Colin Kaepernick was recently fined $10,000 for wearing Beats headphones at a press conference
because the NFL has an exclusive deal with Bose. All of the coaches
and other personnel on the sidelines wear Bose headphones, and the
exclusive deal means that players and coaches are not allowed to wear
any other brand of headphones in front of cameras.
But Kaepernick's fine isn't stopping players from wearing Beats during warm-ups. As Deadspin pointed out, Cam Newton, Tom Brady, Richard Sherman, and Bengals defensive tackles all wore Beats Sunday.
Newton also has an endorsement deal with Beats:
As Re/code reported, the policy is the NFL's, not Bose's. The NFL's statement:
"The
NFL has longstanding policies that prohibit branded exposure on-field
or during interviews unless authorized by the league. These policies
date back to the early 1990s and continue today. They are the NFL's
policies — not one of the league's sponsors, Bose in this case. Bose is
not involved in the enforcement of our policies. This is true for others
on-field."
But as Beats
point out, Beats headphones have become a staple in many athletes'
wardrobes over the past several years. Beats' statement:
"Over
the last few years athletes have written Beats into their DNA as part
of the pre-game ritual. Music can have a significant positive effect on
an athlete’s focus and mental preparedness and has become as important
to performance as any other piece of equipment."
It
will be interesting to see if players disregard the NFL completely and
keep wearing their preferred headphones, or if the NFL will slap them
with worse fine and they'll have to obey.
No comments:
Post a Comment