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 personal 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 does Sherman:
Steve Dykes/Getty Images
Richard Sherman wears special Breast Cancer Awareness Month Beats.
But Brady and Peko must just prefer Beats to Bose:
Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images Tom Brady prefers the ear bud Beats.
John Grieshop/Getty Images Peko wears gold 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.