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And here we thought Roger Goodell was concerned about players beating Women when instead he was concerned about them wearing Beats.
 
That statement applies to Beats.

I'd go as far as to say Beats are even worse. Their sales were based on heavy marketing and association with sports stars, all over the TV. When is the last time you have seen a BOSE commercial?

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Yes , and it's for the consumer to decide how much they wish to greatly overpay for average quality ;)

Okay... I'll follow-up and say Beats has that certain pop for the genre of music that I sometimes listen to. So for me they're great. Bose will never fill in that gap for this genre of music and won't provide much in the way of critical listening either.
 
The NFL has no right to restrict players who've had prior deals in place. Otherwise, what's to prevent the NFL from just saying nobody can have any endorsement deals anywhere unless it's pre-approved by the league?

If a player has a contract with Beats, I would think the NFL should compensate the player for the term of his endorsement contract and pay any penalties on behalf of the player for breaking his contract with Beats.

And give him new headphones.

The NFL is just becoming more and more evil. I haven't even watched a game in the last two seasons. The gameplay isn't as good as it once was and all the NFL's political correctness is just boring me to death!
 
That sucks a bit.

I did finally get a chance to use a pair of Beats and I must say that they're not bad. Everyone here claiming to be some audiophile is overreacting. They enhance the bass much like anything that's made for popular culture.

If it's not for monitoring audio in production or post production then it's probably got something that someone won't like.

The Bose sound good too but the extra bass on the Beats was welcomed for most of the songs I have.

I think the problem is that due to their meteoric rise and popularity the purists cannot understand the hype. I do not think beats spent the money it spent on in R&D, marketing and setting up the entire company to market to audiophiles. Their mission seemed singular in focus i.e. to make headphones "sexy" again so that they start competing with things like these -

http://store.nike.com/us/en_us/pd/air-jordan-xx9-basketball-shoe/pid-10067190/pgid-10232626

Most that buy beats buy it for the fashion and the culture they represent and I really do not think there is anything wrong with that. I also think that they are fairly well built and look and feel premium. I do however, hope that Apple does do the sound on them so that they have versions that appeal to different demographics. If they do, perhaps people like me will go in and spend money on them (I currently own Audio technics AT-M50X's)
 
The NFL has no right to restrict players who've had prior deals in place. Otherwise, what's to prevent the NFL from just saying nobody can have any endorsement deals anywhere unless it's pre-approved by the league?

If a player has a contract with Beats, I would think the NFL should compensate the player for the term of his endorsement contract and pay any penalties on behalf of the player for breaking his contract with Beats.

And give him new headphones.

The NFL is just becoming more and more evil. I haven't even watched a game in the last two seasons. The gameplay isn't as good as it once was and all the NFL's political correctness is just boring me to death!

I could be wrong but the NFL player's contract sort of deals with such an issue where the NFL interest trumps that of an individual athlete. Anyways, the players can still wear their beats in public, just not during the stipulated times. Apple is a very very cash rich company and I am sure had they seen value in such a deal they could have outbid Bose. I don't see much from this, I don't think beats got hurt when Sony forced Soccer players to use Sony headphones during match lineups etc, nor do I think it will matter much if Balmer forces his newly acquired team to switch to Surface tablets.
 
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The NFL has no right to restrict players who've had prior deals in place.

The NFL is not stopping players from having their own sponsorship. The 90 minute rule (before and after the game) is not new. Players have to abide by this rule for all sorts of sponsors the NFL has.

Otherwise, what's to prevent the NFL from just saying nobody can have any endorsement deals anywhere unless it's pre-approved by the league?

The CBA allows players to have their own endorsements and the NFL has no say so in the matter. So the NFL can not do that without re-negotiating a new collective bargaining agreement. And the players would never accept that.
 
I guess this makes Steve Ballmer's banning of Apple products for the LA Clippers' players and employees look more reasonable.
 
I guess this makes Steve Ballmer's banning of Apple products for the LA Clippers' players and employees look more reasonable.

Of course, its his team, the players play for him. If my Company said that my work phone has to be a Note4 for whatever reason (I bet they'll justify it) then I would be holding one the very next day. These are franchise teams, not national teams so the interest of the franchise dictates what they show off and going in for the Surface tablets is very much that (marketing)
 
Player interviews are silly. It's the same cliche's over and over again.

"I'm going to try to score as fast as I can and try to stop the other team from scoring"



Anyways, the NFL sells more ads than football - they just made a change to their ad block ;)
 
This has already backfireed on Bose because now every time you see a nfl player wearing a Bose product or see a Bose commercial you will think of beats products and the ban and fans will support the baned product and go out and buy beats. What a perfect plan for beats! And if this decision is reversed it only generates more publicity for beats. Brilliant!
 
I've never used Bose headphones but I have a Bose SoundLink Mini and I love it. I think it sounds fantastic, puts out much more sound than it looks like it would.
 
Define "people with taste".

Ok.
Those that love music.
Those that close their eyes & "feel" the music.
Those that would choose a set of cans for how they actually sound; not because it makes them feel rich, elite & fancy (Bose); or all cool & gangster (Beats).
I know you're not supposed to use the term in the definition, but: anybody that realizes that Bose blows about covers it.
 
I think the problem is that due to their meteoric rise and popularity the purists cannot understand the hype. I do not think beats spent the money it spent on in R&D, marketing and setting up the entire company to market to audiophiles.

no, but they did make it much harder for audiophiles to explain the difference between good sound and crap. because crap now has a similar price tag. and that's enough for a lot of people with their first over-ears to engage in bitter arguments showcasing their ignorance about a topic that means literally nothing to them beyond making damn sure they don't get buyer's remorse..
 
no, but they did make it much harder for audiophiles to explain the difference between good sound and crap. because crap now has a similar price tag.

Well, if the company's that do produce awesome sound in general did their marketing right there would have been no market for companies like beats to penetrate. I have had Audio technica, and AKG's in the past but I do not see folks that have no intention to spend 20 hours of research on the internet on all matters "audio" going in for them. These guys will drop 300+ On beats, for good or bad. The only really thing beats has done has been to focus the younger demographic on headphones and have them think about dropping a lot of money for sound. Where can this go from here? I hope that Apple steps in with its engineering and put some solid work on beats audio quality with which it can appeal to many connoisseurs of sound. If not I sincerely hope that the crowd that beats is successfully drawing towards spending money on sound, grows up and discovers the entire spectrum of great sounding headphones at similar (or lower) price range that brings high quality sound optimized for different listeners.

At the end of the day, Beats is a culture and those that attack it based on sound really do not understand how it operates and what it looks to target. I think beats is kind of counting on the competition taking the argument to a level of sound engineering that its demographic really doesn't understand or care to :) , in the end others need to make their products more desirable then beats and unless someone steps up and does so beats will continue to sell and command the majority of market. Heck Bose has done so for so long through marketing.

The only thing i want from beats is a kill switch that will lower the thefts..
 
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Sorry, I was confused about your comment then. But it is ok, no one outside of this forum really thinks this some type of litigation is coming of this. It is standard operating procedure for the NFL. I would imagine half of the NFL has sponsorships with apparel companies besides Nike. Yet, somehow the NFL manages to go on with players not wearing non-Nike apparel on game days.

Players have been fined for showing their own sponsors name or logo when playing a game. They are allowed to wear other products, but the name or logo must not be visible.
 
I could care less what headphones, cleats or laptops the NFL uses. But its time to stop these dumbazz league endorsement deals. It makes the NFL look even more money grubbing than it already looks.
 
That's the most interesting part of this. Can a league deal force the players to possibly violate individual contracts, sponsorship and endorsements?

Yes. They can. They do so by fining the players, which they have regularly done so in the past.
 
Probably a fine which Apple will pay smiling at the publicity of a pro atheleye willing to face a confrontation to use his Beats headphones.

Correct. Something like this happened with Nike and the NBA when it banned the original Air Jordans. This only made Nike a tone of money when they used that in ads.
 
I'm not that much of a fanboy, and not American so have very little interest in NFL... but this does raise some interesting legal questions that very few here could answer, and without actually reading the contract it's all speculation anyway, but it certainly looks like there could be a legal fight. I'll be interested to see how it plays out.

Personally, I'd think Bose and the NFL have overstepped what they're allowed to control, based on the league having sponsors, the teams having sponsors and individual players having sponsors. Obviously, it would be irresponsible for a player to sign a deal with Adidas if their team was sponsored by Nike, as it's a little too close. But if it was only the referees sponsored by Nike, I'd think that would be a fair choice as there's quite a bit of separation there.

In this case, both brands are in the audio field, so they're very close, but it's not a team decision. Further, Apple/Beats didn't sign a deal after Bose, but rather it was the other way around. They knew they'd be causing legal conflicts in contracts with a certain percentage of players (presumably quite high)... so I'd say either Bose or more likely the NFL has promised something that they can't give. Then again, that depends what contracts the players and teams have with the league... I haven't seen them, but I can imagine things are very specific so the NFL better be sure what they've sold can actually be enforced ;)

That's the most interesting part of this. Can a league deal force the players to possibly violate individual contracts, sponsorship and endorsements?

Was thinking it might go the other way, with players forced to not use anything, affecting performance, and then they might say as much in interviews. The league might be sponsored by Bose after all, but if they can't get out of their contracts with Apple the league is putting their own players in a very strange place.

But I do realise it's all about making money, the league doesn't care about their players beyond cashflow.
 
So what must they be to wear Bose's crap?

Everyone has their opinions. Each year reviews always place Bose near the top. They back their quality of product. Beats has the sound especially in bass. Bose's noise canceling blows them away. I have both QC15 and QC20 becuase of frequent air travel. Tired Beats and others but Noise Cancelling just isn't there.

Again it's just my opinion.
 
Correct. Something like this happened with Nike and the NBA when it banned the original Air Jordans. This only made Nike a tone of money when they used that in ads.

And Jordan was fined $5000 per game for wearing them. I'll bet Nike found a way to reimburse him as the ban probably made them millions.
 
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