Day 122

Fresh Start_122: NoFunLeague
Eighteen Thousand Dollars for cleats! CLEATS! That’s the penalty that Odell Beckham Jr. will be having to pay for his Craig Sager cleats that he wore on Sunday against the Lions. I don’t know how that is even remotely okay for the NFL to do. They have allowed their players to wear custom cleats during the season before—they even had a Sunday were that was the main focus around the league. That Sunday a couple of weeks back has to wear cleats for a charity of the players’ choice and raise awareness for it.

I understand the NFL’s rule on uniforms and that the cleats were not team colors and that is why Beckham is facing the fine, but maybe it is time for a rule change. In Major League baseball, you allowed to wear different cleats (in some cases it’s encouraged). In the NBA you are allowed to have a different color way on your shoes, and the same for the MLS. It is appalling to me why a player in the NFL is not allowed to wear a different color cleat than in Beckham’s case “Blue/Black/Red/White”. The cleat is probably the most insignificant piece of the uniform yet the flashiest. A players’ pair of cleats is the most interchangeable piece of the uniform besides the design of the facemask. Players throughout every level of football want to have the nicest pair of cleats on the field—and spend in most cases the most for them. My message for the NFL is to change the rule and encourage players to make their own cleat so that they can make more money off of the players and make the youth want to go out and be like their favorite player.

What confuses me the most is why it happened. There was no profanity or vulgar language on the cleats, they were to worn to remember a modern day icon in the sports industry. Even better, Beckham auctioned off the cleats and donated the money to cancer research. I just hate the message the NFL is sending its current players and future players. You have be to a cookie cutter player to make money in the NFL apparently, you are allowed no room to be yourself in the ultimate team game. There is no space for individuality in a day and age were that is the driving force of a generation. God forbid a player becomes larger than a team or becomes the face of the league.

This isn’t the only straw for the NFL, but this season for me it’s the last. In a year were you have some many more important problems to take care of for the future of the league, you fine a player for were cleats. That should be the last priority in a year were the level of play isn’t up to par, the coaching in the league is bad, the officiating in the league is bad, and the ratings nationwide are down. Not to mention your move to Los Angeles has become a train wreck. The NFL has now become the PC Police to the upmost degree and it just cannot stand. The rain of Emperor Goodell has to come to an end soon.

This is a man that has absolutely no control of his organization and his decision making over the past 3-4 season has become increasingly more detrimental to the league as a whole as the years have drawn on. This all started with the Josh Gordon and Ray Rice cases and it has continued to get worse ever since. I’m sorry 18K is not a fine you should be paying for wearing cleats that helped find a cure for cancer, it’s a fine you pay for robbing someone blind.
Sources:(espn.com,nfl.com)

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