Browns Defenders Wear Boxing Gloves in Practice
Cleveland Browns cornerback Justin Gilbert, left, is wearing small boxing gloves to keep himself from grabbing jersey’s of wide receivers during practice at the NFL football team’s training camp on Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2014, in Berea, Ohio. Tony Dejak—AP Photo
As the NFL cracks down on defenders grabbing the jersey’s of wide receivers, The Browns’ cornerbacks and safeties are wearing boxing gloves during training camps to break the habit
To prepare for the NFL’s crackdown on defensive holding this season, the team is making its cornerbacks and safeties wear boxing gloves during training camp practices. The smaller, mittenlike gloves — used by kickboxers and in mixed martial arts — are meant to deter players from latching onto jerseys of wide receivers, an allowable tactic in the past but one that will draw a penalty flag now.
When he first saw the padded gloves, Browns Pro Bowl cornerback Joe Haden didn’t know what to think.
“I came out and we had boxing gloves on,” Haden said. “It was crazy.”