BANNED Accessories In The NFL

the NFL has an ultra strict uniform policy that features an almost dictatorship-like ban on accessories and even though cleats allow players to express themselves like in so many other sports the NFL just doesn't see it that way unfortunately for DeAndre Hopkins he had to find out the hard way in 2015 Kanye West took the sneaker World by storm with the release of his Adidas Yeezy boost 350s after a year of the shoes being all any Sneakerhead could talk about dhop decided it was time to get creative with them and really make some headlines he loved his Yeezys so much that Adidas made him an exclusive pair of football cleats designed to look just like the shoes and while fans couldn't get enough of the special edition cleats the league wasn't having it their policies that all cleats Must Fall within certain color and design criteria related to the team's Jersey colors or just be black or white and with this the league isn't just asking the players to try to follow the rule they are forcing them to because Hopkins cleats didn't have a solid base color he was fined six thousand dollars dhob joked that he wouldn't wear them again unless Kanye wanted to pay the fine but at least Hopkins was only fine 6K that's pocket change to an NFL player because what the NFL did to Odell Beckham Jr in 2019 was straight up embarrassing according to obj Nike and June of that year had planned out his cleat designs for the entire season at that time the Browns were supposed to wear white jerseys for their week 9 game against the Broncos but instead Cleveland wound up wearing their all-brown color Rush uniforms Nike and obj still stuck to their original plan and he came out for the game in custom white Joker themed cleats despite the cleats not matching the Browns jerseys there were initially no problems with him wearing them at least it seemed that way it wasn't until halftime that the league decided to make a fool of obj show him who's really boss League officials came to him and said that if he didn't change cleats he would be forbidden from playing another down in the game being totally powerless in the situation obj was forced to switch to plain black cleats for the rest of the game but making obj look like a clown with his Joker cleats is one thing the NFL can be such a buzz kill that they stopped a player from wearing his trademark accessory because the look had gone viral during the 90s Dion Sanders made it cool to rock a bandana under his helmet it was a fresh look that so many fans quickly fell in love with and other players even started to copy right as it took off in popularity the NFL's power Brokers decided it sent the wrong message and didn't belong in their league so in 2001 team owners voted 30-1 to ban bandanas and what came across as an assault on players freedom of expression moving forward the players were limited to wearing skull caps as long as they had the team logo and colors what some people didn't realize was that the policy included another band one that nobody told Saints linebacker Demario Davis about see during the 2019 season Davis wore a headband that said man of God on it the league doesn't allow personal messages like that so even though the headband wasn't visible under his helmet and matched the Saints team colors Davis was still fine seven thousand dollars after finding out about the fine he said I don't think a lot lot of people were aware of the policy that was in place I wasn't even fully aware of it Davis felt blindsided by the fine but he really shouldn't have after all the NFL had already fined a player for honoring his own mom who passed away Steelers running back DeAngelo Williams lost four rants to breast cancer so for five years he wore find the Cure eye black in honor of them while one could argue about equipment not being the place to bring up religion there's no debating that breast cancer awareness is universally viewed as a positive cause and with the league already dedicating an entire month to it it'd be crazy to think they'd have any issue with a player supporting it outside of that time frame so in 2015 after Williams lost his mom to the disease he has to wear pink cleats and wristbands it was a totally reasonable and understandable request to make but the league denied it so he decided to continue just wearing the eye black then during the 2015 season even though it was okay for five whole years he was fined just under six thousand dollars for doing so and if the NFL will find a player for this you better believe they will go out of their way to make sure none of their sponsors competitors get free advertising this means that the League's fashion police are constantly checking to make sure players aren't wearing any unapproved brand logos or names there's one polarizing player in particular that week in and week out they watch like a hawk Odell Beckham Jr it seems like no matter what obj does no matter how insignificant the league finds a problem with it so there's absolutely zero chance that any of his violations slip through the cracks in 2018 when he came out for warm-ups sporting a red Supreme arm sleeve it immediately blew up on social media and the fans were loving it but the NFL was quick to let him know he was not allowed to wear it during the actual game despite the sleeve matching the Giant's colors it still violated the League's rules only logos or brand names from the League's official partners are allowed to be displayed and he would have been fine for wearing it during the game and obj's run-ins with the NFL's Fashion Police didn't end here though oh him and players around the league love making statements with their on-field jewelry there is one piece they aren't allowed to wear in 2019 obj had gotten such a fancy and stylish watch that he just couldn't keep it to himself I mean it was a limited edition Richard Mill with 350 000 that type of watch needs to be shown off so what better stage to display it to the world than during his highly anticipated Browns debut the only issue was that it violated the League's rules after wearing it in the game the NFL let obj know that he wasn't allowed to wear a watch during another game and would be punished if he did obj said anybody else would have worn the watch if it was a 20 watch it wouldn't have been a problem but the league does have a policy in place that bans players from bringing any hard objects onto the field so this wasn't just a Special Rule meant to Target or single out the polarizing wide receiver in fact obj wasn't the only big name player that season to hear from the league about wearing a wash a month later Ben Roethlisberger was fined five thousand dollars for wearing an Apple Watch on the sideline Roethlisberger wasn't even in uniform for the game since he was on the IR but because he wasn't playing simply wearing a watch wasn't the issue see the league doesn't care if injured players coaches or other staffers on the sideline know what time of day it is but what the league does care about is cheating with it being an Apple Watch it has the ability to send and receive messages which could lead to a competitive Advantage as a result the NFL prohibits any technology that can send text messages from being worn or carried on the sideline but even with the majority of players equipment needing to be approved and it constantly being checked by spotters violations can still go unnoticed sometimes for years the fact that this can happen shows just how pointless and nitpicky some of these rules are it was so important how would a player break the rules for over two full seasons without a single person realizing let's ask Cam Newton from the moment he entered the league he wore Under Armor visor Clips on his helmet but because the Panthers face mask the visor clips and the Under Armor logo were all black nobody from the league picked up on what he was doing Newton played a total of 35 game games before he was finally fined for the unapproved visor clips and even that didn't happen until a Forbes article directly mentioned that less than a week after it was published he was fined ten thousand dollars but who knows just how long Newton could have gone without being fined if it wasn't for that article and while a majority of the League's rules applied one field of heroin equipment the NFL's control stretches Way Beyond that cameras are on and people are watching the league is going to have a say in what players bring attention to during the Super Bowl 41 media day airs linebacker Brian Urlacher showed up sipping on his favorite drink and wearing a matching hat to go with it but as harmless as drinking vitamin water and wearing a vitamin water hat may sound that vitamin water was about to be the most expensive drink of Urlacher's life even outside of game action NFL rules prohibit gear that advertises any product that isn't a designated League sponsor and since Gatorade is the League's official drink drinking and wearing a vitamin water hat is a huge No-No so the league finder lacquer a hundred thousand dollars even the NFL spokesperson Brian Ryan McCarthy said that that was the first time such a fine had been given he also clarified that a hundred grand is the standard fine for such a violation at the Super Bowl meanwhile a violation during the regular season is ten thousand dollars and fifty thousand at the Pro Bowl so it just goes to show that with the lights are at the brightest the NFL is the strictest this next band accessory is one that fans would have no idea was outlawed with how many players rocket at practice or warm-ups whether they're simply tinted a dark color or feature some kind of design players view custom visors as another way to express themselves and add to their swag unfortunately for them though the league doesn't see it the same way in 1998 they banned dark colored or tinted visors for games the reasoning was that with tint advisors medical personnel can't see an injured player's eyes and when checking to see if he is concussed or knocked out it's crucial that trainers be able to see their eyes but after years of denying players the chance to wear tint advisors in actual games the league in 2019 finally tweaked its hard stance they started to allow players to wear slightly tinted ones with lighter colors and some guys like Ezekiel Elliott immediately jumped at this opportunity the league gets a lot of heat for not letting players show their personalities through their equipment some of its rules do in fact come from prioritizing safety there is no bigger rule emphasized than the one on concussions and head injuries so because of this the NFL in 2018 introduced a list of 11 helmets that players would no longer be able to use moving forward due to their poor performance in lab testing during the 2019 season 32 players were forced to wear new helmets because of the League's safety initiative even superstars who had been around for nearly two decades like Tom Brady had to change their old helmet in addition to the list of 11 helmets the committee that the league uses to approve athletic equipment also won't certify any helmet that is more than 10 years old and it should come as no surprise that the one player who was extremely vocal in speaking out against this was none other than Antonio Brown Brown believed the new helmet messed with his vision and made a huge deal about it by refusing to practice and filing two grievance is that he wound up losing along with considering impact of players heads the NFL discovered certain kinds of helmets can lead to a different type of upper body injury starting in 2014 the league banned the use of overbuilt face masks although these face masks looked cool and added to Defenders intimidation tactics the extra weight was an injury risk research showed that this weight could strain players necks and also jeopardize the helmet's ability to not break or become damaged so guys like Ray Lewis one of the most feared linebackers in the history of the game were forced to change their helmets and find other ways to put fear in the eyes of their opponent but there was one exception to the rule if a player could prove they needed the face mask for medical reasons they could keep it one person who benefited from this was Justin Tuck he was granted a medical exemption because the different types of bars on his face mask protected his neck which in the past had been an issue for him foreign

Channel: Nonstop

Views: 882,453

Keywords: NFL

Id: ECO8Efk8CmA

Length: 10min 57sec (657 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 20 2023