[Mike Simonds]

I am in favor of declaring bandanas illegal equipment because of the reasons Ed mentions in his post. The rule reference for this is 1-5-3k. Bandanas should fall under the category "uniform adornments". Also, the umpire can exercise his authority under rule 1-5-4.

Fortunately I noticed that the "skull caps" designed for athletic use are becoming more popular and hopefully kids will stop wearing bandanas altogether.

Last year or the year before we had a visit by John Pemberton who is one of the officers in the California Football Officials Association and also a Pac-10 umpire. He said that under NFHS rules bandanas are legal as long as they are covered completely by the helmet but there is no specific rule on them. However, there was a case book play on bandanas that was removed about 10 years ago. John even carries around an old case book for reference on this.

Good answers on the illegal forward pass question! It is so important to distinguish between fouls during the play and dead ball fouls when determining when A is awarded a first down but that is a subject for another thread.