Let me tell you something. Fifty years ago today, Kyle Chandler, the king of Dad Cool, was born.
While Chandler spent much of his early career regularly employed on shows like Homefront and Early Edition thanks to his aw-shucks, All-American demeanor, it wasn't until he took on the role of Friday Night Lights' Coach Eric Taylor that he would perfect his particular brand of No-Wait-He's-Actually-Cool Dad.
This is not an easy thing to do. Dadliness, when invoked, is often meant to denote the opposite of cool. It is shorthand for the regression in style and effort that occurs when you're just chill with where everything is in life and you want to coast a little. Hence: dad jokes, dad bod, dad rock. There's nothing wrong with it, but you will certainly be made fun of on websites you are not likely to read.
But Kyle Chandler is actually cool, and also very dad-like. This is something that defies most known laws of physics, and is a commendable achievement in and of itself. But can it be repeated?
We think so. Just model yourself after the master. Clear eyes, full hearts—here's how.
Ride a motorcycle cross-country. Be self-conscious about it.
Kyle Chandler would ride his motorcycle from L.A. to Austin when he would go out to film Friday Night Lights—which is objectively a pretty cool thing to do. But if the trick to being cool is acting like you don't care about being cool, then the trick to being Dad Cool is graciously being embarrassed by the cool thing you do. Like Chandler does when he admits to using a powder called Monkey Butt whilst riding to help deal with his sore ass.
Deputize those hips.
The hands-on-hips stance is something of a lost art. It's mostly used to convey two things: authority and impatience—often at the same time. But with the right level of assurance, putting your hands on your hips can accomplish a lot, and when it's done with sufficient Chandler-esque charisma, people will want to listen when you tell them to do stuff like turn off their phones in a movie theater.
Don't sell out.
One thing you'll find out about Kyle Chandler while searching through YouTube for him is that he doesn't make a whole lot of press appearances. This fits in nicely for his average-guy charisma, but it's doubly interesting when you see things like this: a guest appearance at a charity crawfish boil (quite possibly the dadliest of all dad things).
Get TV-married to Connie Britton.
If we're honest, this is probably the real reason we like Kyle Chandler so much.