How many laces on a football

Making NFL footballs! Watch CH2! Long is a lockstitch operator, or someone who sews together the footballs with huge needles. I'm injured and we're celebrating! Gatchell is a ball turner. The leather is sewed inside out, so Gatchell's job is to turn the ball right-side out.

From this point forward, the footballs will roughly be the same size. Each ball has 16 lace holes and one lace. The NFL adds a dye — only visible under special lighting — to the laces of only the total balls chosen for the game, Wallace says, so they can be verified as Super Bowl-used balls.

The company makes laces for a number of football manufacturers, including Wilson Sporting Goods, which makes all of the balls used by the NFL. Traditional Function. The laces were a thick stitching designed to endure the abuse of being squeezed, kicked and thrown during football games. When a kicker is kicking the football his cleat and the laces on the football can cause traction, taking away from the flight pattern of the ball.

Face the laces out so he can kick the smooth part and let his foot control the flight pattern. In general, fans get to keep the ball, unless it is a special occasion. A fan might give the ball back voluntarily in exchange for other team merchandise and a chance to meet a favorite player.

The white football made an exit from the field of play in , ostensibly because teams wearing white uniforms held an unfair advantage that enabled them to, in effect, camouflage the ball on running plays.

Enter the brown pigskin with white stripes on each end. Why are they so dark now? After all, a game ball actually used in the game has plenty more value. And to prove its Super Bowl authenticity? Learn about game-certifying dyes to game-ball construction with these Super Bowl football facts:. The NFL adds a dye -- only visible under special lighting -- to the laces of only the total balls chosen for the game, Wallace says, so they can be verified as Super Bowl-used balls.

Those panels are then weighed and shaved for exactly equal weight. Sewers then align the panels and sew from the inside out. A turner hand turns the balls right-side out, considered the toughest job in the Wilson factory. The sewer closes the opening a touch more and a lacer inserts a bladder into the ball, lacing it up before it enters the final molding stage.

After Mara passed away in , the name returned to the footballs and has stayed ever since. Tim Newcomb covers stadiums, design and technology for Sports Illustrated.