NFL fines 49ers quarterback $10,000 for wearing Beats headphones during press conference

The National Football League fined San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick $10,000 for wearing a pair Beats headphones, which bucks the league's rule against promoting unsponsored products.

As seen in the embedded video below, Kaepernick wore the pink Beats by Dre headphones during a press conference held shortly after the 49ers' recent win over the Kansas City Chiefs last Sunday. The star quarterback is sponsored by Apple's Beats unit and has been featured in various ads promoting its wares.

According to Comcast SportsNet Bay Area, players are restricted to wearing headsets made by NFL sponsor Bose when conducting interviews. The rule extends for 90 minutes following the end of a game.

Kaepernick responded on Thursday by posting to Instagram a screenshot of an article about the fine, along with the caption, "I support breast cancer awareness! My grandma is a survivor!....... *shrugs* some things are now important!" The pink headphones were apparently in honor of breast cancer awareness month.

It is unclear if Apple's Beats covered the fine and Kaepernick would not confirm either way. Beats has a number of pro athlete promoters on its roster, including NBA star LeBron James, tennis icon Serena Williams and Brazilian soccer phenom Neymar da Silva Santos, Jr, better known as Neymar Jr.

Today's development comes less than one week after the NFL confirmed to Re/code that players and coaches are not allowed to wear headphone products during interviews other than those made by Bose. Bose inked a deal to become the league's "official headphone" in March.

63 Comments

SpamSandwich 32917 comments · 19 Years

About 10 years ago

The NFL is a monopoly that should be broken up.

As a result of the AFL-NFL merger, the National Football League was also given exemptions in exchange for certain conditions, such as not directly competing with college or high school football.^[28] However, the 2010 Supreme Court ruling in American Needle Inc. v. NFL characterised the NFL as a "cartel" of 32 independent businesses subject to antitrust law, not a single entity.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_antitrust_law

dasanman69 12999 comments · 15 Years

[quote name="SpamSandwich" url="/t/182743/nfl-fines-49ers-quarterback-10-000-for-wearing-beats-headphones-during-press-conference#post_2616165"]The NFL is a monopoly that should be broken up. [URL=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_antitrust_law]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_antitrust_law[/URL] [/quote] Professional sports leagues are exempt from antitrust laws. It's not just the NFL.

techlover 879 comments · 11 Years

I feel bad for these millionaire athletes.

Made by beats or made by bose, either way for a few hours a week they are forced to wear horrendous headphones.

paulmjohnson 1368 comments · 15 Years

He got fined a couple of years ago for wearing a San Francisco Giants cap at an NFL press conference.

You'd think he'd learn.

However, with the news cycle this will generate, and the number of times the words "Colin Kaepernick" and "Beats Headphones" will be said in the same sentence during those news reports, it will be well worth Apple paying the fine every time a star player does this. $10k for the amount of air time this will generate is spectacularly cheap advertising.

[quote name="TechLover" url="/t/182743/nfl-fines-49ers-quarterback-10-000-for-wearing-beats-headphones-during-press-conference#post_2616175"]I feel bad for these millionaire athletes. Made by beats or made by bose, either way for a few hours a week they are forced to wear horrendous headphones. [/quote] They don't have to wear anything, the coaches do, but if the athletes are going to be on camera with anything pertaining to the NFL they can't wear headphones of a different brand.