Throughout the early years of the game, players commonly used rabbits for the ball, however this turned out to be a bad idea as the rabbits often ran away from the players trying to kick them, turning football into more of a chasing game than a scoring game. The idea of using shot rabbits also backfired as players did not appreciate the blood ruining their kits. Since then scientists have been constantly researched new ideas for the footballs including kittens, pumpkins and pokéballs for eventually settling on a ball shaped piece of metal, covered in small pieces of human skin stitched together. Skin has since been substituted with leather to suit the needs of vegetarians.