Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports
PHOENIX – The exchange was innocent enough.
Amid the craziness at Tuesday’s Super Bowl Media Day, someone in the crowd gave Richard Sherman an iPad with some headphones. The request? To watch a video and sing along with the beat.
That, however, could happen only with one adjustment. An NFL assistant quickly took the headphones away. Sherman would have to listen to the music on the speaker.
The headphones were Sony. The NFL partners with Bose. Sherman is an ambassador of Beats by Dre.
The NFL has a strict rule in place that prohibits players from wearing or using products while their logo is visible until 90 minutes after the conclusion of a game.
That also includes all team-mandated press conferences. Players can wear brands with visible logos on the field during pregame, unless that player has his jersey or helmet on at the time.
If that’s violated, players are subject to a fine. This is an issue that resurfaced from November when Sherman and teammate Doug Baldwin – via a cardboard cutout – held a tongue-in-cheek press conference that attacked the league in light of its decision to fine teammate Marshawn Lynch for refusing to speak to the media.
“You know the other day Marshawn Lynch got fined $100,000. Did you know that?” Sherman asked cardboard-cutout-Doug-Baldwin. “They wouldn’t have even paid him that much if he had talked. Gee Louise. But you know who does pay me a lot of money? Beat by Dre, the wonderful headphones that I’m wearing. But the league doesn’t let me say anything about them. Why is that? That seems a little hypocritical. It seems like we’re in a league where they say ‘Players you don’t endorse any alcohol. Please don’t endorse alcohol, please no DUIs’, but a beer sponsor is their biggest sponsor.”
49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick was fined $10,000 earlier this year when he wore Beats by Dre headphones, who sponsor him, at a press conference. Kaepernick and others have worked around the issue by wearing their headphones and taping over the logo.
Don’t worry, though. The NFL didn’t end up with an extra pair of headphones. After Sherman watched the video and sang his song and gave back the iPad, the league staffer returned the Sony headphones back to their owner.
