By banning Beats by Dre headphones, NFL invites criticism regarding its priorities

The NFL has some massive fish to fry right about now. The Ray Rice saga has cast a shadow over the entire league, one of its franchises has a racist nickname, blackouts are in jeopardy of being abolished and the concussion story is far from dead.

That’s why when you see developments like these, regarding which headphones players are allowed to wear, you have to shake your head and wonder just how little self-awareness the NFL has. From Recode:

The professional athlete still can hear whatever he wants, but Kaepernick and other NFL players must remove their Beats headphones around the television cameras.

Bose secured a league sponsorship deal that effectively allows it to elbow Beats — and any other rival headphone manufacturer — off the playing field.

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.

The NFL, which enforces the terms of the agreement with Bose, defended the practice.

“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,” an NFL spokesperson said in a statement. “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.”

This isn’t a new practice. When organizations get into bed with specific brands, they have every right to honor those partners by avoiding inadvertently advertising the products sold by their competitors. Still, the league had to realize this would beget some unfavorable headlines.

The No Fun League is at it again, penalizing players for going to their knees in order to pray during touchdown celebrations and nitpicking over trivialities such as which type of headphones players are wearing. It’s not that black and white. None of these cases are. But that’s certainly how many casual fans view events like these, which is why the league would have been better off delaying the crack of this whip.

Considering the circumstances as well as the poor optics that have been generated by this development, I’m thinking that if the NFL and Bose had pumped the breaks on this decree until the offseason, they’d both have been better off.

[Recode]