Jersey change
 

Last night we had home team #21 rip his jersey to point where it no longer covered the shoulder pad on one side. So he changed to #33. I was working the chains and the opposing coach said to his assistant coach (not to me) that he should be informed of the number change. At the time I didn't recall any such action as being required, so I didn't respond.

Anyone aware of such a requirement to inform of a number change, and, if so, a rule reference?

As far as I know, there is nothing that requires a notification for the opposing coach of a change.

No notification is necessary. A player will often change numbers if he is the center and they want him to be eligible on a swinging gate, or if he needs to switch from an ineligible number to an eligible, or vice versa, cuz of an injury.

In NFHS, do you report USC penalties by name or by number? If by number, could these jersey changes cause an issue?

Nothing in the Fed. rules that require nitification if a player changes numbers. If a player that was disqualified came back into the game wearing a different number a USC on the coach would be in order.

REPLY: Nothing in Fed preventing this, but NCAA prohibits players' numbers to be changed during the game for the purpose of deceiving opponents.

In the FRD manual, it says the NF has no rule provision for a a multiple jersey situation. Their example is one where a player is wearing two different numbered jerseys one over the other. One is removed on the sidelines so the player can become a Tackle or an End. The ruling says Legal (interp).

What that means to me is there really isn't any rule coverage for this case and therefore it has been via word of mouth or separate interpretation from the NF as being OK.

I would say this is as close as you can get to the original posting of replacing a torn jersey with another jersey. Maybe common sense would be to let the other sideline know, but then again I see no guideline as to saying to do this.

As SC Ump asks or points out, I think we all keep track of UC fouls by player number until that same number gets a second. Should a coach switch jerseys on a player with one UC already and that player get a UC and we find out it's the same guy as before, not only does the player get his second UC, the coach gets one for using the jersey change to deceive. This is a loose interpretation of 1-5-3 also pointed out in the FRD manual.