Kenny Pickett Explains Why He Wears Two Gloves

While it’s not unprecedented, quarterbacks wearing two gloves most of the time is definitely not common. Steelers’ first-round pick Kenny Pickett is one of them, and Pickett was heavily criticized for wearing two gloves at Pitt, even though two quarterbacks in the Pro Football Hall of Fame wore two gloves at one point in their respective careers — Kurt Warner and Peyton Manning. Richard Sherman even said in May that he “can’t trust a quarterback that wears gloves all the time” when asked about Pickett.

Dolphins’ backup quarterback and former first-round pick, Teddy Bridgewater, also wears two gloves. Pickett and Bridgewater are the most noteworthy quarterbacks in the league that wear two gloves on a regular basis. Pickett was on The Pat McAfee Show on Tuesday, and McAfee asked Pickett at what point did he decide to wear two gloves.

“I did it once my sophomore year, but really after that North Carolina game that you called, I stuck with it after that game, so you can take some pride in that,” Pickett said to McAfee. “Coach (Mark) Whipple was like, ‘It doesn’t have to be cold to rock the gloves.’ So I wore them since on out. It just kind of felt more comfortable, I feel great throwing the ball in the NFL too, so it’s just something that I enjoy.”

College footballs can be up to 1 1/4 inches smaller than NFL footballs, but there hasn’t been an adjustment period for Pickett, as he had NFL footballs incorporated into his workouts before the 2021 season.

“The year prior in the offseason, I threw an NFL ball in my training a little bit, just to have a feel for it and see how I liked it,” Pickett said. “I was using both back and forth and I felt good using both. So when I got to training this year, there wasn’t that (adjustment). I know a lot of guys have said that there was a little bit of a period where the ball wasn’t coming out as clean as they like it and kind of had to get used to it, but thinking (back) to last year and mixing it in my workouts, it actually worked out pretty well for me.”

McAfee joked during the interview that he and the rest of the media dissected Pickett’s entire body during the pre-draft process. “This guy’s hand-size is too small, his hair (is) too long. This guy has too much flow. He has too much moxie.” Pickett was well-aware of the outside noise.

“You’d be lying to yourself, when guys say, ‘Oh, I don’t hear it,’ like this day and age, like somehow you could put the TV on and you’re just going to see it pop across your screen by accident,” Pickett said. “So, of course, you hear things, but it was a unique process, man. I’m happy I only had to do it once, I can tell you that. I found my new home and I’m excited now to start my rookie year.”

While Mike Tomlin took Malik Willis out for chicken wings at his pro day, Pickett revealed that he wasn’t granted the same opportunity.

“Man, I tell you what, I missed the dinner part of it, they must have skipped that out on me,” Pickett said. “They just had me walk next door, they just had me pop in, pop over next door, I’ll have to mess with Coach on that one.

“It’s great finally being on that side of the building and getting to know them a lot better. I was really only able to watch them practice and kind of just brushing shoulders when I was walking out to the practice field, and that was kind of it. So, now that I got a chance to be in the building and get to work with those guys a little bit, obviously, it’s a lot different. You can see why they have such a great franchise.”