Many people think that being a pro sportsman/sports woman is seriously easy. You just show up to the game, do your thing to the best of your abilities, go away, attend training, and the rest of the time you’re free to do what you want. A lot of athletes are actually babied by their teams; they have people at their beck and call willing to cater to their every whim, make their lives as comfortable as possible so that they can let loose on game day. “If only if it was like that for all of us” a lot of athletes must be thinking. That tends to be the case for only the top pros – they get different rules, get to follow their own set of rules.

But for the rest of the mere mortals in the sporting world, they have to adhere to the rules and regulations set out but their coaches, the team management or the country’s sporting governing body. It’s all well and good having a structured approach to that aspect of life. But rigidity can be stifling, and often it causes a lot of athletes to just want to break free. That’s especially the case when the rules enforced are truly ridiculous. Rules are meant to be broken – many athletes, especially these 15, feel these rules certainly are. These are 15 ridiculous team rules you didn’t know these athletes have had to follow.

15 Ohio State Players Can't Say "Michigan"

The Ohio State Buckeyes and the Michigan Wolverines have one of the most heated rivalries in all of college football. They're now led by two of the most recognizable coaches in football in Urban Meyer and Jim Harbaugh. However, there's a weird rule that's existed in the Ohio State camp dating back to the 1970s. Back when Woody Hayes was coaching the team, he would punish Buckeyes players for saying "their name". So for the longest time, Michigan has only been referred to as "that team up north".

Former Buckeye Billy Price once revealed there are certain cases where players allowed to say "Michigan". It's only when it's necessary in a sentence, and is only a matter of geography.

“We can refer to the state, but we can’t refer to the university.”

14 Strict Dress Code

A lot of sports teams around the world implement strict dress codes that their athletes must adhere to. It’s about looking the part, respecting yourself and your team, upholding your team’s image. Teams want their players to look like upstanding members of society, like the perfect role models they are to so many. This is especially the case during away matches, when they’re on the road, traveling through airports and hotels.

One team that’s implanted a strict dress code is the New York Giants. Their players had to wear coats and ties and black socks for road games. Plaxico Burress found that dress code challenging during his time with the Giants. He was fined for breaking it. He wasn’t the only one either – that suit and tie business isn’t for everybody, especially for guys who are used to wearing athletic gear most of the time.

13 Belgian Cycling Team Forced To Shave 

In 2017, news broke out of the world of cycling that made people chuckle a bit. The Belgian national cycling team had announced that they had placed a ban on their athletes having what they deemed to be unhygienic beards. Simon Geschke found himself to be the poster boy of that ban to scrap facial hair. Those at the helm of the Belgian cycling team told their athletes, especially Simon, to shave or to go and find another line of work. Their reasoning? Apparently, such facial hair was a stain on the elegance of cycling. Planckaert, the team’s sporting director, said, “We are a cycling team, with riders, not motocross riders or rugby players. The snot and the leftover food in the beard of a rider in the middle of the race is dirty.” Wow, that’s a thought.

12 PastaGate

For most people, eating pasta to your stomach's content should be an enjoyable experience. However, the University of Oklahoma got a little paranoid a few years ago. The NCAA tends to come down hard on schools that offer certain benefits to its players, but Oklahoma really took things a step too far here. The school outed some of their own players to the NCAA after the players ate what the school thought was too much pasta for a graduation banquet. The school in turn charged the player $3.83 each for their extra servings.

Even the NCAA was caught off guard with Oklahoma imposing this rule:

"While we appreciate Oklahoma's commitment, there are no NCAA rules regarding portion sizes, and any penalties were determined by the university," NCAA spokeswoman Meghan Durham said.

So the school essentially thought the players exceeded the "reasonable refreshments" schools are expected to provide athletes. Telling football players they can't have an extra serving of pasta? Come on...

11 Manchester City's Pizza Ban

Pep Guardiola is someone who’s no stranger to winning, to getting the absolute best out of his athletes. He knows what makes players tick, what works best on the soccer field. Now at the helm of Man City, he’s looking to achieve the same level of success he enjoyed at Barcelona and Bayern Munich.

For years pizza has been a favorite post-game meal for a lot of teams. Messi, Suarez and Ronaldo have been known to tuck into a slice or two of pizza after a game. Leicester’s boss used the lure of a juicy pizza as motivation during their title winning season. But for Pep, it’s an absolute no no. He’s banned the likes of Sergio Aguero and his Man City teammates from eating pizza, not just after games, but at any point throughout the entire season. He wants his athletes to be finely tuned and not put what he deems to be greasy junk in their bodies. It looks like that pizza ban might pay off this season. When they eventually win the Premier League – it’s inevitable they will - they’ll probably raid their local pizza eatery for a well-deserved pig out session, if the gaffer gives the go ahead that is.

10 The English National Team Can't Eat At Starbucks

With the soccer World Cup fast approaching, preparations are already in full swing. England are thought of as the nearly men of the soccer world. They always reach the knockout stages, often reach the quarter finals, but that’s as far as they tend to go. This time around, manager Gareth Southgate is leaving no stone unturned to ensure his players are in the best possible shape, that they go a step further. During the friendly matches, he’s banned his players, the likes of Jamie Vardy, from eating anything from Starbucks. He’s allowed them to get teas and coffees but has also banned sweeteners from the popular coffee chain. The ban’s been imposed in an effort to make his players as fit as possible. He’s banned his players from eating Starbucks and has also banned Starbucks from serving his players.

9 The Cowboys Baby Their Players

Being a Dallas Cowboy is the dream of many aspiring NFL players. After all, who wouldn't want to play for the most iconic North American sports franchise? However, following an incident in 2012, the Cowboys began to get a lot stricter on what players could do in their off-hours. Back when Dez Bryant was having a few off-field troubles, the Cowboys decided to essentially punish the whole team, by imposing a midnight curfew and not allowing players to drink or frequent certain establishments. Considering the way Jerry Jones has behaved in off hours, it's a little ridiculous that these rules were imposed on the players. Hopefully they've since eased up. Imagine if the 90s Cowboys had to follow a midnight curfew!

8 New York Yankees Ban On Long Hair

There was quite a hullabaloo created when baseball outfielder, Clint Frazier, was forced to cut his locks. A lot of people deemed the New York Yankees’ rule of having no distracting hair of any kind to be utterly ridiculous. It’s as though you’re not allowed to have any type of personality in baseball, can’t express yourself in any which way. Clint was forced to shorten his iconic locks in order to adhere to baseball’s and the team’s grooming policy. A lot of people can’t fathom what people found so offensive about Clint’s hair. The reason that was given is that his hair was distracting. He had his locks sheared off at 7.15.am during a training day because apparently, they were distracting him from the task at hand.

7 Don't Break Wind In The Mile High City

A lot of stuff happens in the locker rooms, in a sporting environment when a team of athletes are around. There’s a lot of gentle ribbing, banter, and some unruly behavior takes place. It’s mostly just for a laugh, and if anything, such activities make a team bond, become closer. But perhaps if you feel comfortable enough to pass gas when you’re in an enclosed space around your teammates, you’re too comfortable. But let’s face it, guys will be guys. The Denver Broncos certainly don’t see it that way. Star linebacker Von Miller, has revealed that he’s been fined for passing gas during team meetings. On occasions, he just hasn’t been able to control himself, and had to let one rip. Whenever he does, he has to get his wallet out too.

6 Akiko Suzuki Forced To Lose Weight

Nowadays where people are more conscious than ever before about eating disorders and mental health, teams are very careful about telling their athletes to lose weight. Of course, if someone is obviously out of shape and needs a kick up the backside, that’s issued. But sometimes, in certain sports, athletes are in tremendous shape, but due to the nature of the sport, are pushed by coaches to lose even more weight, that extra pound or two. That’s when things get dangerous, as Japanese figure skater Akiko Suzuki found out. She developed an eating disorder as she was pushed by her coaches to keep losing weight. Apparently, she’s not the only one from that sport, from that nation. It’s a common occurrence, and actually, eating disorders have dulled the sport of figure skating, not done anything for its reputation or viewership.

5 U.S. Athletes Can't Protest

Over the last there’s been quite a storm created amongst a lot of athletes in American sports. NFL athletes in particular have begun kneeling during the nation anthems, before games, in a silent protest against the Trump administration and how certain member of society are being treated under his presidency. There was talk of athletes doing the same at the recently concluded Winter Olympics. But the American Olympic Committee were quick to stamp the idea out. They didn’t want any athlete using the Olympics as a stage to protest. So, even if she wanted to, Lindsey Vonn and other star athletes had to remain standing during the national anthems, remain schtum. They wanted the focus to be on the sport, not any political grievances they may hold.

4 No Stepping On Team Logos

The NHL is a league that has many of its own traditions and unwritten rules among players. One of those rules has been that under no circumstances can anybody step on a team logo, usually placed in the center on the floor in an NHL locker room. Locker room guests and media members have also been chastised whenever they step on a logo and it's a pretty ridiculous rule. Yes, it's important to show respect to the team you play for, but the way certain players react when someone steps on it sometimes goes overboard. Locker rooms are crowded, especially in a media scrum, so how can you ask people to not set foot in a certain area? Wouldn't an easy solution to this whole thing be to just not put the team logo on the floor?

3 North Korea’s Basketball Rules

We know by now that North Korea is a nation that’s unlike any other. With Kim Jong-un at the helm, North Korea have been playing to their own tune, have made enemies out of pretty much every nation. They implement their own rules, do what they want to do. That goes for sports too. Since you’re reading this article, it’s fair to assume you know a little something about basketball, and the rules of the game. Well, Kim has decided to tear up this rule book and enforce his own rules. That must be awfully confusing for North Korean players, for the likes of Choe Jin Song, who have to play basketball one way, adhering to a certain set of rules when in North Korea, then adapt and change, and play to other rules when playing on the global stage.

2 Norway Alpine Ski Team Forced To Share Beds

Teams from sports around the world regularly implement rules to help with team bonding. If your players, your athletes are close, comfortable with each other, they’re more likely to perform better as a unit. It’s all about creating the support network, knowing others are in your corner and are supporting you. But some may feel that the Norway Alpine Ski team took things to another level. Aksel Lund Svindal and his men spend around 250 days of the year together. That’s an awful long time, and so it would help if they all got on. They do this by getting close, really close. At certain times, they’ve had to share beds. That's right, literally sleep in the same beds together. That’s taking closeness, male bonding to a whole other level.

1 No Luggage On Wheels For Rookies

This has to be one of the most ridiculous rules of the lot. In a lot of teams, the more senior members think they’re above the rest, try to enforce certain rules, expose their seniority on the younger members of the group. Nowadays, a lot of teams are focusing on team harmony, and have tried to stamp out such behavior. But it still happens around the world in certain teams. The ice hockey team the Buffalo Sabres is one place where it’s happened. Brad May has said that during his time with the Sabres, the elder statesmen implemented their own rules and in a way, bullied the youngsters. There were some really ridiculous rules such as the youngster not being allowed to have luggage on wheels. They weren’t thought of as important, senior or privileged enough to wheel their luggage, so had to make do with lugging it around with them instead.