NEW YORK (AP) – Chicago Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher was fined $100,000 by the NFL for wearing a cap during Super Bowl media day that promoted a sponsor not authorized by the league.
NFL rules prohibit gear that advertises any product but a designated sponsor, league spokesman Brian McCarthy said Wednesday.
Urlacher was fined for drinking vitaminwater and wearing a vitaminwater hat during the media session in Miami leading to the title game. Gatorade is the NFL’s official drink."
So let’s take one of the classiest guys in the NFL who does a lot of great work on and off the football field and slap him with a $100K fine for promoting a different product at media day. Astonishing.
Is it part of the overall collective bargaining agreement for the NFL to be able to do this? Sure. But this is just insane.
Plus, I really do not begrudge a football player with their non-guaranteed contracts and potentially short earning spans to do what they need to do make as much as they can while they can. He could easily blow out a knee in his first game of the 2007 season and be flat out done.
Pretty smart marketing. They must have paid Urlacher a ton, plus agreed to pay the fine. For that, they got exposure during superbowl and the added bonus of all the marketing from the publicity the fine generated.
[quote]Kayrob wrote:
Pretty smart marketing. They must have paid Urlacher a ton, plus agreed to pay the fine. For that, they got exposure during superbowl and the added bonus of all the marketing from the publicity the fine generated.
[/quote]
Exactly. Just like Adidas agreed to pay the fines for Reggie for wearing their shoes.
[quote]Kayrob wrote:
Pretty smart marketing. They must have paid Urlacher a ton, plus agreed to pay the fine. For that, they got exposure during superbowl and the added bonus of all the marketing from the publicity the fine generated.
[/quote]
Exactly. He knew he would be fined and he did it anyway. This is not an “oops”. This was calculated.
[quote]josh.shafer wrote:
I don’t agree with the fine, but money talks.
If think about it, gatorade is kind of responsible for Urlacher’s ability to make a living playing football. They are a key sponsor of his employer.
Hypothetical: If you were CEO of Coke and your V.P. showed up with a Pepsi hat on one day, would you be pissed?[/quote]
You have a point, however, Urlacher would be more like an employee in one of the bottling companies. So although it would still be frowned upon, it changes the perspective a bit.
[quote]Ruggerlife wrote:
josh.shafer wrote:
I don’t agree with the fine, but money talks.
If think about it, gatorade is kind of responsible for Urlacher’s ability to make a living playing football. They are a key sponsor of his employer.
Hypothetical: If you were CEO of Coke and your V.P. showed up with a Pepsi hat on one day, would you be pissed?
You have a point, however, Urlacher would be more like an employee in one of the bottling companies. So although it would still be frowned upon, it changes the perspective a bit.
[/quote]
Media day is a high profile event. These guys are told what they can and can’t wear to official events such as games, media day etc.
They get a share of the sponsors revenues.
It is as if Urlacher was a Coke spokesperson and wore a Pepsi hat to a Coke newsconference.
What he did is is a real slap in the face to the NFL and Gatorade.
$ 100,000 sounds excessive but I’ll bet next time anyone does it at media day it will be more.
[quote]emdawgz1 wrote:
Gatorade pays MAJOR DOLLARS to be the exclusive drink of the nfl.
The nfl players union gets a cut of that money and distributes it to the players.
So now brian goes and cuts a side deal w/a rival and thats acceptable???[/quote]
I am sure this was a VERY lucrative deal for Urlacher, and was very cleverly planned by vitaminwater. If marketers start approaching other players with similar deals, look for the NFL to start handing out suspensions.
The funny thing is that most people probably wouldn’t have noticed, but by fining such a high profile guy that much, the NFL is actually giving MORE attention to Vitamin Water than it had on Press day.
What he did is is a real slap in the face to the NFL and Gatorade.
When Gatorade actually sells a sports drink rather than high-fructose corn syrup water marketed as such then maybe I’ll have some sympathy.
[/tangent][/quote]
[quote]Zap Branigan wrote:
Ruggerlife wrote:
josh.shafer wrote:
I don’t agree with the fine, but money talks.
If think about it, gatorade is kind of responsible for Urlacher’s ability to make a living playing football. They are a key sponsor of his employer.
Hypothetical: If you were CEO of Coke and your V.P. showed up with a Pepsi hat on one day, would you be pissed?
You have a point, however, Urlacher would be more like an employee in one of the bottling companies. So although it would still be frowned upon, it changes the perspective a bit.
Media day is a high profile event. These guys are told what they can and can’t wear to official events such as games, media day etc.
They get a share of the sponsors revenues.
It is as if Urlacher was a Coke spokesperson and wore a Pepsi hat to a Coke newsconference.
What he did is is a real slap in the face to the NFL and Gatorade.
$ 100,000 sounds excessive but I’ll bet next time anyone does it at media day it will be more.[/quote]
I do agree with you Zap, Urlacher did not follow uniform requirements (which I assume the players union agreed to). Because of this, he should be fined, although $100,000 seems excessive.
At the same time, just because he is indirectly sponsored by a company doesn’t mean he needs to promote that company.
I do agree with you Zap, Urlacher did not follow uniform requirements (which I assume the players union agreed to). Because of this, he should be fined, although $100,000 seems excessive.
At the same time, just because he is indirectly sponsored by a company doesn’t mean he needs to promote that company.[/quote]
I think you are not seing this quite right. I highly doubt he accidentially wore the hat to media day.
I am pretty sure he wore it intentionally with the purpose of promoting VitaminWater.
What he did is is a real slap in the face to the NFL and Gatorade.
When Gatorade actually sells a sports drink rather than high-fructose corn syrup water marketed as such then maybe I’ll have some sympathy.
[/tangent][/quote]
You must be mistaking that for Powerade.
Gatorade contains no high fructose corn syrup.
Their product has been formulated specifically for the fastest absorption in order to provide the body with carbs and electrolytes which can be utilized during activity.