Don’t get used to those incredible one-handed catches you love seeing on Sundays. The NFL could be making some changes to the equipment that makes some of them possible.
Rich McKay, recently reinstated chairman of the NFL competition committee, told Los Angeles Times columnist Sam Farmer that the group has talked “extensively in recent years about whether the NFL should come up with new regulations for 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.
Farmer interviewed everyone from John Madden to Peyton Manning to Tim Brown for the piece, which is filled with valuable insight. But one thing is abundantly clear: The gloves definitely make a difference.
So why does the NFL suddenly care? Call it the Deflategate Effect. Call it due diligence (for once). Call it whatever you want. But for a league that is borderline obsessed with breaking records and producing one jaw-dropping play after the next, it certainly seems strange.
Best way to handle this is to pick one star WR, do a $$$ investigation of his gloves, and then suspend him 4 games. https://t.co/qLtcLKm6U4
— Stephanie Stradley (@StephStradley) August 30, 2015
Then again, Deflategate is strange, too. The lesson? The NFL does whatever it wants, even if it means sacrificing a few fantasy points or highlight-reel catches along the way. So hold on to your hats — and your footballs.
Thumbnail photo via Twitter/@DarrenHeitner
