Au contraire, mon ami. The infraction, as I understand it, is not for WEARING a shirt of different number, but for requiring the scorer to change the number in the book after 10 minutes before game time. Since the shirt change was, in fact, reported to the scorer, I wouldn't call it an attempt to deceive the opposing team, but a failure on the part of the scorer to inform the refs. The question then becomes whether it was a legitimate reason to change the shirt in the first place, and whether it thus warrants a technical. Yes, the officials definitely should have been notified, but was that the team's fault or the scorer's? Either way, if you decide it does warrant a "T," the penalty (page 57, Rules Book) is given when the situation occurs. Also, the Casebook seems pretty clear (10.1.2) that once the ball becomes live after this situation, "it is too late to penalize."
|
Thu Feb 17, 2000, 01:13am
Hybrid Mode
