When Bears receiver Earl Bennett confirmed this week that he was fined for wearing orange shoes on Monday night, he said teammate Brandon Marshall put him up to it. So it’s no surprise that Marshall was fined, too.
The NFL has confirmed that Marshall, who also wore orange shoes in Monday night’s win over the Lions, was fined $10,500.
NFL players aren’t allowed to wear the shoe colors of their choice, even in a case like this, where Bennett and Marshall chose orange, which is one of the Bears’ official colors. The NFL allows and even encourages players to wear pink for breast cancer awareness during October, and has allowed players to wear red, white and blue on some patriotic occasions, and sometimes puts patches or helmet stickers on players’ uniforms for other reasons, but in all of those cases it’s the NFL’s decision, not a player’s individual decision.
When a player decides for himself to wear a different color, it costs him $10,500.