It wasn't a beard card either. As a student at BYU I was turned away for an ID card in the mid afternoon when I had shaved that morning. It was a prissy female student worker with an axe to grind. She couldn't have been more rude about it and passive aggressively commented about how "some students seem to think the rules don't apply to them on shaving." She was so matter of fact about how she said it that I just nodded in agreement and asked her where I should stand for my picture. She rolled her eyes and informed me she would not take my picture because I hadn't shaved that day. I corrected her and kindly asked her to google "afternoon shadow" and to please stop messing around. No dice. I probably should have asked for her manager, but instead I made some comment about how the pharasees didn't like how Jesus broke their rules either and left.

This is kind of immature, but when I later taught as an adjunct professor at BYU, I made sure I didn't shave for a week before getting my employee ID card just to see what they would say. Full on scruff and not a peep out of them. I felt vindicated, even though I know it was because I was a professor and not a student. I'm guessing the football players fall somewhere between the peon undergrad student and the faculty in terms of preferential treatment.