin pads are now supporting some players in sourcing moves in the transfer window.

Italy and Lazio striker Martina Piemonte moved from AC Milan to Everton in 2023 and put the transfer to the Women’s Super League in part down to the data her XSEED shin guards, created by Italian analytics company Soccerment, helped her collect during matches.

Aldo Comi is co-founder and CEO of the wearable technology company who have been fine-tuning their artificially intelligent shin guards since the product’s official launch in 2022. They now have approximately 3,000 players wearing XSEED and using the adjacent app, which allows players to interpret their own data. As brand ambassador, Inter Milan full-back Federico Dimarco is one of the more high-profile male footballers wearing the shin guards.

“We try to give the player ownership of their data so that they can use it to improve, to be faster and better, but then also to gain visibility,” Comi says. Soccerment’s shin pads measure a player’s speed, sprints, shots, crosses, passes and more. They also became the first wearable technology to provide expected goals (xG) metrics.

Soccerment’s ‘connected’ shin pads on display at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas in 2020 (Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images)

Soccerment recently spent six days in California at the Major League Soccer youth tournament MLS NEXT Fest. “For six days, we datafied the 35 matches and more than 220 players,” Comi explains. “And basically, what we did there was create a scouting platform at the event.”

Comi says they were able to create a data breakdown in order to scout players (one of their goals is to create a worldwide scouting platform from this data) who outperformed their peers in various areas. The company has noticed the recent trend in shrinking shin guards, though, particularly among youth players — and are already reacting to it.

“The past two years, the trend has been having smaller and smaller shin guards. In some cases, players don’t even wear them,” he says. “You can see a lot of professional footballers are faking it by using these little sponges underneath their socks which, in my view, is dangerous. What we need to do (at Soccerment) is respond to this trend, which is why we are working on resizing our shin guards and making them smaller and lighter.”

Former Blackpool inside forward Allan Brown, pictured in 1953, shows shin pads as they once were (Allsport UK/Getty Images)

But Soccerment is first off focused on creating shin guards that — before capturing data and protecting the technology within each pad — protect the player.

“We wanted to have them certified as a protective equipment and that is why we had to select the premium materials. For example, we went for a copolymer, which is also used in the aerospace sector for its ability to absorb shocks. It’s been expensive for us but it makes the shin guards really protective.

“And that should be the main purpose of a shin guard: to protect your shins.”

(Top photo: Pau Barrena/Getty Images; design: Dan Goldfarb)

LeBron James made a young Lakers fan’s night Wednesday at Crypto.com Arena. And then for good measure, he did it again.

During the first quarter of the Lakers’ game against the Miami Heat, James noticed a girl sitting courtside and wearing a replica of his jersey. So he gave her a wave, then turned his attention back to the game.

James didn’t notice the girl’s priceless reaction at the time, but the camera operators at Spectrum SportsNet did. The station’s clip of the youngster crying tears of joy while smiling from ear to ear after being acknowledged by the NBA’s all-time leading scorer quickly went viral — so much so that James actually saw it during the intermission.

“Family friends sent me the clip at halftime,” James told reporters after the game. “Thank goodness that I actually looked at my phone at halftime or I wouldn’t have even seen the reaction when I waved to her in the first half. …

“To have that type of connection with someone, where they can have that type of reaction, I think that’s what it’s all about, you know? I’ve always tried to be a role model and someone that kids can look up to.”

He added: “That was a super-dope moment.”

James had an even doper moment in store for the kid after the game.

The Lakers trailed by 12 at halftime but mounted a furious comeback in the second half. After James hit a three-pointer to pull the Lakers to within one at the 6:40 mark of the third quarter, the girl was on her feet cheering and then yelled, “Yeah, LeBron!”

After the Lakers’ 117-108 win, James made it a point to find the girl, give her one of his foundation’s I Promise wristbands and pose for a photo in what was clearly another memorable moment for the fan.

“I think it’ll be something that hopefully she will never forget,” said James, who finished the game with 22 points, four rebounds and nine assists. “I’m happy to be a part of her life now and that small little moment was such a bigger moment. And hopefully she brags about it in school.”

CLEVELAND — To grasp how the Cleveland Browns spiraled into one of the worst teams in the NFL, it’s important to first return to the end of last season.

The Browns dismantled their offense this year and rebuilt an inferior version in an attempt to appease Deshaun Watson. All of the changes failed miserably. The Browns bottomed out as one of the worst teams in the league and plummeted to a 3-14 finish. They hold the second pick in the 2025 NFL Draft.

For three years, the Browns contorted themselves to match Watson’s strengths and desires. But teammates ultimately grew tired of the organization catering to an ineffective quarterback, and he never really fit in Cleveland. He received at least one death threat.

Now as a second Achilles tear leaves Watson’s career in danger, the Browns can begin the painful process of officially moving on from the worst trade and biggest mistake in franchise history.

How did it get to this? And how did it end so badly? Look to last year.

After Watson’s 2023 season ended prematurely with a broken bone in his shoulder, Joe Flacco joined the Browns in December and resurrected his career by throwing for 300 yards in four consecutive games — something Watson failed to do once in 19 starts with the Browns. It was an embarrassing exposure of the franchise quarterback. The problem was never the scheme.

Flacco’s performance during an 11-6 finish and improbable run to the playoffs earned him the NFL’s Comeback Player of the Year and merited another contract to remain in Cleveland as Watson’s backup.

“You have to bring Joe back; somebody has to teach Deshaun the offense,” one member of the organization said as the season neared its conclusion. “Joe picked it up faster in 30 days than Deshaun has in two years.”

It was a stinging indictment of a quarterback the Browns invested three first-round picks and guaranteed $230 million to obtain.

#DawgPound QB Deshaun Watson’s set back in his Achilles rehab has been explained — he suffered another tear and could miss the entire 2025 #NFL season putting Cleveland in position to now select a QB 2nd overall in the upcoming #NFLDraft: pic.twitter.com/mQJgFJz6Tv

— Rich Eisen Show (@RichEisenShow) January 10, 2025

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Coach Kevin Stefanski had shown Watson film clips of his offense during their first meeting in March 2022, demonstrating how Watson could thrive in this wide zone, play-action scheme crafted by Gary Kubiak and Mike Shanahan. But after he arrived in Cleveland, Watson never embraced Stefanski’s system. He wanted to be in shotgun, and Stefanski wanted him under center to make the play-action component more effective.

The Browns tried giving Watson what he wanted. They fired offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt after the 2023 season and brought in Ken Dorsey, who had more experience with mobile quarterbacks like Josh Allen and Cam Newton. Two weeks after Van Pelt was fired, Bill Callahan departed as offensive line coach to join his son Brian’s staff in Tennessee.

I’ve spoken to players who believe Callahan would have stayed had Van Pelt remained on staff — when Brian first started receiving head-coaching interviews in 2023, Bill made clear he was staying in Cleveland — but all of that seemed to change when Van Pelt was fired. Andy Dickerson was hired to replace Callahan. The changes were a disaster.

Dorsey was supposed to deliver the type of offense Watson wanted — one with more choice routes between the quarterback and receivers, more shotgun formations and more freedom. None of it worked, partly because Watson never looked like the same quarterback he was in Houston.

The Browns failed to score 20 points in any Watson start this season. They averaged 4 yards per play with him, the lowest mark in the league for any quarterback who made at least five starts, according to TruMedia. It was the third-lowest output by any Browns quarterback who made at least five starts in a season since the team returned to the league in 1999. Only Charlie Frye and Doug Pederson had worse production.

The line under Dickerson struggled with injuries and protections. Watson was sacked 33 times in his seven starts, although he did little to help himself. He consistently missed getting proper depth in the pocket — when he was supposed to drop 8 yards, he was only getting 6, according to two players with knowledge of the Browns’ offensive schemes. Watson continually ran into his linemen on sacks because he was standing in places they didn’t expect him to be.

Deshaun Watson takes another sack, this one to lose the game on a clutch 4th down pic.twitter.com/q8FsHbyVkk

— Streameast News Network (@StreameastNews) September 29, 2024

What isn’t clear is how much Watson’s struggles can be attributed to the shoulder injury he suffered in 2023. A displaced fracture to the glenoid bone ended his season after six games. It was a common injury among baseball pitchers, but much rarer in quarterbacks, leaving the team with no way of knowing when or whether a full recovery was possible.

At the start of a late August practice, all four Browns quarterbacks went through a standard footwork and accuracy drill that generally ends with each quarterback hearing a color on command from an assistant coach and firing passes toward a net with various colors marked above the targets. But with the early portion of practice open to reporters and cameras, it was odd to see Watson throwing passes to an equipment staffer nearby while the other three quarterbacks tried to hit the net targets.

One rival executive who spoke with Browns officials before the start of the season was concerned about what lay ahead for them.

“Not an ounce of positivity about the offense,” the executive said. “The vibes aren’t exactly high.”

Watson routinely missed open receivers. Passes in the opener against the Dallas Cowboys sailed 5 yards out of bounds. In a September loss to the New York Giants, the Browns ran a slant/out combo route on a run-pass option on a key fourth down late in the game. Tight end Jordan Akins was open in the flat, but Watson didn’t see him and was stopped short of the first down on a keeper. At his weekly media availability three days later, Watson said Akins was “a decoy” on that play and not an intended receiver.

“We all saw the same things,” one player said. “We all watch the film. Guys are open.”

According to multiple players, those mistakes weren’t pointed out in film sessions, frustrating at least a few veterans who believed Stefanski wouldn’t criticize Watson in front of the team. When Jameis Winston replaced Watson after he tore his Achilles in October, players said Stefanski returned to pointing out the quarterback’s mistakes in film sessions.

Off the field, Watson spent the year dealing with traumatic personal matters. His agent, David Mulugheta, received a disturbing email in June from someone threatening to shoot Watson or burn down his house, according to a police report obtained by The Athletic. Police later closed the investigation with no suspects identified.

In the week leading up to the season opener, Watson’s father and a college teammate died within a span of a few days.

“There are other things that are bigger than this,” Watson said. “It’s been a long week … it wasn’t even really about football.”

Watson faced a new civil lawsuit during the season alleging he sexually assaulted a woman in 2020. The suit was quickly settled, and the league closed a brief investigation citing insufficient evidence. That’s how it has gone for Watson in Cleveland. He has settled more than 20 lawsuits alleging sexual misconduct since he arrived from Houston. He served an 11-game suspension and paid a $5 million fine for violating the NFL’s personal conduct policy.

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If this is the end of his Browns career, his three-year tenure in Cleveland will conclude with a 61 percent completion rate, 3,365 passing yards, 19 touchdowns, 12 interceptions and more settled lawsuits than games played. Watson’s EPA (expected points added) per dropback with the Browns was -0.19, according to TruMedia, which ranks 197th out of 201 NFL quarterbacks since 2000 (minimum 15 starts). The only quarterbacks who were worse: Zach Wilson (2021-24 New York Jets), John Skelton (2010-12 Arizona Cardinals), Blaine Gabbert (2011-13 Jacksonville Jaguars) and JaMarcus Russell (2007-09 Raiders). Watson is the only name on that list who wasn’t on a rookie deal.

Players told me there was a constant heaviness surrounding Watson in the locker room and that they felt a different energy in the building upon his departure after his Achilles injury in October. A couple of veterans told me it felt like a cloud had been lifted.

Dorsey and Dickerson were fired the day after the season ended. Former tight ends coach Tommy Rees, promoted to offensive coordinator Tuesday, will likely be tasked with helping Stefanski return to the wide zone, play-action scheme again in 2025. The Browns enter draft season perfectly positioned to select a new quarterback if they choose.

GO DEEPER

Browns promote TE coach Tommy Rees to offensive coordinator: Source

Earlier this month, Bailey Zappe became the 40th quarterback to start a game for the Browns since they returned to the NFL in 1999, a shocking number for a team that has never enjoyed stability at the most important position. Watson was supposed to change all of that. Instead, those within the Browns had privately made clear they were moving on from him even before he reinjured his Achilles. Watson tore it for a second time when he rolled his ankle while in Miami, according to the team, and had a second surgery to repair it last week.

Because Cleveland still owes him in excess of $170 million against its cap sheet, the Browns were expected to carry him on the 2025 roster before the reinjury. At the very least, the second Achilles tear means they could place him on injured reserve so he isn’t consuming a spot on the 53-man roster. In addition, Cleveland can get insurance relief against his salary and a portion of the cap hit on the $92 million still owed to him.

The image of Watson being carted off the field with a towel draped over his head while a smattering of Browns fans cheered is a painful reminder of how messy the Watson era has been. Three years after handing out the richest guaranteed contract in NFL history, the Browns are back in the quarterback market.

— The Athletic’s Zac Jackson and Katie Strang contributed to this report.

(Photo: Nick Cammett / Getty Images)