The wearing of rubber bands by players was banned by the NFHS for <b>safety</b> reasons. If that's not a concern of you or your association, so be it. Hey, if you or any of your fellow officials out there want to wear rubber bands, be my guest. Knock yourself out. You're completely right. There's nothing that definitively states that officials can't wear them. My own opinion is that not only does it look bad for an official to wear something that a player isn't allowed to wear for safety reasons, it also looks as unprofessional as hell. And my association shares my opinion. They've banned officials from wearing them.

Different strokes for different folks though. Shrug.

[QUOTE=Camron Rust]So? What does that have to do with officials? We wear other equipment that would be illegal for players to wear....a lanyard.

C. Rust, I agreed with you up until you said a lanyard was illegal for officials to wear. I draw you attention to page 14 of 2007-2009 Official Manual.

I'm pretty sure Camron was saying that it's legal for officials while being illegal for players...

Correct. missed it

The product you are describing is called the Flip Switch by Sport Switches of Meadow Vista, California. Yes, I have two of them. I do not use them when officiating real games. But the Flip switch comes in handy when officiating CYO games, summer camp games, etc. where there is no AP Arrow. They do alter the sound of the whistle slightly enough and that slight change in sound can be detected by anyone who is familiar with the sound of a Fox-40.

With apologies to the late J. Dallas Shirley, never, I repeat, never use a Flip Switch while officiating a real game. And don't use a rubber band on your wrists or an object in your in your pocket; it makes you look like rookie. Train yourself to remember who has the AP Arrow, or have Daryl "The Preacher" Long as your partner.

MTD, Sr.

I don't know if it would change any of your opinions, but I don't wear the rubber band around my wrist...I put it around my hand under my thumb...I don't think it's really noticable. I could be wrong...but I've never thought of it not looking "professional." Personally, I'd rather not have anything in my pockets...that can cause the pants to sag or have "bulges" in them...I don't need an extra "bulge" in my pants...;)

They're no less safe than a wristband...and are perhaps more safe since they're likely snap before someone gets hurt where the wristband will not snap. The only difference is that rubber bands have no functional purpose and are considered decorative. You'd also have to define what a rubber band is vs. other items (rubber braclets...LiveStrong, etc.).I'm am most certainly NOT advocating that an official should wear a rubber band. In fact, I'm opposed to it. But not because it's "illegal".
I don't disagree at all with an association establishing such a standard and would support it.

The rules that govern what is legal for players only govern what is legal for players...not officials. As someone who is a stickler for a rules basis for claims people make, I'm a bit suprised that you're using player rules as a basis for what officials wear. Again, I agree in principle with what you think is appropriate and believe that such restrictions are reasonable for an association to establish, but my reasons are strictly about looking professionial....not because player's can't.

Agreed with your Post JR, but was wondering how you feel about wedding bands for officials? I can't take mine off even if I wanted to.

I generally leave mine on. My wife doesn't care, because the imprint on my finger is already permanent.

There's always one exception to every rule. And wedding rings might be that exception(for officials). That's one thing that I'd never dream of asking anybody to remove.

Smokey, again this is jmo but I think that officials just look much more competent and professional if they're not fooling around with rubber bands, objects in their pockets, doo-dads on their whistles, etc. Geeze, why not go all the way and wear an arrow around your neck on a chain? It just ain't that hard to mentally keep track of the arrow.

Nah, I think the arrow through the head is more appropriate!:D

Grin:D

Now I have a question for you. I think that you posted once that you were a fireman. If so, do you feel that your training also gave you an advantage when it came to officiating?

I can't say that it did. I started officiating when I was in High School way before I even had an incling to become a firefighter. I do think that my confidence is directly related to my ability to effectively do both jobs however.

"Incling". Sounds like a cross between "inkling" and "inclination". Actually, it fits really well. :)

Hmmmmmm........

The reason that I asked is because locally we've had quite a number of fireman and police officers over the years officiate in both football and basketball. A lot of them have athletic backgrounds in those sports and they do have the availability needed to officiate with the shifts that they work.

This is just my own observation, and obviously it doesn't hold true for all of the fireman/cops that officiate. I think that their training is very helpful when to comes to the conflicts inherent in officiating. Fireman/cops are trained not to panic, to stay calm and relaxed, assess the best way to proceed if there's a problem, etc., and they seem (to me,anyway) to be able carry over this training into officiating. That's not true for all of them, of course. They may not be better officials overall, but they do seem better prepared in a lot of instances to deal with the inevitable conflicts.

Note that I'm not or have never been in those vocations. However, the guy that mentored me and put so much time and effort into developing me as an official so many years ago was a cop. Because of that, I may certainly be biased.

PS- I should also mention that I've noticed that one the other main professions that also seems to be related to officiating would be school teaching.