Almost Cut My Hair (Crosby, Stills, Nash And Young, 1970) …

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by JRutledge

... religious expression to it ... long sleeves if the sleeves do not at all match the jersey ... girls must cover up her arms and does not go find the color of the jersey to match her sleeves ... jersey is white and the undershirt (with) long sleeves (is) black. Does not fit the ... rule as it applies to the color requirement. But if you are doing something for religious or values reasoning, then you can wear them without penalty.

Now I get it. Thanks for the explanation. Religious expression possibly "trumping" the undershirt color rules.

I had this exact situation several years ago in a girls varsity game. Long sleeved black undershirt, worn for religious reasons, under a white jersey. Early in the season, so I allowed her to play contingent on her getting the correct color undershirt in the near future (kicking the can down the road). To be honest, I'm not sure what I would do if I saw her later in the season with the same illegal undershirt.

Now with a "regular" (not religious reasons) player, I would offer three choices: change the undershirt to the proper color, remove the undershirt, or not play.

But a player wearing such for religious reasons does not have the choice of removing the illegal undershirt.

I don't believe that there are any NFHS color restrictions on religious head coverings, does the also mean that there are no NFHS color restrictions for long sleeved undershirts worn for religious reasons?

I'm not sure that the current NFHS rule is clear on the answer, however, I'm leaning toward no color restrictions on religious head coverings, but color restrictions for long sleeved undershirts worn for religious reasons.

That's why we have state associations. JRutledge's state association was wise to "take the bull by the horns" rather than ignoring the issue and leaving it up to the interpretation of individual officials.

Of course, here in my little corner of Connecticut, we have many varsity officials who completely ignore illegal undershirts, even when there are no religious issues involved.

I wish I had a dollar for every time I heard, "But the referee we had in our last game didn't say anything about undershirts", then I could finally buy that villa in Tuscany I've been wanting to purchase.

Originally Posted by JRutledge

My state specifically had to issue a statement that this was not to be penalized. A few years later the NF officially made that their position.

You sure (no NFHS color restrictions for illegal color long sleeved undershirts worn for religious reasons)?

NFHS citation please.