Yep, for the first time, I just put my 8 year old flags in the washing machine. We'll see how that goes. And yes, I took them off the sticks first. I said nerd, not dummy alert.
I just recently bought new flags. The old set was so sun-faded that they were no longer orangeish/reddish and yellow but more pastel pinkish and pale yellow.
I must just do more games in the mud than you do. Or maybe I just run harder when I am doing a muddy line . Mine go in the wash about once in the spring, and again once in the fall, when the mud splashes get too nasty.
I forgot to do this once and my flags got moldy curled up in my bag. Tossed them and bought new ones.
You're sharing this with people who actually take time to read and write on a referee forum. That alone is just as nerdy as washing flags. As for my other referee nerd stories, I know all of the MLS referees and many MLS ARs by face. I keep a detailed spreadsheet tracking MLS assignments. You have no idea how much crap I get from friends for my knowledge of professional referees.
My wife has said, more than once, "Sometimes I think you watch the highlights just for the referees." My reaction is usually "So? I know that."
Watching Euros in the office last week, my buddy said, "Will you please stop about the referee's positioning?"
I've washed my flags once. I "gave" a pair of my older ones (I didn't like the grips) to a National I work with all the time who hasn't bought flags I think since the 1980's; they were bleached nearly white. I'm always looking for the magic links everyone else knows about that list the MLS assignments (I've never found them and feel correspondingly stoopit). My Mate finds it very tiresome that when I ask for the lineups racing home from my own assignments to watch a match on teevee, I frantically demand, "the referee crew, who's on the crew?!"
The assignments are first publicly posted here and shortly thereafter are put on MLS game previews like this one. Assignments tend to be posted anywhere from 6-36 hours prior to the start of the match.
To win the nerdiest referee award you must dry clean your jerseys instead of washing them like normal clothes. No this is not me but I considered it once.
I individually pack each of my shirts into a gallon size ziplock bag. I also have a undershirt to match each of my jerseys. Does that win????
I use a pack-it cube for my uniforms, but having an individual bag for each uniform is rather common in my experience.
Close but not quite. All my jerseys are in the same ziploc bag configuration, though I will admit I don't do the matching undershirt. For curiosity, do you have matching whistles as well?
I'm just waiting for this thread to keep going so I can print it out for my wife so I'll look reasonable . . .
Ziplock bags made the jerseys too wrinkly for me. Eagle creek ftw. I made a prototype whistle keeper out of epoxy and rare earth magnets. If i can find it, I'll post a picture.
Anyone else print out their own game cards for their wallets (I use the one from http://www.ussoccerref.com/)? I print them on card stock paper and cut them out with a paper cutter. Also, I like to use different coins for the coin toss. I use, randomly, 1879, 1922 and 1976 silver dollars. One local ref is also a history professor and uses various military challenge coins and then attempts to gives the kids a history lesson about it (they don't even listen, I'm sure..).
Pretty sure this was Mike Dean's method, but he had 2 pieces of tape, and I bet it was Cricket bat tape not Hockey. Saw it a few times on TV for his EPL matches. Whoops, just had another nerd moment there.
Just b/c I do my own and have tried different kinds of paper doesn't make me a nerd. See, I like simple, three columns, the time goes in the middle and the what goes under whichever team. So, really, it's not nerdy, its just going for simplicity. Really.
Dual watch tan. Also, it is embarrassing to wear shorts and normal socks owing to the referee sock tan.
I keep my jerseys in the gallon-size ziplocs, but I don't like the way they slide around on each other in my bag. Looking for a solution there. And I also make my own game cards.
Try putting the ziplock bags inside another bag. A small hacky sack or even a plastic grocery bag works. I keep all my short sleeves in one bag (each on their individual bag) and the long sleeves on another. I keep all in the car grab the appropriate sleeve selection as I go to the field and put in my ref bag.