SUPER BOWL XLVI: Catch these 'sticky' gloves
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If the Super Bowl comes down to a key catch by New York Giants wide receiver Victor Cruz or New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski, they will have more than merely their hands to thank.
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If the Super Bowl comes down to a key catch by Rob Gronkowski of the New England Patriots or Victor Cruz of the New York Giants, they'll have more than merely their hands to thank.
Those two players, like plenty of NFL tight ends and wide receivers, wear "sticky" gloves made with a rubbery material on the palms to help hold onto a football. Consider these mitts the 2000's' answer to the 1970's' Stickum, the gooey substance famously used by Oakland Raiders defensive back Lester Hayes and receiver Fred Biletnikoff, among others, before it was banned three decades ago.
"I wear gloves -- rain, sleet, hail, snow, outdoor, indoors. I got to have some gloves," Cruz said. "I feel naked without gloves."
Why?
"You grip the ball better, no question," Cruz's teammate Hakeem Nicks said. "You don't even [need to] think about catching it."
Take a close look during the NFL championship game in Indianapolis Sunday; most of the players who'll be on the field will have their hands enhanced. What the league refers to as "gloves with tactified surfaces" -- with a synthetic material in the palm instead of old-school leather -- entered the football world more than 15 years ago. But equipment makers have developed increasingly helpful models over time, and the popularity has increased.
"I definitely think it's a huge advantage for receivers," said Kurt Warner, a quarterback in three Super Bowls who appears on the NFL Network. "You see all these one-handed catches, and guys snagging balls, and you say, 'Whoa, that's almost impossible.' It slows the spin on the ball."
And it's not just the guys paid to catch passes; defensive backs, linebackers, linemen use them, too -- even Patriots punter Zoltan Mesko, who wears a glove on his right hand when he's holding for extra points or field-goal attempts by kicker Stephen Gostkowski.
"It's more grippier. It gets the ball down quicker," Mesko said.
Greg Jennings, a Pro Bowl receiver for the Green Bay Packers, said the main benefit he gets from the gloves is to protect his hands from the "sting" from a football's laces.
"Oh, I can catch. Every receiver needs to be able to catch barehanded," Jennings said. "The gloves don't catch the ball for you. It's the hands."
That's certainly true, of course.
Still, others do acknowledge some assistance from the gloves.
"They make your job a little easier," New York Jets tight end Dustin Keller said. "We all could catch the ball without gloves, but with the grip on the gloves and with them somewhat serving as a layer of protection, I think wearing gloves is a no-brainer."
Other players praised the equipment for keeping hands safe from injury in case they get stepped on or while blocking.
Still, these aren't exactly the kind of mittens you'd choose to stay warm in the dead of winter.
Minnesota Vikings tight end Kyle Rudolph described his gloves as being thin and lightweight enough to give him the feeling of being able to actually feel the ball when he catches it.
"I feel like if there's a ball anywhere near me, and I can just get a hand on it, I feel pretty confident that I'm going to catch it, whether it's the gloves or hand-eye coordination. If I don't have gloves on," Rudolph continued, "I might not be able to just grab it with one hand. It might slip out."
Matthew Slater, New England's special teams captain and someone who occasionally plays on offense and defense, began wearing gloves in high school. He couldn't recall the last time he saw a barehanded player trying to grab a pass on a football field.
And he, like others, noted how the gloves keep getting better. A far cry from when his father, Hall of Fame offensive lineman Jackie Slater, was in the league.
"Nowadays, the gloves are so 'tacky' -- they've got a lot of stick to them," the younger Slater said.
When his father played, he added, "They wore gloves, but I don't think they were as, like, high-tech as they are now. The gloves are getting more and more high-tech. Nike's coming out with something different every year."
Sometimes even more frequently than that.
Former Colts coach Tony Dungy's son Eric plays college football at Oregon and is a receiver, so he's always getting the newest gear from Nike, a major supporter of that school. Dungy said it seems as if Eric calls every couple of weeks to tell him about the latest model of gloves and the improvements.
That equipment maker's website boasts that the rubberlike substance on the palms of some of its gloves is the "most innovative sticky material to date."
First Published January 30, 2012 12:00 am
