I'm a rookie official in California and I have been stumped on a few true and false questions for the NFHS open book test. Any help would be great! I cannnot find explanation for these questions.
1.IT IS LEGAL EQUIPMENT FOR A PLAYER TO WEAR A BANDANNA IF IT IS FULLY COVERED BY THE HELMET.

2. IN OFFICIATING THE KICKING GAME, ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT RULES TO UNDERSTAND COMPLETELY IS WHEN THE KICK ENDS.

3.A PASS THROWN FROM THE 50 TOWARD THE B45, BUT BLOWN BACK BY THE WIND AND 1ST TOUCHED AT THE A45 IS A BACKWARD PASS.

4. (4TH-6 AT 50) A1 RUNS TO THE B40 AND THROWS AN INCOMPLETE FORWARD PASS. IT WILL BE A 1ST DOWN FOR A AFTER THE PENALTY.
(I'm thinking false ,but I want to make sure)

Any help with these questions would be great!!Thanks for your time!

### True: this annoying item is covered under 1-5-3-k. It is considered a uniform adormnent and must not be visible if worn.

### True. There are a lot of important rules in the kicking game. This is just one of them. See rule 6.

### False: Back to definitions on this one. See 2-29-1 and 2-29-2. The initial direction is what matters.
### False: The penalty for this foul is 5 yards from the spot (the end of the run) and Loss Of Down. So inorder for Team-A to make a 1st down under normal conditions, they would have to make it to the B-44. They made it to the B-40, but after a 5 yard penalty, they are now back at the B-45... short of the line to gain. Now the LOD kicks in and Team-B takes over.

If Team-A would have made it to the B-38, after the penalty they would be at the B-43. This is beyond the Line to gain, they were awarded a 1st down and the LOD would not be applied.
Check this out in Rule-7
Good luck.

Bandanas.
 

I am in favor of declaring bandanas illegal equipment because of the reasons Ed mentions in his post. The rule reference for this is 1-5-3k. Bandanas should fall under the category "uniform adornments". Also, the umpire can exercise his authority under rule 1-5-4.

Fortunately I noticed that the "skull caps" designed for athletic use are becoming more popular and hopefully kids will stop wearing bandanas altogether.

Last year or the year before we had a visit by John Pemberton who is one of the officers in the California Football Officials Association and also a Pac-10 umpire. He said that under NFHS rules bandanas are legal as long as they are covered completely by the helmet but there is no specific rule on them. However, there was a case book play on bandanas that was removed about 10 years ago. John even carries around an old case book for reference on this.

Good answers on the illegal forward pass question! It is so important to distinguish between fouls during the play and dead ball fouls when determining when A is awarded a first down but that is a subject for another thread.

I wanted to revive this thread from about a year ago. A discussion surfaced at our clinic this evening about uniform adornments. A local team has several players who have strips of athletic tape wrapped around bars of the face mask. Woiuld you consider this to be an adornment. Personally, I can see where it is anything but an adornment. What other purpose could it possibly serve?

What other types of things do you consider to be adornments?

Is this really a question from a Fed. test?? Maybe this is a silly thought, but wouldn't the most important thing be to know all the rules? This question doesn't even test the knowledge of a particular rule. I think it would be a better use of ink to have a T/F question that is something to the effect of "A kick ends when a team gains possession," or "A kick ends when it touches the ground." Anyone who has any training in education would say this is a terrible T/F question, however "Why is it of the utmost importance to know when a kick ends?" would make a good essay question.

No, it's not from an NFHS exam PSU. How about some ideas about uniform adornments? Has this been addressed in your area?

REPLY: Assuming that the bandana presents no safety compromises to the wearer (umpire's determination), the answer is TRUE in Federation rules. For the 2000 season the NFHS Rules Committee entertained a motion to make them illegal (see http://football.refs.org/rules/NF2000vote.html). The motion failed by a vote of 30-17. The Fed chose not to include them as illegal equipment.

By the way, in NCAA rules, visible bandannas are illegal equipment when worn in the field of play or the endzones.

According to Rule 1-5-1a the face mask should meet NOCASE test standard at the time of manufacture. And..."the surface covered with resilient material designed to prevent chipping, burrs or abrasiveness which could endanger players."

I would judge the tape abrasive and have them remove it.

BBR, I had this once and told the kids and the coach that the tape is consider an adornment and must be removed. They did not argue with me, I felt it could have been abrasive and harmful. I never thought about it much, I will pass it around this weekend and see if I can come up with anything more concrete.