There was a debate at work today about the gloves NFL receivers use. They help reveivers catch the ball as the palm-side is covered with a sticky synthetic material. There is no apparent safety reason for the sticky material. The argument against this is how is this different than a corked bat or even steroids to some extent. A sport is entertainment where we see people try to use their natural abilities in a competitive environment while maintaining safety to a limit. Do using receiver gloves cross this threshold? Can it be considered 'cheating' when looking at it from a general point of view and comparing it to other sports?
no different than illegal hockey stick curves or goalie pads in hockey. i think corked bats is way overrated.
I guess the issue isn't the fact that they use them as much as it is how it takes away from the game. Would it be ok for running backs to install this sticky material to the part of their jersey where they hold the ball? Where does one draw the line?
I've always thought receiver gloves were just an accepted thing. Kind of like rosin bags for pitchers.
i'm not sure how much that would help. the ball is more carried and held by their arm than tucked by the jersey. i actually heard mike golic on espn one time say while he was playing, players would do the opposite, and spray non stick spray for cooking pans on their jerseys before the game to help be able to slip out of tackles.
im not sure how common that is now, i think the material of the jerseys are different now then back then so who knows.
Yeah, I heard about the dline doing the spray on non stick cooking spray thing a long time ago too, as long as everyone could potentially do it I don't have a problem with it; if it's something you wouldn't feel comfortable telling a post game reporter about then that is where the line starts getting hazy.
If everybody is using them, I don't see what the problem is. However, when I was in high school and played pick-up games of football at school, there was one rich kid who had a pair and they made him an inordinately good receiver compared to kids who couldn't buy stuff like that.
That probably only meant he got hit a little harder each time there was an opportunity, I'll take the random/seldom dropped pass over being the rich kid everybody is looking to light up.
They make a huge difference. I was an average pass catcher at running back in high school and halfway through my senior season I sprung for a pair of running back gloves. The first week I was catching everything thrown my way like Randy Moss- one handers, tip toe catches, no more dropped passes. Then the stickiness wore out and I went back to being an average receiver. Maybe the confidence it gave me had an effect on my pass catching abilities as well.
Receiving gloves are legal in the NFL and anyone can use them, it is therefore not cheating. Corked bats are illegal in the MLB so using one is considered cheating.