And you do realize that we are talkin' about football...and that cups are seldom if ever worn in football anymore. Baseball yes...football no.
I have followed this thread with great interest.
As regards jocks and cups in football, boys in Pop Warner Football may be required to wear a cup, but players in the NFL seldom wear cups because they say that a cup chafes their thighs and interferes with their mobility on the gridiron. For a sport like baseball, yes, athletic cups are required from Little League Baseball to the MLB in the
Rules of Baseball under "Players Equipment" and many MLB teams require them.
A lot of NFL players just wear compression shorts these days. Compression shorts tend to show a guy's junk as seen in the pics posted in earlier posts in this thread. The pouch of an ordinary jockstrap just keeps a guy's "cock and balls in line."
However, Texas Longhorn players, such as
Colt McCoy, did wear a jockstrap a few years back.
Here are some pics of McCoy showing him wearing a jock (This is the first time I have attached JPEG files in a post on LPSG. Hope they show!)
Concerning general non-use of jocks and cups in sports, see:
Where Have All the Jockstraps Gone? By Daniel Akst.
Jockstraps are they a thing of the past? from an Men's Health forum.
Enjoy!