Fingernails ...

[BillyMac]

Middle school girls game yesterday. First period. I’m about to hand the ball to a home team inbounder at which point her brightly painted fingernails catch my attention, immediately followed by me noticing that her fingernails are quite long and sharply filed into points. My partner, the umpire, did not notice these in the pregame layup lines.

Brought the head coach over and explained to him that she wouldn’t be allowed to keep playing with these unsafe fingernails. He gave me a little bit of a hard time, “She played with these in Tuesday’s game”.

Player asked if she could cut them still play, and I told that she could.

NFHS 2021-22 Safety Concerns 3-7: The referee must not permit any team member to participate if in his/her judgment any item constitutes a safety concern, such as, but not limited to, a player’s fingernails or hairstyle.

2022-23 Editorial Changes
NFHS 2022-23 Safety Concerns 3-7: The referee must not permit any team member to participate if in his/her judgment any item constitutes a safety concern.

Why was the specific reference to fingernails removed?

I always liked that the fingernail example was in the rulebook.

Made it easy to explain to a coach, player, or parent.

[Mike Goodwin]

Originally Posted by BillyMac

NFHS 2021-22 Safety Concerns 3-7: The referee must not permit any team member to participate if in his/her judgment any item constitutes a safety concern, such as, but not limited to, a player’s fingernails or hairstyle.

2022-23 Editorial Changes
NFHS 2022-23 Safety Concerns 3-7: The referee must not permit any team member to participate if in his/her judgment any item constitutes a safety concern.

Why was the specific reference to fingernails removed?

I always liked that the fingernail example was in the rulebook.

Made it easy to explain to a coach, player, or parent.

Billy, in your question, you omitted the other specific example of "hairstyle" from the "old" 3-7.

This is the same year 3-5-4d was appended and reversed the prohibition on beads, barrettes, and bobby pins. The 2022-23 preseason guide illustrated this and at the same time 3-7 was edited.

My hunch is that the examples were eliminated to reduce the implicit bias towards girls, who are more likely to have longer fingernails than boys, plus now that boys are wearing longer hairstyles with the now-legal adornments. Naturally, only the rules committee, editor, and publisher know for certain (as 3-7 was only an editorial change and not a rules change).

Now, the only gender-specific items left in the book should be the two sizes of basketballs, but I'm not up for researching it more at present to validate it.

[Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.]

Decades ago (before the OhioHSAA had gone to three-person crews, I was the R in a Saturday afternoon girls' H.S. varsity game.

My partner and I had just started our Pre-Game Captains' Meeting when I noticed the Home Team's Captain's fingernails were approximately 5/8 inches long and it was obvious that all of her fingernails were this long and that they were fake fake fingernails. I informed the Home Captain that she could not play with her fingernails as they were.

The Captain was not pleased with what I told her because she was going to a formal dance that evening and she had had her fingernails done at $15 per finger for the dance that evening. She did not start the game because of her fingernails. Her mother was very very mad and complained to the Home AD and the AD complained to me. The AD asked me what I wanted the girl to do so that she could play. I told him that it was not my responsibility to instruct the Player as to what to do to make herself legal. The AD was not happy that I was not stupid enough to tell him what his Player needed to do to become legal.

Late in the 1st QT she from the locker room to play. Her mother had cut all of the fake fingernails off.

MTD, Sr.

[BillyMac]

Let’s say that the home player’s extremely long and sharp brightly painted fake fingernails (I’ve observed longer but I have never observed sharper, like daggers) had failed to be observed in the pregame layup lines by my umpire partner (as did happen) and another player got their eye badly scratched in the game.

Could my umpire partner be held civilly liable for negligence?

Could I, as the referee (the guy in charge of safety), be held civilly liable for negligence?

Once I stopped the game and broached the issue with the player and the coach, if I had allowed the coach to talk me out of sitting her, could I have been held civilly liable for gross negligence if another player got their eye badly scratched in the game?

Would my IAABO liability insurance cover me for negligence or gross negligence?

My house and car are both fully paid for and I would hate to lose them.

[Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.]

Originally Posted by billymac

let’s say that the home player’s extremely long and sharp brightly painted fake fingernails (i’ve observed longer but i have never observed sharper, like daggers) had failed to be observed in the pregame layup lines by my umpire partner (as did happen) and another player got their eye badly scratched in the game.

Question #1: could my umpire partner be held civilly liable for negligence?

Question #2: could i, as the referee (the guy in charge of safety), be held civilly liable for negligence?

Once i stopped the game and broached the issue with the player and the coach, if i had allowed the coach to talk me out of sitting her, could i have been held civilly liable for gross negligence if another player got their eye badly scratched in the game.

Question #3: would my iaabo liability insurance cover me for negligence or gross negligence?

My house and car are both fully paid for and i would hate to lose them.

Alan Goldberger (All IAABO Members should know who Alan is.), who has written many articles of Referee about officiating liability always tells officials/umpires who are considering ignoring Safety Rules to ask this simple question: "Do you want your family to live in a mobile home for the next 40 years?" With that question in mind the answer to Bill's three questions are:

Question #1: NO!!

Question #2: NO!!

Question #3: NO!!

Let me reduce Questions #1, #2, and #3 to one simple one simple statement: The entire officiating/umpiring crew is liable for the negligence of one member of the crew. In Basketball if the R refuses to enforce a Safety Rule, the rest of the crew either uses peer pressure to make the R enforce the Safety Rue and if the R refuses, the rest of the crew must refuse to officiate and file a Game Report with their StateHSAA.

And yes I did walk away from a game and filed a Game Report with the OhioHSAA: I assigned to officiate a boys' H.S. soccer game (I know, my dirty officiating secret.) as a Linesman (before they were called Assistant Referees) in a Three-Person crew. At the Pre-Game Captain's Meeting both Captains were wearing bracelets and necklaces which were very visible as well as many other Players from both Teams. When the R failed to mention the jewelry I mentioned it and the R told me that he was not going to enforce the anti-Jewelry Rule and he would not discuss the matter further and the other Linesman agree with him. I told them both that either the Jewelry Rule was enforced or they would officiate the game without me. Guess what: I walked off of the field. I filed my Game Report and received my game fee check in the mail a week later.

MTD, Sr.

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.

... she was going to a formal dance that evening and she had had her fingernails done at $15 per finger for the dance that evening.

Similar experience a few years ago

Varsity girls vocational technical high school game. I noted a home team player with extremely long nails warming up.

I explained to her that she could not play with such long nails. She told me that she couldn't trim her nails because her nails were part of her mid-year exam the next morning in her advanced cosmetology class.

She really wanted to play, so she trimmed them.

At halftime, her mother came out of the stands to politely question my ruling.

"No ma'am, I didn't tell your daughter to trim her nails, I told that she couldn't play with her nails that long."

[BillyMac]

Girls middle school game a few years ago. Third period. Only one girl on both teams had fingernail polish and that caught my attention (that, and the fact that she had delivered three consecutive air ball free throws in the first half (a personal officiating career record for me)).

It was only then that I noted that her fingernails were longer than I would have liked. How long is unsafe? So while we lined up for free throws I approached her and asked to see her nails. Not actually sure if they were unsafe so I just told her to be sure to trim them before her next game. A few minutes later I had a chance to speak to her coach to discuss the issue. I started with "Coach, #30's fingernails are long ...". Didn't get another word out before the coach replied, "Yeah, they're like daggers".

The "dagger" word bothered me and made me question my initial ruling of "safe for today". So the three of us met and I decided to bench her (her team was way ahead in the game) until she trimmed her nails (err on the side of safety), figuring she could easily get a nail clipper, file, or emery board from the first aid kit and remedy the issue and get back into game. Nothing available in the first aid kit, so I suggested that she ask parents, which she did, and was able to fix the problem.

The player and the coach never (surprisingly) gave me a hard time, but she was on the verge of tears, so I was pleased that she was able to eventually get back into the game.

I hate making thirteen year old girls cry.

[Raymond]

"Could my partner be held civilly liable for negligence?

Could I, as the referee (the guy in charge), be held civilly liable for negligence?"


Is there anywhere in the rulebook that says responsibility for monitoring the players for safety issues does not fall on all officials?

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[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by Raymond

Is there anywhere in the rulebook that says responsibility for monitoring the players for safety issues just not fall on all officials?

NFHS 2022-23 Safety Concerns 3-7: The referee must not permit any team member to participate if in his/her judgment any item constitutes a safety concern.

Can we now please get back to discussing possible negligence, or gross negligence, and civil liability?

[Raymond]

My advice would be to get your answers from the insurance carrier, and not the officiating forum on the internet.

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