Saints linebacker Scott Fujita kept a diary of his week at the Super Bowl for the New Orleans Times-Picayune, and it contains a few interesting nuggets from the perspective of an NFL player.
Here’s what might be the most interesting nugget: Fujita used to have an endorsement deal with Nike, but the shoe company dropped him because he likes to tape his ankles over his shoes, and that meant covering the Swoosh logo.
Writes Fujita, “I was endorsed by Nike for seven years, but they voided my contract (after several warnings) for ‘spatting’ my cleats on game-days. Some of us spat, or put tape around our cleats, to keep them tight. Nike, apparently, doesn’t like that their precious Swoosh gets covered up.”
It’s probably safe to say that the NFL’s uniform police would fine a player for drawing a swoosh on his tape. Players spatting their cleats has led to some shoe companies putting their logos in places where tape wouldn’t cover.
But for Fujita, apparently his preferred method of taping covered the logo, and the lesson from Fujita’s diary is that when you’re watching football and you see a player with tape obscuring the logos on his shoes, that player either doesn’t have a shoe contract or is at risk of losing one.