The NFL has deliberately tapped the brakes on any effort to fine 49ers defensive end Nick Bosa for wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat on the field after last Sunday night’s game against the Cowboys. It has prompted some to argue that maybe the league is waiting because the violation isn’t clear.
It is.
Here’s the key language from the rule: “Throughout the period on game day that a player is visible to the stadium and television audience (including in pregame warm-ups, in the bench area, and during postgame interviews in the locker room or on the field), players are prohibited 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.”
Bosa can avoid discipline only if the league office approved the hat in advance. That obviously didn’t happen. If the league office had approved the hat in advance, there would be nothing for the league to currently review.
The supposed loophole comes from the portion of the rule that focuses on the league-office approval process: “The 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.”
The argument is that, because that sentence doesn’t include the word “hat,” messages on hats are OK. This overlooks the fact that there’s already a broad prohibition on all messages, and that the failure to specifically include “hat” among “helmet decals, arm bands, jersey patches, mouthpieces, or other items affixed to game uniforms or equipment” relates only to the approval process.
It could just as easily be argued that the omission of the word “hat” means that the league will never approve any personal messaging on hats, for any reason.
The fact that some are making this argument (and they are) underscores the hot-potato nature of fining Bosa for breaking the rule. Even as the league tries to kick the can until after the election, some have already twisted the reporting that the league is reviewing the situation into a declaration that the league has fined Bosa.
Some demand to know why players weren’t fined for kneeling during the national anthem. Well, they weren’t fined because the rules that required them to be on the sideline for the anthem did not prevent them from kneeling during it. (That said, the player who initiated the practice ended up being shunned from the league, so there definitely was punishment — even if the rules didn’t contemplate it.)
Bottom line? Bosa’s hat broke the rule. If someone wears a Harris Walz hat (or Kennedy Rodgers or hell even Mondale Ferraro) on the field today, he will break the rule. You might not like the rule, but that’s the rule.
And the NFL is trying its best to not enforce the rule until after the point at which the issuance of a fine can be commandeered for a last-ditch conjuring of misplaced outrage.
