{"id":12628,"date":"2024-10-29T00:12:32","date_gmt":"2024-10-29T00:12:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/?p=12628"},"modified":"2024-10-29T00:12:32","modified_gmt":"2024-10-29T00:12:32","slug":"maga-hat-stunt-from-49ers-nick-bosa-broke-nfl-rules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/?p=12628","title":{"rendered":"MAGA hat stunt from 49ers’ Nick Bosa broke NFL rules"},"content":{"rendered":"
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San Francisco\u00a049ers<\/a>\u00a0star Nick Bosa is getting all sorts of attention for his\u00a0Donald Trump-supporting stunt<\/a>\u00a0after Sunday\u2019s win over the Cowboys, with adoring MAGA fans flooding his Instagram comments and national pundits\u00a0questioning<\/a>\u00a0his lack of explanation. Now, it seems likely the stunt will also attract the attention of the NFL\u2019s rulemakers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Bosa crashed\u00a0NBC\u2019s postgame interview<\/a>\u00a0Sunday while wearing a \u201cMake America Great Again\u201d hat, showing off his apparent support for the Republican presidential nominee nine days before Election Day. In the five seconds he was on TV, Bosa put himself at risk of a five-figure fine.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Rule 5, Section 4, Article 8 of\u00a0the NFL rulebook<\/a>\u00a0says that the entire time a player is \u201cvisible to the stadium and television audience,\u201d including during pregame warmups and in postgame interviews both on the field and in the locker room, they are \u201cprohibited from wearing, displaying, or otherwise conveying personal messages either in writing or illustration, unless such message has been approved in advance by the League office.\u201d<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s even more direct when it comes to messages with a political point, like Bosa\u2019s: \u201cThe League will not grant permission for any club or player to wear, display, or otherwise convey messages, through helmet decals, arm bands, jersey patches, mouthpieces, or other items affixed to game uniforms or equipment, which relate to political activities or causes, other non-football events, causes or campaigns, or charitable causes or campaigns.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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SFGATE reached out to the NFL to ask if the league had received a request for approval from Bosa to wear the MAGA hat during Sunday\u2019s game, and if so, whether or not the league had approved the message. The league did not respond by time of publication.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The league\u2019s\u00a0operations website<\/a>\u00a0reveals how much the\u00a0MAGA moment could cost Bosa, laying out exactly how much players get fined for various violations. A first-time offender of the \u201cpersonal messages\u201d uniform policy could be hit with $11,255 fine. NFL Network insider Tom\u00a0Pelissero\u00a0reported<\/a>\u00a0Steelers wide receiver George\u00a0Pickens was hit with a $10,231 fine for violating the personal messages policy\u00a0in Week 5, when he wore eye black with \u201copen f\u2014king always\u201d written across it, although the league\u00a0did not publicize<\/a>\u00a0the penalty.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In the past, the NFL used to fine players quite often for all sorts of mundane or harmless messages. Former Washington quarterback Robert Griffin III\u00a0was fined multiple times<\/a>\u00a0for wearing non-approved shirts in pregame\u00a0warmups and for wearing Adidas during his postgame press conferences. 49ers quarterback Alex Smith was\u00a0once threatened<\/a>\u00a0with a $15,000 fine for wearing a San Francisco Giants hat during postgame interviews. Several Steelers players were fined in 2015, even when they\u00a0were supporting<\/a>\u00a0charitable efforts; the pushback over those fines led the NFL to create the \u201cMy Cause My Cleats\u201d initiative.<\/p>\n

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The NFL hasn\u2019t been as forthcoming about these fines in recent years, mostly keeping uniform fines private within the league. But the more public a player is with their message, the more likely the public finds out about it.\u00a0Pelissero\u00a0reported<\/a>\u00a0last season that star Miami wide receiver Tyreek Hill received numerous uniform policy fines after the player\u00a0posted online<\/a>\u00a0about receiving more than $100,000 in fines without specifying what for.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Overall, the rulebook makes clear that the league wants to control what players wear, both on and off the field. That covers everything from simple stuff like players wearing\u00a0their pants or socks too short<\/a>\u00a0to\u00a0having their shirts untucked<\/a>\u00a0to\u00a0a message on a headband<\/a>\u00a0to even\u00a0memorializing former team stars<\/a>\u00a0with a T-shirt under their pads. Bosa\u2019s teammate George Kittle was\u00a0hit with a heavy fine<\/a>\u00a0last year for a \u201cF\u2014k Dallas\u201d shirt he had on under his pads when the Niners played the Cowboys. (He may have even worn it again in this year\u2019s rematch Sunday, though he didn\u2019t show it off this time.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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So when the league hands out its fines for Week 8 next Saturday, it\u2019s likely Bosa\u2019s name will be\u00a0on the list for that $11,255 amount. But given that a 30-second advertisement for \u201cSunday Night Football\u201d cost $882,079 last year,\u00a0according to Ad Age<\/a>, Bosa\u2019s stunt and the coverage of it likely will make the fine feel worthwhile to\u00a0one of the highest-paid<\/a>\u00a0players in the NFL,\u00a0especially<\/a>\u00a0if it helps his\u00a0longtime preferred<\/a>\u00a0politician land\u00a0the presidency<\/a>\u00a0again.<\/p>\n

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    San Francisco\u00a049ers\u00a0star Nick Bosa is getting all sorts of attention for his\u00a0Donald Trump-supporting stunt\u00a0after Sunday\u2019s win over the Cowboys, with adoring MAGA fans flooding his Instagram comments and … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12629,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12628"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12628\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12630,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12628\/revisions\/12630"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}