Daily Madden: Big Hands And Quarterback Success
SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) - Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson is only 5'11", but part of his success at quarterback may be his unusually large hands.
"The way the football is you have to be able to get your hands around it and get a good grip on it," John Madden told the KCBS Radio morning crew.
"That's one of the first things -- you know, before you read (the defense) and your progressions and stuff. But before you get to that stuff, you have to be able to grip the ball -- the bigger the hand the better the grip. But having big hands doesn't make you a quarterback either. I mean you have to be able to do all the other things a quarterback can do. Usually if a guy is playing and he's playing at quarterback in the NFL, whatever his hand size is, it's good enough to get the job done."
Madden said it's similar to arm length for offensive linemen.
"(They say) you have to have long arms, but there are some long arm guys that can't play and conversely there are a lot of short arm guys that are pretty good."
Super Bowl players and coaches are dealing with ticket requests from friends and family.
"That's (one of the reasons) for the two weeks between the championship games and the Super Bowl," Madden said. "Get it done so that when you get to the site of the Super Bowl you have none of those things that can really be distractions." (7:20)
Listen to the John Madden segment live weekday mornings at 8:15 on KCBS All News 740 AM/106.9 FM. And catch John's extra report at 9:15 am Mondays and Fridays on KCBS during the NFL season.