Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Chad Ochocinco was fined ten grand by the NFL on Friday for a uniform violation. It seems last week when the Bengals played the Houston Texans, Ochocinco wore a chin strap on his helmet that was the wrong color. Instead of the regular white chin strap like all the other Bengal players were wearing, Ochocinco was sporting a black one.
Oh no. The horror.
In his defense, his illegal black chin strap did match his black facemask. Also, a quick Google image search shows that Ochocinco routinely wears a different colored chinstrap. Sometimes he even wears an orange one. If the NFL really cares what color chin straps it’s players wear, it seems they’ve been doing a really bad job at paying attention to such things.
I think fines like this are stupid. All it does is points out to everyone that NFL players make so much money that if they happen to wear the wrong colored chin strap, they are fined more money than the average family of four would spend on a fancy European vacation. What’s even worse is that when a player such as Ochocinco receives a fine like this, he acts like he doesn’t even care.
He acts this way because he really truly doesn’t care. Why would he? Ten grand is nothing to him.
If the NFL really wanted to stop players from wearing the wrong chin straps or the wrong kind of socks, they should get more creative. Simple $10,000 fines don’t work with millionaires.
Ryan
/ October 24, 2009Chad JOHNSON should be fined $10k everytime he opens his mouth.
duncan
/ October 24, 2009Actually he got fined in the preseason for wearing an orange chin strap (don’t know if that’s the same incident in the picture you linked) and fined again for wearing a pink one for breast cancer.
Seriously, why does the league even care? I wouldn’t have even realized it until I read this story today. Do they think the fans are just appalled by black chinstraps or something?
Bentcorner
/ October 24, 2009The name thing doesn’t really bother me so much, especially when I stop and consider how he got the name Johnson. One of his ancestors was probably owned by a guy named Johnson.
Bentcorner
/ October 24, 2009It is a control thing. The NFL likes to control things.
Lee B.
/ October 24, 2009I’d love to be in a financial situation where I could laugh off one $10K fine after another… I’d wear pink chinstraps with no helmet.
Ryan
/ October 24, 2009Touché
????
/ October 29, 2009you racist son of a bitch
Bentcorner
/ October 29, 2009If you think what I wrote was racist you are an idiot.