Last Sunday, multiple players displayed the “I can’t breathe” message, a reference to the death of Eric Garner during an altercation with police. The NFL has fined none of them.
For Lions running back Reggie Bush, the message was displayed on a T-shirt that he wore in pregame warmups. For Rams guard Davin Joseph, the message was written onto Joseph’s shoes.
The NFL usually does not impose fines for uniform violations occurring during individual pregame warmups, when for example Beats headphones can be worn without the logos concealed, despite the NFL’s exclusive deal with Bose. It gets a little dicier when messages are written onto equipment during games.
The general rule is don’t do it. But the NFL and its teams exercise discretion when deciding who will and won’t be fined.
For example, former Texans cornerback Dunta Robinson received a $25,000 fine in 2009 from the team for writing “Pay me Rick” onto his shoes, a message to team G.M. Rick Smith.
In this specific situation, the NFL wisely opted to allow the players to express themselves in a way that didn’t infringe on any of the league’s endorsement deals and that contained no inappropriate terms or concepts.