San Francisco 49ers Quarterback Fined $10k for Defying No Beats Headphones Rule

[Nunyabinez]

InfoTime's company probably doesn't require him to wear headphones. Just like the NFL doesn't require players to wear Bose.

Don't be pedantic and try to parse what I'm saying. We all know that they are telling them that when they are appearing at an NFL event, like before or after a game, that IF they want to wear headphones they have to be Bose.

That in no way negates my point that it is not "just a normal part of business" (which is the claim I was responding to) to dictate what products people use that are not even related to the work that they do.

I don't know of any companies that say that if you want to drink soda at work, it has to be Coke and you can't bring your Pepsi here (except maybe Coke).

 

[macosxuser01]

And McDonald's workers can't wear burger king hats to work.
WHAT HAPPENED TO FREE SPEECH???

This is a stupid comparison. THE CLIPPERS DO NOT MAKE TECHNOLOGY PRODUCTS! THERE A BASKETBALL TEAM!

 

[AZhappyjack]

And despite Microsoft dumping millions in to the whole Surface sponsorship within the NFL, the announcers and play-by-play guys still call them "iPads".

Does the NFL (or Microsoft) fine them?

You can’t make this stuff up.

 

[LethalWolfe]

Agreed! Definitely doesn't enhance the brand to see stories of players not being able to wear their own headphones and promote the brand they have signed on to endorse because of an exclusive contract that they had no say in. Personally, as a Ram fan I hate Kaepernick and as a musician I think Beats are way overrated, poorly EQ's and overpriced, but this still bugs me.

The players can wear whatever brand headphones, shoes, clothes, hats, underwear, socks, etc., they want. The just have to follow the NFL's branding guidelines when they are on the NFL's dime (which is spelled out in the contracts all the players signed). This is really no different than getting a job at Pizza Hut, agreeing to only wear official Pizza Hut branded shirts while on the clock and then wearing a Dominos branded shirt instead of a Pizza Hut shirt on your shift.

This is branding 101 and has been going on for decades. Something tells me that if Beats was still an independently owned company none of the "won't someone think of the person freedoms" crowd hear would even know about this let alone care. Everyone who is mad that players have to wear Nike uniforms instead of Reebok or Adidas uniforms raise your hand. Anyone mad that Gatorade is the only sports drink logo plastered all over the place? Anyone mad that only Riddell logos can appear on a player's helmet? Anyone made that labels routinely get removed from bottles of water so you don't know what brand people appearing on TV are drinking?

That in no way negates my point that it is not "just a normal part of business" (which is the claim I was responding to) to dictate what products people use that are not even related to the work that they do.

I don't know of any companies that say that if you want to drink soda at work, it has to be Coke and you can't bring your Pepsi here (except maybe Coke).

When it comes to businesses like sports and television, which are heavily branded, of course it's normal. Budweiser, for example, is a big sponsor of the UFC so at all official UFC events Bud (or other Anheuser Busch brands) is the only beer/beer logo that appears on camera. Fighters are free to drink whatever beer they want on their own time but when they are at UFC events holding a beer it will say "Bud" on the bottle.

I worked for a racing company for a bit and Motorola was a big sponsor. Guess what brand cell phones we were issued and required to use? I still had a personal phone but all work was done w/my company issued Motorola phone.

 

[69Mustang]

Don't be pedantic and try to parse what I'm saying. We all know that they are telling them that when they are appearing at an NFL event, like before or after a game, that IF they want to wear headphones they have to be Bose.

That in no way negates my point that it is not "just a normal part of business" (which is the claim I was responding to) to dictate what products people use that are not even related to the work that they do.

I don't know of any companies that say that if you want to drink soda at work, it has to be Coke and you can't bring your Pepsi here (except maybe Coke).

Sorry man, you're absolutely wrong... on both parts.
1. Players do not, in any way, shape, or form, have to wear Bose if they want to wear headphones. It's simply not true. Players can wear whatever headphone they want to wear as long as the logo and/or company name is not displayed during official NFL activities. Meaning a sticker or piece of tape covering the 'b' is sufficient. Kap could have avoided the $10K fine by simply putting pink ribbon stickers over the Beats logo.

2. It is in fact a normal part of business. It's written into the NFL Collective Bargaining Agreement. It has been that way for a long time. This is nothing new or extraordinary. It's standard NFL practice.

Your Coke Example: Even this is not a valid comparison. Why? Again, it's covered in the CBA. Here's what you won't see in NFL related events (and why). You won't see Powerade (Gatorade), Apple (Microsoft), Amex (Visa), Coke (Pepsi), Ford cars and trucks (GM). I could go on but you get the point. It's standard operating procedure in the NFL. All those companies that aren't official sponsors of the NFL are more than free to have sponsorships with individual teams and players, but the official NFL sponsorships trump the individual relationships.

So I wasn't being a pedant. Just stating fact.

 

[AppleScruff1]

It's not a violation of personal freedom.

He can wear beats, anytime he wants. No one will cuff him, he will spend no time in jail and at no moment can he be forced by law to remove his headphones.

He did agree to penalties and fines from his organization to be a part of the organization. His signature is probably on a piece of paper stating just that. The fines are part of an agreement which he is violating.

The worst that can probably happen is that he loses his contract and gets kicked out of the organization. He was wear his beats through the whole process.

Now, the real problem here is that this organization does not respect and individuals free expression while being a member. They are so controlling down to level of what kind of headphones you wear. Given the sponsorship opportunities that individuals in the sport are offered, the organization should be a bit more hands off and offer their players more leeway to what they can do. No one likes a micromanaging controlling body that goes to these lengths to "protect" their own sponsors. I don't see why both can't happen. The NFL can support Bose, and the individuals can do what they want. Douchy salesman are likely the problem.

I'll bet that none of the players are the least bit concerned about this "controlling". Their union agreed to it and they signed on the dotted line. The only people in a tizzy over it are people on the Apple forums.

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It's a bit ridiculous to ban all logos from the TV.

In football (proper football) it's pretty common for a player to be sponsored by, say, Adidas but be in a team that plays in Nike shirts every week.

It was done for the World Cup too.

 

[bozzykid]

Couldn't this Kaepernick chap simply have donated $10,000 to a breast cancer research charity?

NFL fines go to charity. It is a tax write off. Kaepernick is not that upset I would imagine.

 

[Nunyabinez]

Sorry man, you're absolutely wrong... on both parts.
1. Players do not, in any way, shape, or form, have to wear Bose if they want to wear headphones. It's simply not true. Players can wear whatever headphone they want to wear as long as the logo and/or company name is not displayed during official NFL activities. Meaning a sticker or piece of tape covering the 'b' is sufficient. Kap could have avoided the $10K fine by simply putting pink ribbon stickers over the Beats logo.

2. It is in fact a normal part of business. It's written into the NFL Collective Bargaining Agreement. It has been that way for a long time. This is nothing new or extraordinary. It's standard NFL practice.

Your Coke Example: Even this is not a valid comparison. Why? Again, it's covered in the CBA. Here's what you won't see in NFL related events (and why). You won't see Powerade (Gatorade), Apple (Microsoft), Amex (Visa), Coke (Pepsi), Ford cars and trucks (GM). I could go on but you get the point. It's standard operating procedure in the NFL. All those companies that aren't official sponsors of the NFL are more than free to have sponsorships with individual teams and players, but the official NFL sponsorships trump the individual relationships.

So I wasn't being a pedant. Just stating fact.

So again, how does this refute my claim that it is not a normal part of business? Yes, this is common practice in professional sports, but nowhere else. And while I concede that there is a CB in place, I still contend that it is pure BS, and not necessary for those organizations, it is just a result of greed on many parts.

Regardless, I don't believe that it is going to do Bose or the NFL any good, and Beats, will be the winner in this little psychodrama.

 

[bozzykid]

Regardless, I don't believe that it is going to do Bose or the NFL any good, and Beats, will be the winner in this little psychodrama.

No one outside of Apple forums really cares about this "drama". In fact, any NFL fan understands players get fined every week for uniform violations (players are fined every week for wearing the wrong clips on their helmets). This "drama" is only a drama here. I don't see how it benefits Beats. In fact, since every single NFL player was given Bose headphones today, we may see more shots of NFL players wearing Bose in the coming weeks. That will only help Bose.

Btw, Beats only sponsors a small number of players. We may see those players continue to wear Beats during interviews. So that much will not change. Some of the players aren't getting sponsored but were given Beats by teammates who were. Those players will likely stop wearing Beats since they aren't getting paid to do so.

 

[eldo33]

I hope this whole thing blows up in the NFL's face. I would never buy beats, but to tell people what headphones they can wear is ridiculous.

well you GET PAY to work and follow the rule of the employer. if you don't want to then you can find another job. simple.

 

[69Mustang]

So again, how does this refute my claim that it is not a normal part of business? Yes, this is common practice in professional sports, but nowhere else. And while I concede that there is a CB in place, I still contend that it is pure BS, and not necessary for those organizations, it is just a result of greed on many parts.

Regardless, I don't believe that it is going to do Bose or the NFL any good, and Beats, will be the winner in this little psychodrama.

Normal part of what type of business? You can't use business as a ubiquitous term as if all companies operate the same. What's normal in one industry is abnormal in another. Practices in the tech industry differ from practices in the food service industry which differ from the medical industry. You can't compare disparate industries and extract a "this is normal". That's an apples and oranges comparison. It simply doesn't work. Specifically, in the professional sports industry the terms laid out in the NFL CBA are the norm. It's the same for baseball, basketball, and hockey. They all have CBA's and they all specify how sponsor relationships are handled.

 

[LethalWolfe]

So again, how does this refute my claim that it is not a normal part of business? Yes, this is common practice in professional sports, but nowhere else.

It's a normal part of business in any businesses that engages in advertising, branding, sponsorships, etc., which is to say, a lot of types of businesses. Television, movies, radio, newspapers, magazines, websites, theme parks... pretty much anything that attracts an audience. Even retail store employees might be required to wear certain branded hats, shirts or pins/buttons in support of a new movie or video game that's about to hit stores.

And while I concede that there is a CB in place, I still contend that it is pure BS, and not necessary for those organizations, it is just a result of greed on many parts.

So if you paid a person or organization to endorse your product but that person/organization endorsed a competitor's product (in clear violation of your existing contract) you would be okay with that?

Regardless, I don't believe that it is going to do Bose or the NFL any good, and Beats, will be the winner in this little psychodrama.

As others have said, it's a tempest in an Apple-branded Internet forum teapot.

 

[dirtyb1t]

Yay, it cost him 1 minute of work!

He has a Beats endorsement, and even if he didn't, you'd have to be a real fool to think he will have to pay this fine himself.

Beats is all about gorilla marketing, I'm sure they will gladly volunteer to pay the fines to see players wearing them on camera (especially just to spit in the face of the rule)

 

[chrisbru]

Well, football players NEVER get special treatment, so I'm 100% certain he earned every bit of that 3.9... No chance they "took care of him" knowing that one day he'd be an NFL star.

Thank goodness the world doesn't work like that, everything is what it seems, and everything is perfectly fair eh?

You sound bitter, were you cut from your high school football team?

It takes an immense amount of intelligence to play cornerback at the NFL level. What makes you think he's not intelligent?

 

[MagnusVonMagnum]

I honestly don't believe it's any of the NFL's bleeping business what their players are allowed to wear at games while off the field. The NFL is an organization and they can use whatever official crap they want, but to tell a player what type of headphone he can wear, what type of watch he can wear, what type of car he can drive to games, etc. WHAT A LOAD OF CRAP.

I'm boycotting NFL games from now on. Who's with me? (Ok, I don't watch football anyway.... )

$10k is pretty cheap advertising for Apple/Beats when you think about it since it's obviously making headlines. Apple should send them ALL free headphones with a note saying they will pay ALL fines no matter how high if they wear them to games. I bet it would be cheaper than advertisements on the air and get a lot more response when the news keeps picking it up.

 

[bmt134]

This is a stupid comparison. THE CLIPPERS DO NOT MAKE TECHNOLOGY PRODUCTS! THERE A BASKETBALL TEAM!

Neither McDonald's nor Burger King make hats

 

[LethalWolfe]

I honestly don't believe it's any of the NFL's bleeping business what their players are allowed to wear at games while off the field. The NFL is an organization and they can use whatever official crap they want, but to tell a player what type of headphone he can wear, what type of watch he can wear, what type of car he can drive to games, etc. WHAT A LOAD OF CRAP.

Just so I'm clear on this...

Kap signed a contract with the NFL that basically says, during certain hours on certain days only approved logos can be visible. Kap can still wear whatever he wants, but if it's not an approved logo it has to be covered up during these previously mentioned time periods. And this agreement is apparently very, very bad.

Kap also signed a contract with Beats that probably says something to the effect of that any time he wears headphones they have to be Beats headphones. And this agreement, which is much more restrictive, is apparently very, very good.

 

[HiRez]

The NFL sells advertising, the game breaks between commercials is just to add to promotion.

I'm talking about the players. No one would watch a bunch of scrub players, thus that advertising would go away, along with the NFL's profits. Star players make the league and they have leverage.

 

[phoenixsan]

This is....

double outrage: I am both a Niner and Beats fan............

Enforcing sponsorship deals this way can only benefit the competence...So, maybe this thing blow up in the face of NFL....

 

[BoulderAdonis]

If I were kaep I'd go ahead and write a check for 160k for each game of the season and keep wearing beats. Cuz I'm sure he's getting paid more than that. Sherman too.

And Sherman's no dummy. Graduated from Stanford and is a star in the nfl. He obviously did something right

http://www.vdare.com/articles/richard-sherman-and-the-soft-bigotry-of-sportswriters-expectations

"So according to both conservatives and liberals, graduating second in your class in high school, attending Stanford as a star football player, and having a 1400 on the SATs is evidence of genius. For non-Gen Y or childless VDARE.com readers, the SAT added a writing section, so the top score is now 2400, not 1600. Sherman actually scored 990 in 2006, on the old style of test. The Root apparently applied the conversion without explaining it.

Curiously, although I often hear liberals bring up “affirmative action for athletes” (along with legacies) to counter criticism of racial preference, the people saying how smart Sherman is are forgetting he presumably Sherman got into Stanford due to his football skills, to say nothing of his race, rather than his intelligence. Even black students could not get into Stanford with a Sherman’s SAT scores.

Sherman’s 1400/990 on the SATs is below the average test taker score, normed at 1000 in 2006. And it is nearly 3 standard deviations below the average Stanford SAT of 2215, new style.

What about graduating second in his class in high school? Sherman attended Dominguez High School in Compton, which is 13% black, 83% Hispanic, 1% Asian, and 0.1% white. A grand total of 6.3 % of students are proficient in Math and 27.5% are proficient in English. Being valedictorian or salutatorian in these circumstances may mean painfully little."

Let's not use "getting into Stanford" as evidence of how smart someone is. He was admitted to Stanford because of football. Not academics.

 

[Mashurrab]

The one good thing that I do see in this whole Beats/Sony/Bose song and dance is the rising popularity of headphones. I've always hated ear buds. They make my ears hurt and they chronically fall out of my ears. For a few years it was very hard to even find anything other than buds, certainly not at a reasonable price. Now full headphones are coming back and I'm very happy about that.

I like your comment about personal choice more than any thing in this Bose/beats news. Though it just feels wrong on many levels. 1 this should be a personal choice for the players unless THEY signed the contract. 2 it is for a cause and whether honest or not this will make everybody involved look bad. 3 I really do not like when someone looks down on someone else and for those I say. Please check how much they make and how much you make and decide who should look down on who? 4 in my mind I see Bose better than bears, but now I might consider buying beats for what happens or at least not Bose.

 

[MagnusVonMagnum]

Just so I'm clear on this...

Kap signed a contract with the NFL that basically says, during certain hours on certain days only approved logos can be visible. Kap can still wear whatever he wants, but if it's not an approved logo it has to be covered up during these previously mentioned time periods. And this agreement is apparently very, very bad.

Kap also signed a contract with Beats that probably says something to the effect of that any time he wears headphones they have to be Beats headphones. And this agreement, which is much more restrictive, is apparently very, very good.

I didn't say it wasn't legal. I said it was BS that they're even allowed to put such things in contracts that have nothing to do with football. Do you think they offered another contract without that legal BS in it? NO. It's take or leave it and go find a job somewhere else working at Burger King if you don't like our rules. I'm simply saying it should be about football not headphones, but if there's a buck to be made, hell, they could tell them what breakfast cereal they're allowed to eat if it comes right down to it.

 

[Will do good]

I would never purchase any Beat products, but this is BS.
When did these players become NFL Slaves? Same BS from the IOC (Olympics) just a bunch of money hungry a..holes.

 

[bozzykid]

We all know that they are telling them that when they are appearing at an NFL event, like before or after a game, that IF they want to wear headphones they have to be Bose.

Actually, they don't say that at all. They just have to cover the logo. This has been in the CBA for over 30 years. Jim McMahon was fined in 1987 for showing off an Adidas logo with the commissioners name across it (basically asking for a fine) because he refused to cover up the logo. These type of situations are nothing new.

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I would never purchase any Beat products, but this is BS.
When did these players become NFL Slaves? Same BS from the IOC (Olympics) just a bunch of money hungry a..holes.

The players benefit from these deals as it is part of what sets the salary cap.

 

[AppleScruff1]

I didn't say it wasn't legal. I said it was BS that they're even allowed to put such things in contracts that have nothing to do with football. Do you think they offered another contract without that legal BS in it? NO. It's take or leave it and go find a job somewhere else working at Burger King if you don't like our rules. I'm simply saying it should be about football not headphones, but if there's a buck to be made, hell, they could tell them what breakfast cereal they're allowed to eat if it comes right down to it.

The Players Union agreed to it too, so there are no surprised for anyone involved.

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I would never purchase any Beat products, but this is BS.
When did these players become NFL Slaves? Same BS from the IOC (Olympics) just a bunch of money hungry a..holes.

They freely signed the contract and their union negotiates with the NFL owners for the Collective Bargaining Agreement. No one is a slave. If they don't like the rules, they don't have to play. Free choice.