In the aftermath of what some people called the most athletic catch in league history, Beckham acknowledged he had a small assist on the play — the red-and-white XXL Nike Vapor Jet 3.0 gloves he was wearing. But he wasn't the only one to give some love to the gloves.
"You have to be careful about the way you analyze that play because you don't want people calling you a hater or whatever," said
Tim Brown, a Hall of Fame receiver. "But you can't make that play without those kind of gloves. It's just impossible.
"The guy's a freak of nature, no doubt about it, I'll give you that. He has the big hands and all that. But those gloves are so 'tackified' these days that that's part of the reason you see guys making those kinds of catches."
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Collinsworth said the use of gloves has forever changed the game.
"Before these gloves, I'd never seen anybody make an overhand catch — when their fingers point toward the ground — below the waist, but now I see guys make those catches below the knees," he said.
"They're brilliant catches, and brilliant players, I don't want to take anything away from them. But if you played before gloves, you had to slide or dive to make that catch. Maybe somebody could make the ball stick in their hands like that, but I had never seen it."
Collinsworth, in the broadcast booth for Beckham's catch, rubbed his eyes in disbelief at that incredible play.
"Odell Beckham is probably in another class; he's got Spider-Man hands," he said. "But some of the catches you see now would be different catches. Not that they wouldn't make them, but they would be different kinds of catches."
http://www.latimes.com/sports/nfl/la-sp-nfl-receiver-gloves-20150830-column.html