 Reebok NFL XG3 Football Gloves, Royal/Black, X-Large Lowest Price: $25.62 |
 Reebok NFL Velocity Grip Football Gloves (Black/White, Large) Lowest Price: $24.97 |
 Reebok NFL Velocity Grip Padded Football Gloves (Navy/White) Lowest Price: $37.01 |
Football is one of those team sports where equipment matters. Football players need to wear the best quality padding, helmets, cleats, and football gloves not only to protect their bodies from injury but also to enhance their talents and improve their performance on the field. Quite often, since amateur football players and parents of young football players are already spending a fortune on other necessary equipment like shoulder pads, helmets, and various other pieces of equipment, people will scrimp on the football gloves to save a little money.
Even though you may think you are saving money by purchasing the discount football gloves you are actually going to spend more money in the long run when you have to replace them or worse yet repair injured hands.
A football player’s hands are his lifeblood. The entire game of football, no matter what position a player happens to be in, relies heavily on the skillful manipulation of those hands. When you give your child a pair of inexpensive youth football gloves or head out onto your recreational football field with shoddy gloves of your own you are risking the success of the team.
Here are four reasons to not dip into the bargain bin when it comes to purchasing American football gloves:
Enhanced Grip:
Let’s face it, the reason you are buying football gloves in the first place is to enhance your grip on the ball. Nature may have provided human beings with calluses and fingerprints to give us a tactile advantage but in the serious game of football nature just isn’t enough. Every player, from linebacker to wide receiver, needs to be able to grab and hold that pigskin as if his life depended on it.
Cheap football gloves may give you slightly better odds of hanging onto the football but the grips on most cheap brands are made out of poor materials that don’t hold their shape for long. The more you play in your cheap football gloves the less grip they will provide until they are actually worse off than your bare hands. You basically have a choice of either purchasing a new pair of football gloves to replace the worn down ones or just by a more reliable pair from the get-go.
Let’s be perfectly clear: a player wearing cheap football gloves is a handicapped player.
If you’re looking for a brand example, try Cutter football gloves. They may be twice the price of some other gloves but they will last at least three times as long.
Sweat/Moisture Reduction:
A main concern when catching a football is moisture. The term “butterfingers” comes from players trying to hold onto a ball that slips out of their hands due to moisture. Football gloves help to prevent moisture and sweat build up on your hands so that the ball has a rough and dry surface to sit in.
The better quality football glove you buy the more breathable the material will be and the less you will feel them on your hands. The ideal football glove is one that a player forgets is even there and that’s not going to happen if your glove is causing your palms to sweat the entire game.
Better Fit:
A football glove should not hinder the performance of the player. Instead, it should serve to improve the player’s performance during a game. The better quality football glove you buy the better it will fit your hand. Of course, you need to pay attention to the sizing of the glove but generally better quality materials will mean more of a snug fit on your hand.
Injury Prevention:
Padded football gloves are of the utmost importance for positions like linebacker and lineman. The hands of these defensive positions are going to be taking a beating from the start of the game to the finish so they need to be well protected. It should go without saying that the less money you spend on a football glove the less padding you will get. If you want to protect your hands from impact related injuries you should invest in a good pair of padded football gloves.
As far as price ranges go you would be safe with purchasing any football gloves within the $50 – $80 range. The farther you go below the $40 line the less quality you will get and the more often you will find yourself replacing the gloves. It’s a simple matter of economics: spend a little extra money now to save yourself money in the future. Whoever said football had nothing to do with math?
