I’ve never been an NFL ref but when I did High School officiating the band over the fingers was a short hand method to remember what is happening on the field. As an Umpire (lined up behind the defense) your job was to spot the ball. If the last play was outside the hash marks you would move the finger band accordingly to remember where the last spot was. The middle finger implying that the ball was between the hash marks. The Referee (white hat, lines up behind the offense, head honcho) uses the finger position to keep track of the down. You don’t actually think the help on the sidelines does that themselves, do you? Just my experience.
I believe all the officials are keeping track of the downs. I was under the impression that they used a large rubber band which they moved on to the appropriate finger to indicate the down. All the officials are supposed to yell out the down so that everyone knows the right down.
When officials screw that up, there’s hell to pay. Ask the University of Missouri.
I specifically asked my co-worker about that, and I also carefully watched the game I mentioned. All the refs had the band on the same finger throughout the game, and my co-worker verified that they don’t use them for that.
Incidentally: http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mrefband.html
Damn straight! And you thought that NFL referees were a bunch of middle-aged, wish-they-were-foorballplayer wienies. Even more reason to watch the Rams.
All combat takes place at night, in the rain, at the juncture of four maps.
To see them get tackled by the refs? 
I too have been a high school referee (and umpire too). For 99.99999% of all referees (everyone except for Hammer), the wrist band with the loop on it is to mark the down. After a play you move the band to the next finger. Between plays you still double check with your field colleagues to be sure that you’re in agreement as to which down it is. It’s easy to think it’s one down, when it’s realy another. Especially with some penalties that repeat the down, and some that don’t.
Enright3
I’m here to set the record straight. The reason for the rubber bands on their hands is to tell them what down it is. Each down has a different position on the hand. I don’t know where you got that pad thing from. That is preposterous. They all have cards which they write on during the games, but they put them in their pockets. In the future, I suggest you do some more more research before answering questions.
Well, “daddy,” the answer explained where I got the info from. So, you tell me, where did you get your info from?
Like I said, I looked into the idea of using them to mark downs, but at least for the NFL, it just didn’t seem to be correct.
I think it is quite possible and logical for NFL refs to use bands to keep their notepads on their wrists and for high school and college refs to keep them in their back pockets.
I do cover high school football games for a local paper and all the referees out here keep the notepads in their back pocket.
I think that NFL officials have more to write down than college and prep officials as the rules are more complex at that level. For one thing, NFL officials have to keep track of how many instant replay challenges each team has called for.
NFL officials have numerous different practices from college officials. (College officials don’t announce the number of a person committing a penalty. NFL officials use to wear different color hats.)
I don’t know if there is a case of an extra down ever being granted in the NFL, but since that league uses two sets of chain gangs, their are more fail-safes built into the system.
Of course, sometimes they aren’t sure whether someone said “heads” or “tails.”
Why doesn’t someone contact the head of the NFL officiating section? I think Jim Tunney or someone like that is taking care of that chore. NFL is usually willing to answer all sorts of questions about their practices.
If an official wants to keep a pad of paper strapped to his wrist that’s fine with me. The OP question referred to a band that goes through the fingers. THAT BAND IS USED FOR COUNTING DOWNS. A band through the fingers has nothing to do with strapping a pad to an officials wrist.
They do wear different colored hats. The referee wears white, the other officials wear black w/ white piping.
FWIW, I always kept my note pad in my shirt pocket, so I could get to it faster and easier.
Listen to the voices of experience. Hammer,Bob,Enright, and even Bob have been there and done that. They know that the bands are called MARKING BANDS,because they mark the downs,ball position and to mark notes in a pad. In HS and college each school has to provide the bands to the officials. If you attend a school game (sometimes on TV,during “high interest” college games) you will see them on the field conferring , showing each the notes and bands,and adjusting the bands if needed at half time. I have no interest in attending an NFL game and on TV they have the anchor team punching each other in the shoulders,making jokes about what a dolt the other anchors are , and generally acting like exjocks at a bar so I don’t know if the NFL has MARKING BANDS at halftime or not.
“Pardon me while I have a strange interlude.”-Marx
From my observations of the Ram-Vikings playoff game today, the officials definitely wear a band around their right hand. On first down, it is looped around the index finger and they move them over on each down (Middle finger = second, ring finger = third, pinky - fourth).
The referee and the umpire in the game both had their notepads in their shirt pockets.
That does make sense. Why would they issue uniforms to the referees with shirt pockets unless they had some utility. It’s not like they’re going to use a pocket protector and stick a bunch of pens in it.
Gotta say that, during this week’s playoffs, each of the head referees had one wrist with a band around it. None of the referees had a notebook inside the band (clearly visible when they hold up a hand for the dead-ball-foul sign). All of the referees used an elastic loop attached to the band to keep track of downs (one can watch them move the loop if one watches carefully).
I think that David got bad info. I recommend to the SDSAB that answers to questions that they post here might be better researched than asking a friend, etc. As I suggested last week, a call on this could have been placed to the NFL, the logical source for an answer that would have some reason to be accepted without much quibble. 
Just to add to that thought, I want to make it clear that I am not yet sure they DON’T strap a pad to the wrist with the band, in addition to the loops for downs. I just haven’t observed any indication of it.
You guys beat me to it. I did some more research (which involved watching the playoffs yesterday ) and saw the same thing you guys saw. The writs bands definitely correspond to downs, and neither of the refs calling the penalties (the ones who actually have the mikes and all) had notepads – in fact, the one in the second game didn’t even have a band!
I suspect what happened is that the ref in a game or two at which my co-worker worked also used the band to keep his notebook handy, as a secondary use, and my co-worker assumed that was what it was for. Believe me, I won’t use him as a resource again. (Jeez, ya think you can trust a guy who actually works with the refs at NFL games!)
I’ll see about correcting the Mailbag answer. And from now on I’m sticking to easy, less controversial questions, like those about evolutionary biology, historical religious beliefs, chemistry, physics, etc.!
Wrong!
I am an official and the band is there to keep track of what down it is. You will notice that it does loop over the finger of the official…one finger for first down, two for second, and so on. This comes from games where there is no scoreboard to keep track of the down. Referees in games where there is a scoreboard do it to keep track in case the scoreboard screws up (like that ever happens).
When you are watching the next game you will see the official move the loop after each play. Remember, it is easy for spectators to keep track of the down because they aren’t trying to sort of numerous penalties and keep coaches calm at the same time.
Um, thanks, Flash, but next time you might want to read the thread before posting. For example, the message from me above your post admits I was wrong.
Anyway, everybody, the Mailbag item has been updated:
http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mrefband.html#update