Football players can often be seen wearing a towel hanging from their hip. They wear a towel on their hip for many reasons.
Football players wear towels on their hips because it helps keep their hands or forearms dry throughout the game. Football players are likely to sweat because of the heavy equipment, so staying dry is important, especially for the quarterback.
In this article, we will show you the different positions that wear towels and why they wear towels.
Staying Dry With A Towel
As we wrote about in our“how to spat an ankle”post, sometimes players wear a spat strictly for the look, not necessarily for ankle support. The same goes for why players wear tape on the back of their arms.
Weather can play a major factor in a football game. Rain or snow can cause the ball to slip out a running back’s hands, cause a faulty grip with the quarterback, or even an incomplete pass with the wide receiver.
Players need to eliminate all of mother nature’s elements by staying dry and efficient. Here are the positions that wear towels to stay dry during a football game.
Quarterback
The quarterback position is the most likely position to be wearing a towel. They will be handling the football from the center, exchanging the ball to the running back, or through the air to a wide receiver.
The quarterback’s hands must stay dry throughout this whole process. As shown above, quarterbacks will often keep the towel on the front right or front left side of their hip. This is so the player can easily wipe his hand off before taking a snap.
One important note a quarterback should take is NOT to wipe their hands before every pass play. This is a tendency that is picked up on film or even in person. The QB should wipe his hands every play or every so often.
Center
The center is the first person that touches the ball. The center’s hands must be dry. The center/quarterback exchange is often muffed because the center’s hands are sweaty, which then makes the ball feel like it’s greased up.
Not only are the center’s hands sweaty, but often when they go into a 3-point stance, their face sweat and arm sweat will drip on the ball. This is why having a dry towel handy at all times to wipe the sweat off is almost mandated for a center.
Also, on a rainy day, mud will accumulate on the center’s hands. Having a towel available to wipe the mud off is important to delivering a clean snap to the quarterback.
Running Back
Ball security is job security. The famous quote muttered by Bill Belichick. Ensuring that the ball is secured by the 5 points of contactin the open field and through contact could be the difference between winning and losing games.
A running back should always have a towel to dry off their hands, as well as their forearms and biceps. Believe it or not, sweaty biceps and forearms are a large cause of balls being stripped by defenders. Ensuring a type of grip and that all points are secured is where the towel is best used.
Wide Receivers
Wide receivers typically wear gloves, which eliminate the hands getting sweaty. Wide receivers wear towels similar to how running backs do; to keep the biceps and forearms dry.
Wide receivers often hit the ground diving for low and high thrown balls. Having a towel tucked into the pants is great to dry the hands before each snap.
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Towels To Wear During A Football Game
All towels are not treated equally. Most players want the towel to keep the hand dry, and they also want it to look good. Below are our picks for the best wearable towel
Grip Boost Towel
The grip boost towel, made by the company known for tough grip, is our first choice for towels. Grip boost has made a towel ideal for hot days, wet weather, and bad conditions. One swipe of their towel, and your hands will be clear of any moisture.
Purchase The Grip Boost Towel Here On Amazon
Under Armour Towel
The Under Armour towel is great for many reasons. First, the quality of the towel is top-notch, and the fabric is soft. Second, the towel style goes well with UA branded jerseys, cleats, gloves, etc.
Last, and in our opinion the best, is how it can fit right onto your belt loop!
Buy The ‘Belt-Fitting’ Under Armour Towel Here
Nike Football Towel
Last is the Nike football towel. Nike consistently makes quality products, and similar to UA, the towel itself sits perfectly on to a belt loop! For the teams with Nike jerseys, this is a great way to match your team’s logo and look good from head to toe!
Purchase the Nike Towel From Amazon Here
Where Is The Best Place To Wear a Towel In Football?
The best place to have the towel is tucked into your pants. However, where you have your towel depends on your position.
Center: Typically on the front or side of the hip. We want to limit the inference between the ball and the quarterback on the exchange.
Quarterback: The quarterback should have a towel on his throwing side hip. If he doesn’t wish to wear a towel, having one on the back hip of the center may prove to be valuable. This is a great technique for younger players, forcing them to wipe their hands before taking a center snap.
Running back: Either hip will work for the running back. It’s key not to have the towel tucked in so far that a defender can make a tackle from pulling on it. Have it close enough where if the defender grabs it, it will come loose immediately
Wide Receiver: Like a running back, having a loose towel is great to wipe off sweat, but which side you wear it on is completely up to the player.
Other Reasons To Wear A Towel In A Football Game
Cosmetic reasons are also why football players wear towels in their waistbands.
What are the cosmetic reasons? Cosmetic reasons are essentially trying to make yourself look good. Creating an ensemble of looking good and upping the “swag.”
Players will buy custom towels or cut a sports towel in half to make it fit their look. Wearing a towel proves no downside, other than it being tucked in too tight, and players can tackle you by it.
We live in a good time where websites have powerful tools where players can create their own custom towels and have them shipped to them. As pictured above, I created a custom towel from customink.com and slapped it on the “Get Hyped” name.
This site also allows custom images and different colors to be custom-made. It’s really cool technology to be able to alter every minute detail. If you were to create your own towel, I would put your logo, name, or number in the left half of the towel; that way, you’re able to fold it over.
Folded towels look better and are easier to tuck into the pants than a standard towel stuffed into the pants.
Related Q & A
How Do I Make A Homemade Football Towel?
Cut the towel into a small 10×18” shape. Take the towel and then fold it over once and tuck it into your pants. Players may also buy a 5×18 and use it without any fold-over. Use this option if you’re on a tight budget. If you have some money to spend, I recommend searching for custom-made towels online. The material is a lot slicker, and it is a bit flashier.
How Do I Wash My Football Towel?
Wash your football towel similar to how you would wash a bath towel. Be sure to wash your towel after every week it’s used. Towels looked best when they’re white and glow from the football field lights.
Why Do Fans Wave Towels At Football Games?
It’s become part of the tradition at many colleges to swing either white towels or white t-shirts around in a circle. It creates a whirling effect and catches opponents’ eyes, seeing thousands of crazy fans spinning their towels.
Why Do Players With Gloves Wear Towels?
Players with gloves wear towels to make their overall uniform look better. If not for cosmetic reasons, players will often wear towels with gloves on to have something to wipe off.
When players block other opponents, the sweat will get on their gloves. The towels help dry the gloves off between each play.
