Nit-picking question

[Mike51]

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

[IAUMP]

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).

[Warrenkicker]

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.

[Jim D]

"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.

[RoyGardner]

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.

[PSU213]

Originally Posted by RoyGardner

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.