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Painted Helmets
Thanks for the responses to my earlier post. I don't know this, but I would speculate that LL prohibits paint on helmets as much to encourage uniformity as to ensure safety. Let's face it: LL, not unlike the NFL, would like to make sure the players adhere to some standards. It is not so much that LL wants to stamp out creativity, but instead LL wants to adopt rules that discourage rattiness or nonmatching uniforms/helmets. I could be wrong on this, of course.
Speaking ASA, however, there simply is no rule that outright prohibits painting. Unfortunately, some umpires believe the myth that there is such a rule. Most don't, a few do.
What I have seen quite often are ASA teams with helmets that don't match and don't even come close. Different colors or funky designs, paint, stickers, etc. that are unique to each player. My recollection is that ASA rules DO prohibit that, but there is little, if any enforcement of any such uniformity requirement. I'm not advocating there should be enforcement, but I've just never seen it. Just like I've never seen a team told they must wear matching sleeves, sliders and visors. Maybe it happens routinely, but the teams we've faced for the last five years must have gotten lucky, because they rarely are in compliance.
It would be ironic if teams with matching painted helmets (with all warning labels and visible NOCSAE logos) would be prohibited from using them due to a no-paint myth, while uniformity requirements are ignored. The comeback to that, I guess, would be that the uniformity requirement isn't a safety issue while the paint is. Every football team in America should stop painting their helmets, I guess.
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