Fabrizio del Wrongo writes:
I still haven’t become totally accustomed to crass advertising. I suppose I should like it, but mostly I feel unsettled by it. The last thing I want to be thinking about while watching The History Channel is some burly guy’s balls and the way they’re accomodated by the gusset of his jeans. (“Gusset” is an evocative word, isn’t it? I think it’s great. But should it really be used in reference to manly jeans? I associate it with porny writing, and almost always in reference to women’s panties.)
Plus, I’m not much of a fan of baggy jeans. I likes ’em to actually fit, ball comfort be damned. But maybe I’m the weird one, and maybe wearing form-fitting jeans is, like, gay or something. Keep in mind that all those tough ancient Romans wore skirts and togas and shit like that. Maybe it was so their balls would stay comfortable. Maybe ball comfort has been a secret driver of culture throughout history and Jared Diamond will write a book on it someday.
Then again, there’s this. But then Connery can make anything seem manly.
Blowhard, Esq.
Callowman
Sherbrooke
Eddie Pensier
Enzo Nakamura
Epaminondas
Fabrizio del Wrongo
Fenster
Brundle Guy
Glynn Marshes
Paleo Retiree
Atypical Neurotic
Question Lady
Sax von Stroheim
Sir Barken Hyena
The Mistaken
Uncouth Reflections 
Sean Connery in Zardoz — that has always been my favorite costume and always will be. Any guy who can wear it is so effin’ manly he doesn’t need game.
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I’ve thought about trying it for Halloween, but I’m not sure I could live up to Connery’s example.
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Lyndon Johnson on balls and pants http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zNMo8kl7Ac
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Perfect. Can’t believe I didn’t think of that while writing this.
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I don’t go for the current baggy-saggy look, but I gotta confess that one of the great discoveries of my life was baggy pants. This was back in the late ’60s, when the style for guys was pants so tight strangers could tell if you were Jewish or not, as the joke went. What a relief to don pants that didn’t make me feel all bound up.
A few years later I fell in love with the djellabas that some women and men in Morocco wear.
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Talk about the bliss of hangin’ free. I’d go around in a djellaba if it wouldn’t make me seem weird.
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Trousers–or breeches, more accurately–first appeared in the ancient world on barbaric horse-riding tribes outside of the Roman empire (as did beards, FWIW) and the Romans very much disliked the garment from the get-go, but no word on any extant references to ball discomfort being the main reason for their disdain. As you mentioned, Roman males preferred the toga, which was in fact a right and privilege only bestowed upon free citizens of the Empire. Ball comfort was, it is assumed, also a right and privilege. Unfortunately, breeches won out in the end because they proved to be warmer than undivided lower garments.
And Paleo Retiree, I love that you’re into the djellaba, and I am in full favor of you rocking it. Another option, and perhaps a perfect melding of pant and skirt for a man, is the Indian “dhoti.” https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ds=i&pq=djellaba&cp=4&gs_id=13&xhr=t&q=dhoti&um=1&safe=off&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.&bpcl=35466521&biw=1018&bih=508&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=zqyIUJm9FM-t0AH5yoHIDw
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Fascinating!
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