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NFL notes launch of Stickum ban

The late ‘70s featured the proliferation of Stickum, a blob-like gelatin that helped receivers and defensive backs catch the football. Some players (particularly Raiders cornerback Lester Hayes) took it to the extreme. And the NFL eventually took it away.

As NFL executive V.P. of football operations Troy Vincent pointed out earlier on Twitter, the league banned the compound 34 years ago.

Stickum re-entered the conversation earlier this year, after Hall of Famer Jerry Rice called out the Patriots for #DeflateGate and Patriots fans, scouring the Internet for proof that cheating is rampant in the NFL, found a video in which Rice admitted to applying Stickum to his gloves. Rice thereafter admitted using it then seemed to deny it then eventually decided he wasn’t going to talk about it anymore.

Meanwhile, the NFL currently uses gloves that are as effective as Stickum ever was. In August, Sam Farmer of the Los Angeles Times noted that the Competition Committee possibly will be examining whether the gloves are too tacky.

So maybe at some point down the road we’ll be commemorating the Odell Beckham Jr. rule.