Tires and Football

With the biggest football game of the year just around the corner, we thought it’d be the perfect time to give tires the shoutout they deserve. But what do tires have to do with football? Well, probably a bit more than you might think! Here are just a few examples of how tires play a role in the success of the game.

Drills

It’s really no surprise that tires are used in a variety of football drills; their shapes and sizes make them perfect for numerous workout activities. Teams often lay them in a zigzag pattern for tire runs, which help players develop agility, speed, endurance and leg strength. In addition to this, players do tire flips to work on their back, legs, arms, shoulders and core. And how could we forget about the classic football toss? This is a great way for players to practice their throwing accuracy by putting the football through a dangling tire.

Goodyear Blimp

Just about anyone who is familiar with college football knows about the Goodyear blimp. The famous airship has been used by the tire company for aerial coverage of games beginning all the way back in 1955, and has since become an iconic symbol for sports fans everywhere. Goodyear also sponsors the Cotton Bowl Classic, one of college football’s biggest games of the year. This past season, Goodyear crafted sculptures from over 500 Goodyear tires to memorialize Western Michigan and Wisconsin, the two teams selected to play in the bowl.

Field

The Big Game will take place on an artificial field in Houston this year, meaning that tires will be everywhere! It is estimated that covering a single football field with synthetic turf requires somewhere between 20,000-40,000 tires, which are ground up into what is known as “crumb rubber.” That sure is a lot of recycled tires! And with more than 11,000 synthetic-turf fields across the United States, many old tires have already been put to good use.

Travel

Approximately 75,000 people will travel to the Big Game this year, and it’s safe to say that just about every single one of those (if not all) will travel by car at one point or another. And because tire blowouts and flat tires are all but inevitable, somebody is surely gonna be stuck on the side of the road, changing out a tire at some point. But who knows–maybe their old tire will end up as crumb rubber used on the field for a future Big Game!