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View Full Version : Why has the NFL dropped the white lines from its footballs?

Northern Piper
10-26-2009, 12:02 AM
Footballs used to have white lines on them. I've noticed that the NFL balls no longer have them. How come?
HongKongFooey
10-26-2009, 12:10 AM
Quarterbacks were complaining that the white stripes were slippery, making it easier to lose their grip on the ball.
doverpro
10-26-2009, 11:49 AM
NFL footballs have never had stripes except for Super Bowl VIII, and I don't know the reason for that one-time change. Pictures of NFL football from all eras show a ball without stripes. An exception appears to be that the white footballs used for awhile by the league for night games in the 1950s may have had brown stripes.
Jack Batty
10-26-2009, 12:06 PM
College ball still has the white stripes, I do believe.
lieu
10-26-2009, 12:23 PM
College balls have a stripe on the top (http://cdn0.sbnation.com/imported_assets/190393/ncaa-football-logo.jpg) half (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/don_banks/10/22/draft/index.html) of the ball.
HongKongFooey
10-26-2009, 12:23 PM
I don't follow college ball but they use them to make the ball easier to pick up in flight. I thought the NFL used it for a while but am obviously confused because I definitely wasn't thinking as far back as that Super Bowl. Thinking of CFL maybe but I'm pretty sure they still use the stripes.
lieu
10-26-2009, 12:30 PM
Yeah, CFL has a stripe all the way around.
Spoons
10-26-2009, 12:44 PM
This was the subject of one of my very first questions on the SDMB years ago. I dug up the old thread, but it's not really necessary to link to it--the reason given in that old thread was that the NFL football's stripes made the ball slippery, much as already has been said here.

It also said that NCAA wanted to keep the stripes on NCAA footballs for visual reasons--apparently not all college stadiums are as well lit as the pros.

Interesting to dig up that old thread though!
Northern Piper
10-27-2009, 10:08 AM
Great minds think alike! :D
HongKongFooey
10-27-2009, 11:37 AM
Great minds think alike! :D
So, uh, are you guys thinking about Megan Fox riding naked on the back of a fire-breathing unicorn too? :dubious:
DSYoungEsq
10-27-2009, 11:42 AM
Of course not. Their fetish is for smog-breathing monitor lizards. :D
HongKongFooey
10-27-2009, 11:56 AM
Hmmph, great minds indeed.