Alright, so I got curious about how they measure hand size for the NFL Combine. You hear commentators talking about it, especially for quarterbacks, saying bigger hands help grip the ball. I wondered, how exactly do they do that? And, you know, how do my own hands measure up?
So, I decided to figure it out and try it myself. It wasn’t some super scientific process, at least not the way I did it at home.
Finding the Method
First, I just looked up how it’s done. Seemed pretty consistent everywhere I looked. It’s all about the span of your hand.
Getting Ready
Didn’t need much. I just grabbed a standard tape measure. The flexible kind, like for sewing, might be easier, but I just used the regular retractable metal one I had in my junk drawer.
The Actual Measuring Process
Here’s what I did, step-by-step:
- Laid my hand flat: I put my right hand down on the kitchen table, palm facing down.
- Stretched it wide: This is important. I spread my fingers out as far as they could possibly go. Like, really stretched that space between my thumb and pinky. Had to make sure my fingers were straight and not curled up.
- Positioned the tape: I placed the zero mark of the tape measure right at the tip of my thumb.
- Measured across: Then, I stretched the tape straight across my palm over to the very tip of my pinky finger. Kept the tape measure flat against my hand/table.
- Read the measurement: Looked at the number where my pinky tip ended.
My Results (and thoughts)
So, I did this a couple of times to make sure I was getting a consistent number. You really gotta focus on stretching as wide as possible. My hand measured out to about 8 and 3/4 inches.
It’s kinda wild thinking about those NFL guys. Some reports say guys like Kyler Murray are around 9.5 inches, which is considered okay, but then you hear about guys with hands over 10 or even 11 inches! Makes sense why they can palm a football like it’s nothing.
Anyway, that was my little experiment. Pretty simple to do if you have a tape measure lying around and five minutes to spare. Now I know my ‘NFL hand size’, even though I won’t be throwing touchdowns anytime soon. It was just fun to try it out myself.
