![]() Aspiring teens think that if they tape their wrists like Adrian Peterson, they can play like him, too. “For me, I feel like my ankles are weak when I don’t have tape on them, because I’ve been getting taped for so long.”Īt lower levels of football, however, tape is often about appearance. “I’ve been wearing tape for so long, it just feels different (without it),” he said. Senior running back Doroland Dorceus figures he’s been getting his ankles taped as long as he’s been playing football. “People don’t even realize how much goes into it.” A price worth paying “It’s crazy,” Turner said, shaking his head. But at a school like Memphis, where the TV money is lacking and the budget is tight, it also provides a window into just how complicated and costly Division I football can be. Tape plays an important role in preventing injuries, or helping players return to the field quickly. That’s the length of more than 24 football fields - for every practice. And they used an average of 226 rolls of tape before every spring practice, totaling 2,441 yards. They spent more than $4,000 on taping supplies. They used athletic tape on ankles, mostly, but also fingers, toes, feet, knees, wrists and more. This spring, for example, Turner said the Memphis football program used nine different varieties and four different colors of tape. ![]() But for Turner, it is arguably the most important tool of the trade, an incredibly complex and surprisingly costly part of college football that few fans rarely see or understand. ![]() “Five people taping for at least an hour straight,” Turner said.Īthletic tape is so embedded in the daily routine of college football that players and coaches often don’t think twice about it. So for Turner and four of his assistants, this means almost every day of spring ball begins with tape. There were 94 players on the Tigers’ spring roster, and coach Mike Norvell requires all of them to have their ankles either taped or braced before every practice or scrimmage. A few hours before any Memphis football practice this spring, for a period of about 90 minutes, there’s a good chance you would’ve found athletic trainer Darrell Turner in the training room, with a roll of tape in his hands. ![]()
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