NFL Brands Its Cattle

Colin Kaepernick was fined $10,000 dollars by the NFL for wearing Beats By Dre headphones. Bose is now “The Official Sound Of The NFL” narrowly replacing the sound your brain makes when sloshed up against the cranium wall from violent impact. Players are free to wear whatever they want on personal time and for now are permitted to form their own world view:

“Under terms of its agreement with the league, the NFL confirmed, Bose received a broad set of rights that entitle it to prevent players (or coaches) from wearing any other manufacturer’s headphones during televised interviews. This ban extends to TV interviews conducted during pre-season training camps or practice sessions and on game day — starting before the opening kickoff through the final whistle to post-game interviews conducted in the locker room or on the podium. The restriction remains in place until 90 minutes after the play has ended.”

Bring up the cases of a few battered women and the NFL moves like 16th century bureaucrats discussing theoretical boundary lines of ancient Prussian territories. But the sniff of cash gets them fired up. They have all taken oaths to fall on swords before they let anybody touch their paying sponsors in an unfriendly manner. It’s not that it’s wrong to ask your employees to pretend to like the products of the advertisers ultimately paying their contract costs, it’s just so fucking uncool.

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