NFL Fines 49ers’ Colin Kaepernick $10,000 for Wearing Beats Headphones

Beats by Dre produces high-end headphones, but they’re probably not worth the $10,000 San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick paid to wear them last week.

The NFL, which just fined Denver Broncos tight end Julius Thomas and Cleveland Browns linebacker Christian Kirksey a little more than $8,200 each for dirty hits last Sunday, fined Kaepernick $10,000 for wearing non-approved headphones in a post-game press conference, according to CSN Bay Area’s Matt Maiocco.

The NFL has a new deal with Bose headphones, and banned players from wearing other headphones in post-game interviews. Beats by Dre, in a stroke of marketing genius, has gained popularity in part because athletes seem to always have the headphones around their necks or planted on their heads when they’re on camera before or after games. And one would imagine that Kaepernick, one of the main spokesmen for Beats by Dre, was told that the multibillion-dollar headphones company would pay whatever fine Kaepernick got for continuing to wear the product. For a company like that, $10,000 in advertising for being part of an NFL controversy is just a sound investment.