Equipment Q from an assigner

[BulldogMcC]

Originally posted by ljudge
Our midget assigner got a call from the league commissioner because 2 officials made a player remove tape. Here's the situation...

A player had loose sleeves and he taped them so they were against his arm and weren't dangling. He taped them around his arm and it would have made it more difficult to grab his jersey.

The rule book mentions you can use tape to tighten hand pads, elbow pads, etc. but says nothing about loose sleeves. I'm not sure I agree with the officials making the kid remove the tape. I don't see anywhere in the rules that prohibit this. I guess you could argue he was gaining an advantage if he was a back or receiver. It might be a little "ticky tack" though to have him remove it. Thoughts?

1-5-2a specifically states that forearm pads, hand pads or gloves may be secured with tape, nothing about jerseys.

1-5-2b basically says anything else on the hand or forarm that is taped should be to protect an existing injury.

Also, the act of taping the jersey may have concerned them for 1-5-3j with any folded material potentially being considered a knot. As a U, I would also be suspect that the tape is being used to enhance contact with the ball, 1-5-3i.

Personnally, from the description given, if there was only a couple of single wraps of tape to keep and oversized jersey from flapping, I would let it go. If it was a strip of tape every couple of inches, the tape would go. Anything inbetween and I would have to see it as I might or might not approve it.