NFL might take closer look at gloves currently being used
Odell Beckham Jr.'s mindboggling one-handed catch last year propelled him into the national spotlight. But that play also might have put the gloves he and a majority of other NFL receivers wear into question.
Atlanta Falcons president and competition committee chairman Rich McKay told the Los Angeles Times that the league might want to take a closer look at the gloves.
"I think it's time to go back and look at the gloves and see if, with what's going on here with sports science in the past 10 years, if there isn't too much of an advantage being gained," McKay said.
Hall of Fame wideout Tim Brown said Beckham's play would never happened without the gloves currently used in the game.
"You have to be careful about the way you analyze that play because you don't want people calling you a hater or whatever," Tim Brown told the Times. "But you can't make that play without those kind of gloves. It's just impossible.
"The guy's a freak of nature, no doubt about it, I'll give you that. He has the big hands and all that. But those gloves are so 'tackified' these days that that's part of the reason you see guys making those kinds of catches."
Despite all the fuss regarding ball pressure and Deflategate, there are very little regulations regarding the gloves. Stickum, a sticky substance that could be sprayed on gloves, was ruled illegal in 1981, but little attention has been placed on the gloves since.
"No one looks at those gloves," John Madden told the Times. "I saw them when I was at a meeting in Indy. They passed them around and somebody made the comment that, 'Pretty soon, these gloves are going to be able to catch a ball without a hand in them.'"
It's become so popular that even quarterbacks like Peyton Manning and Tom Brady have used them in games, further calling the gloves into question.
"You know something's up when guys like Tom Brady and Kurt Warner and Peyton Manning are wearing gloves to throw a football," former NFL quarterback Rich Gannon told the Times. "You're starting to go, 'Wait a second here...' Guys for years dreaded bad weather, cold weather, and they didn't want to have anything that would take their hands off the football. Now guys are like, 'These gloves are better than the human skin.'"
