From StickUm to Sticky Gloves

THIS IS A website that focuses on AFL football not the NFL of the United States but to get an insight into the emerging controversy of sticky gloves  you need to go back to the NFL in 1980 and one player in particular: Lester Hayes of the Oakland Raiders.

Lester Hayes was voted the NFL’s Defensive Player of the Year in 1980 on the basis of his 13 interceptions for that season. When coupled with the additional five interceptions that he had in four playoff games his performance was truly mind-boggling. The Raiders went on to win the Super Bowl that year but the method behind Hayes’ success that year still causes ire today because it was based on a product called StickUm.

StickUm is a brand of adhesive often used in sports such as hockey and baseball where it is applied to handles in order to improve grip. Lester Hayes however used it extensively, applying it not only to the palms of his hands but to the back of them as well as his to forearms, helmet, jersey and socks. He didn’t just apply StickUm, he bathed in it. The glue was so thick on him that in one game he was penalised by the umpire after he brushed past the ball and left it covered in glue rendering it useless. There is even a story about him intercepting the ball on the back on his hand!

The NFL banned the substance and all other glues after the 1980 season and Lester Hayes never again approached his 13 interception total from that year.

But today we have a range of technical gloves that begin to offer advantages over bare hands and rather than be banned from football codes they are gaining more and more acceptance.

Is it cheating? Not while the equipment remains legal but you have to ask the question about whether or not the use of sticky gloves offers an unfair advantage to the player that uses them.

In the AFL a player such as Collingwood’s Travis Cloke, who wore these gloves to set a record for contested marks in 2011, can provide his team with a possession advantage with the grip edge provided by this equipment. There is no doubt that we’ll see more players using gloves this season, but it remains to be seen whether or not the AFL will step in and ban gloves that provide an “unnatural” advantage.

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