Cripes — Rashad Johnson, safety for the Arizona Cardinals, lost the tip of his left middle finger after a play in the game against the New Orleans Saints. Apparently his finger was diven into the turf and snapped off; it was not caught in a face mask or stepped on.
Johnson felt his hand go numb and was looking at his glove drenched in blood, not knowing what had happened. The glove was cut off, and the tip of his finger remained in the glove when it was removed. Doctors shaved the exposed bone and bandaged the wound. They aren’t planning to re-attach the finger.
Silicone Magnigrip Gloves
Which brings up the subject of gloves. They weren’t part of football wear until about 15 years ago, and now receivers and tight ends rely on them an awful lot, to catch balls more easily. In the movie The Replacements, we see actor Orlando Jones get his hands painted with stickum so he doesn’t lose grip on a pass again. This substance of course has been illegal in pro football for a long time. But now, they don’t need it. They’ve got rubbery, sticky gloves that do the same thing — legally and according to regulation. In this article, they quote Kurt Warner, who noticed players making one-handed catches and impossible snags of the ball, with those same sticky gloves. The rubbery stuff has been improved by the companies making it over the last 15 years that such gloves have been used. No more slippery leather surfaces — it’s engineered so you won’t lose the football.
Sometimes they wear only 1 glove. Some, like receivers, wear thin gloves just for traction. Others such as linemen would wear gloves with padding in the fingers — because that’s what gets hurt often. And some players have a signature color or style of wearing them: Nicks of the New York Giants wears red gloves, which his coach can see easily. Gronkowski of the Patriots wears white tape wrapped around the wrists of the gloves.
Eric Weddle of the Chargers does not wear gloves, although he’s a safety and most of them do, but he wears tape on his hands. His catching/interceptions actually got much better the moment he stopped wearing gloves in 2011.
Quarterbacks usually don’t wear gloves — or at least, don’t wear two. They might wear one on the hand they don’t pass with.
And drawbacks? They don’t work so well in the rain. You may see players taking their gloves off if it’s raining, or switching to another type of glove.
Not only do gloves offer grip on the football, but it also provides a better grip on other players. And the reverse is going to be true, too. Sticky gloves might mean you can’t slip away from something, or release something quite so easily. Has this been a problem, I wonder? or is anyone really noticing if it is?
Great Schnauzer 