Why spat for football

Roll the nylon spat down over the cleat. The front of the spat should cover the area from the top of the cleat to the point where your toes meet your foot. Roll the right spat up onto your right leg, then put on your shoe and install the right spat the same way as you did the left spat. Dan Howard is a sports and fitness aficionado who holds a master's degree in psychology.

Football players tape their ankles to support and prevent any injuries that include sprains or breaks. The tape restricts a bit of movement but provides stability throughout the ankle. Adding support with tape or a spat to the ankle can help prevent injury. However, football is a contact sport where players may get hit on the ankle, bending or twisting incorrectly. Do you use tape or cleat covers?

Let us know in the comment section! Reference the video above to understand these techniques. Sleefs Sleefs has a wide variety of custom and traditional cleat covers.

Get Sleefs Here. Get Battle Cleat Covers Here. In cases where players request to be spatted because of a poor fit, the shoe companies will work with equipment managers to find different shoes. In some instances, custom shoes are made. If players cannot find a comfortable shoe made by the company their school is contracted with, he is allowed to wear shoes from another company. In that case, he must spat out the competitor's logo.

The spatting language in the schools' contracts with their shoe suppliers also ties into the simmering player rights issues in college football now. The case challenges athletes' ability to profit off their names and likenesses, as schools and the NCAA have.

While spatting doesn't pertain to a player's image, it is another example of players being used for profit without input or a cut of the revenue. The question should be raised about whether or not it's appropriate," said Ramogi Huma, president of the National College Players Association.

The third-party influence in what players can have done with their ankles seems to be unique. A player who recovered from a knee injury and felt more comfortable wearing a brace wouldn't be restricted from doing that by a apparel provider. They have every right to do what they want. Perhaps nothing illustrates this more than NFL players who have eschewed shoe sponsorships because they would rather spat.

Chargers center Nick Hardwick was sponsored by Nike until injuring his foot in Spatting made his shoes more secure on his feet, but the company did not want its logo covered. For me, it was a no-brainer. I'd much rather stay on the field and play more games. The issue of player rights is also a potential legal one as it pertains to their medical records.

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act was created to protect people's private health information. Players sign a form which allows their school to release information to any number of parties from their coaches, teammates, faculty advisers, parents and even the news media. Yet 20 of the contracts require the schools to provide notification of players who will be spatted before the games, often with a letter from a physician or the athletic trainer.

HIPAA experts say whether schools are considered covered entities under the law would vary based on several factors. But since some schools already delineate other parties in HIPAA releases, it would behoove them to add the shoe supplier. The inclusion of the news media in those releases also might not clear universities of committing a HIPAA violation by notifying shoe companies of injured players needing to be spatted.

It's unclear how strictly the shoe companies require schools to comply with the pregame notice. In his e-mail response to Barbour, Cobb said Nike had never provided a way for Cal to submit medical information about which players need to be spatted. With competing interests — the shoe company to have its logos seen on television, the school to have the shoe company's money and the players to do what they want with their ankles for any reason — one contract offers a potential solution.

Should South Carolina players need to be spatted in a way that covers up the Under Armour logos, the company ensured it would get the exposure it paid for with decals. Even that comes with issues. Haggard hasn't used the decals in the five years he's been at South Carolina. He previously worked at Nike schools, where the head athletic trainer would spat players and Haggard would draw the "swoosh" logo on with a marker.