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League fines Kaepernick for wearing non-Bose headphones

Bose

The NFL’s new deal with Bose, which blare the letters B-O-S-E whenever a head coach puts his head down on camera, gives the company that puts quality over sizzle the privilege of exclusivity.

Which means that players can’t be promoting competing products on the field or in official press conferences.

For 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, it means a $10,000 fine for wearing a competing product during Sunday’s post-game press conference. Via Matt Maiocco of CSNBayArea.com, Kaepernick told reporters on Thursday that he’s been informed of the five-figure fine.

Asked whether Kaepernick or the company that makes the competing product will pay the money, the ever-talkative Kaepernick said, ""We’ll let that be unanswered.”

That may not be good enough for the league office. Fines can’t be paid by anyone but the person fined. But it would be easy enough for the company that makes the competing product to give Kaepernick a bonus of, say, $10,000. Or maybe $24,000, since that’s roughly what it would take to get him $10,000 after taxes, given his bracket and his residence in California.

And before folks start complaining about the league’s enforcement of the contract with a company that has paid the NFL a ton of money for the relationship, it’s hardly the first time the league has fined players for promoting products that aren’t associated with the NFL. Former Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher was fined a whopping $100,000 for wearing a Vitamin Water hat to the Super Bowl XLI media day.