[BillyMac]

Wedding bands, or rings in general, can present a safety issue for officials, as well as for players.

Over thirty years ago, before I officiated, when I first started teaching, I was walking out of the school at the end of the day, and walked past the gymnasium, where our middle school boys basketball team was practicing. There was no girls team back then. Title IX hadn't fully kicked in yet in our school system. I walked into the gymnasium to watch a little of the practice. One of the players called out to me, "Hey, Mr. BillyMac, how about taking some shots?" He passed me the ball a couple of times, and I made a few jump shots, in my street clothes. I had just gotten married a few months earlier, and never took off my wedding ring, not to shower, not for bed, etc. I wasn't paying as much attention as I should have been, and I "caught" one of his passes on the tips of my fingers, jamming the fingers. No big deal. I shook it off, and took a couple more shots. When I woke up the next morning, my ring finger, with the ring on the finger, had swollen considerably, not very painful, just very swollen, and it was impossible to get the ring off. When I arrived at school, I showed the finger to the school nurse. She marched me down to the Industrial Arts (that's what it was called back then) wing, to get the ring sawed off, as it was constricting the circulation in my finger. I persuaded her to take me for a detour into the cafeteria kitchen, where we got a stick of butter. Using the butter, we barely got the ring off my swollen finger.

Since then, I never wear my wedding ring when participating in any sports activity, or when doing any chores around the house, at my workbench, working with power tools, working outside in my garden, with outdoor power equipment, etc. I'm not going through that experience again. When I officiate, the ring goes into my street pants pocket, with my car keys. How many times in a game do the players toss the ball to the official? I'm just not willing to take the chance of a similar injury again.