Football Officials' Whistles
 

I noticed during the Super Bowl that Terry McAuley wears his whistle on his hand. In a couple of pictures in the papers today there were shots of McAuley in the middle of scuffling players but the whistle was in his mouth.

I assume this is to prevent injury when using his hands to pull players off each other. Does the Whistle just disengage from the ring around his finger or does he have to remove the entire apparatus(the pictures were hard to tell)??

What are the strengths of using a whistle on your hand? One that comes to mind for me is with a whistle on your hand you would not be blowing it until you were sure the play was over. (Obviously I am not a football official)

Just wondering and have been for a long time since I have seen both types of whistles used by officials at each position.

Thanks in advance.

The whistle on the hand has nothing to do with injury. Any good official would not have the whistle in their mouth at all during play. You do not want to blow the whistle too soon. One of the remedies is to wear a finger whistle. I do not like that style, but the NFL does not seem to have a problem with it for certain officials.

Peace

Thanks for the explanation of the difference.

But my first question was about taking it off the finger while breaking up scuffles. Is that to avoid injuries?

I do not use a finger whistle and I have no idea if someone would do this. Then again you just gave me another reason not to use a finger whistle at all.

Peace

I've used a finger whistle since I started. I once bumped into a coach on the sideline after a timeout and the "ring" portion made a nasty divot in my finger.
If he was blowing the whistle while trying to break up a scrum, he'd probably want it off his hand.

Its also a good idea to remove it before setting a clip after measurement. The chalk/grass/mud doesn't taste good.

I use a finger whistle. It fits loosely on my hand so that I can remove when I blow the whistle. I then hold the whistle in my mouth for making signals.

I take it out of my mouth after I change my down marker, unless I need to talk. There have been times I have dropped out of my mouth and had to search the grass for it.

When you look at old footage of games, you'll notice officials blowing their finger whistles and making one-handed touchdown, incomplete, and stop-the-clock signals.

Today, officials who use finger whistles are very disciplined (especially at the NFL and NCAA levels). They give a blast or two of their whistle and then signal. If they need to blast and signal at the same time, they make sure they slip the whistle off their fingers. It is not as tight fitting as you might think.

Me? I use a lanyard. I just feel more comfortable that way.

The whistle on the lanyarn is the only way to go. I started first doing basketball which probably factors into my preference. The one difference between basketball and football when it comes to the whistle is basketball requires a fairly quick whistle, therefore, you tend to hold it in your mouth. In football the whistle is not as important and letting it hang it ok.

BTW. Has anybody noticed NFL ref Ron Winter's lanyarn. The whistle at the end of it is below his waist.

Lanyard

I can answer your question. You would remove the whistle from your hand duting such a situation for a couple of reasons. First, it might be necessary to blow the whistle to gain the players' attention while breaking up the schuffle. the second reason would be to prevent damage to it. The part that you slip your fingers through is metal covered by a rubber sheath. the rest is plastic and it can quite easily be broken of off the metal holder if struck against a helmet or should pad.

And it seems to be getting longer every year. I noticed that this year, and thought, gee, it seems like he's making it longer every year! I'm not kidding! Wish I could find pictures to back this up.

I don't recall seeing it but I bought a lanyard from Honig's that puts the whistle almost to my belt. This allows me a more natural arm swing while running with the whistle in my hand. I could imagine that if someone shorter than me used this lanyard, it would hang down quite a ways.

Removing a finger whistle when involved in a scuffle, certainly doesn't sound like a bad idea and maybe well worth considering, but keeping it on the hand doesn't usually present a major problem.

Of course that might depend on how serious the scuffle gets, in which case deciding on whether to intervene with hands might be the more important question. A reasonable habit to develop might be carrying a second finger whistle in your pocket just in case something happens to your primary.

I really believe I would rather have a damaged finger as opposed to damaged/loose/lost teeth.

Safety and signaling are two of the main reasons why I use a lanyard.

When I first started officiating someone told me I should always remove my wedding ring during games because it could get caught or snagged on a player during the game and could rip off your finger. That stuck with me and I always remove it. I've seen other officials work with their wedding ring on though. The comments around putting the finger whistle in your mouth while clearing up a pile are along the same lines. Do most officials take off their wedding rings (or other jewelry) or is this an unusual practice I picked up early on?

I use a lanyard. I am not into one-handed timeout signals.

I wear my wedding ring. No problems in 23 years.

I don't wear my wedding (or any other) ring at all. Several years back, while water skiing, my ring caught on the ski handle and almost took my finger off so for the past 20 + years my ring is a mangled mess resting in my wife's jewelry box.

My whistle is on a lanyard though I'm not necessarily opposed to giving a finger whistle a try. I also wear my wedding band, even while working umpire.

for whatever it's worth, the very LAST place you want to put a whistle, when clearing up a scuffle, or even reaching down into a pile of players for a ball (or anything else) is in your mouth. Players bouncing around unexpectedly colliding with whistles, whether they're on the end of a lanyard or your finger can cause a lot of damage to your teeth or mouth.

Sounding your whistle and interacting with players in a "scrum" should always be separate and distinct acts, that absolutely do not mix well.

My whistle in on a lanyard.

My lanyard is around my wrist.

I don't wear a wedding band. Ever!

I don't give sloppy, one-handed signals. Ever!

This is the same advice given to basketball officials administering the jump ball -- do not put the whistle in your mouth cause someday you will take an elbow that will then break off some teeth.

I wear mine, but my finger whistle covers it up.

I had the pleasure of attending a clinic that Bill Carollo and Butch Hannah put together. Being an umpire at the time, he (BH) had some great pointers and insight and the first thing he mentioned was that the ump should always have a finger whistle due to being bumped, run-over, etc.. and having the whistle in your mouth may cost you several inadvertants over the course of a season. I still used a lanyard, but his pointers stick with me even now as a crew chief.

The wedding ring (or lack thereof) is odd. I've seen rings on nearly every NFL/NCAA ref I've come across.

That is not a factor for me. I leave my whistle in my mouth until the snap and then I spit it out.

I did the same, but held it and pulled it out as a habit to make sure I did it. As a ref I do the same, but keep it in hand until I know the snap is off and good and hold it in my hand until I know the qb is safe and away.