Nit-picking question
 

I am in the middle of a "discussion" with other officials about players wearing the "UnderArmor" type of sweatband on their lower leg. Or any sweatband for that matter.
I believe it is legal, what do you think?
Could not find any rule reference that prohibits this.

TIA

Wrong
 

Mike,

Under Fed rules, a sweatband is not defined but a wrist band is. They can only be worn no higher on the arm than 3" above the wrist. If a player is wearing bands in other places, the bands are considered uniform adornments and are illegal by rule (I don't have my books but I believe it is in in rule 1 around section 7 or 8).

1-5-3k makes uniform adornments illegal. In the Points of Emphasis in the back of each year's Rules Book adornments are covered this year. Look at the bottom of page 86.

"Could not find any rule reference that prohibits this."

Unlike other areas of the rules, where if something isn't mentioned it's presumed to be legal, equipment has special treatment. Everything a player puts on falls into one of three categories - "Must Have", "May Have" and "Can't Have". As an official, you have to decide what the item is and which of the three catagories it fits into.

If you decide it's a wrist band, then it's in the "May Have" list and the player may wear it, but only on his wrist within 3 inches of the wrist as IAUMP mentioned.

If it's not a wrist band, what is it? - you have to make a choice. The most likely answer is that it is an adorment and therefore comes under the "Can't Have" category, and the player can not wear it at all. In either case, it can't be worn on the leg.

Are we sure that we're actually looking at ordinary sweat bands and not one of the various patella bands (for the knees) or elbow bands that are becoming popular to help support certain types of mild strains of the elbow? Unless you take a close look at these some of them could be easily mistaken for sweat bands.

We try to catch them before the game--i.e. if we see a player on the bench with an 'improperly' placed sweat band, we will tell him to remove it before he even gets on the field. We did have one situation where we said this to a player, the coach responded "oh, that's for an injury" and at that point we let it go.

I hate playing fashion police. I wish the Fed would make specific statements regarding the legality of each piece of equipment/adornment. Print off the picture, take it to the field, show the coach, and tell them to fix them. (I know we can't do that but wouldn't it be nice?)

It stinks because we are always the bad guys when we tell the kid he can't wear his UA band up around his bicep like they do on TV.

Grant,

We had such a picture at our state meeting before the season. The player had bands on his bicep, his leg, and around his neck. The word "illegal" was on the picture with arrows drawn to all three bands.

I think it was a Fed picture, but it might have been prepared by the State.

Blue37

We saw the same picture at our state meeting.

When they first started wearing the UA bands one caught caught on another player's facemask in making a tackle. It happened during a pre-season scrimmage. Our chapter nipped this in the bud very quickly.

This really happened!

Of course then it becomes a safety concern and we simply refer to the specific situation and coaches understand. I specifically mention the school it happened to and when it happened and they fully comply without much resistance, if any.

Now that you mention it, we might have seen the same picture too. I'm always a day late and a dollar short.

It is a NFHS picture presented in the pre-season meetings regarding rules changes and POE. We saw the same picture.

We saw the same picture at our meeting with the state as well. Some of jokingly started acting like boyz from the hood just to get a good laugh, but we knew seriously what we were going to watch out for.

I only do NCAA rules games, but I'm not sure I want to be trying to figure out if the "bands" the guys wearing are just sweatbands or are legitimate orthopedic supports. If you take a look at www.kneeshop.com and look at the knee or patella bands (worn just below the knee) and elbow support products (worn just below the elbow) there's no obvious difference on a lot of them. And it's always been my understanding that any braces, supports, etc. that do not create a safety hazard for either the player or his opponent are legal. I really don't want to be the fashion police, just verify that any "additional equipment" does not create a safety hazard and is not expressly prohibited in the rules.

It's not that difficult to differentiate between a patella strap used for support and a 1/2 inch Under Armour sweat band with a UA logo on it. I've seen exactly 1 player this year wearing a patella strap and it was easily identified from 20 feet away.