Cyrus Langhorne
Music mogul Dr. Dre's popular Beats By Dre have been flagged by the National Football League (NFL) and are currently banned from hitting the field.
According to reports, the league’s deal with headphones competitor Bose has motivated its decision.
Beats have become a trendy fashion statement among professional athletes, and Beats have embraced athletes in return with a series of commercials depicting players drowning out critics with the voice of Aloe Blacc. Bose holds a lot of leverage with its contract, however, including the right to keep players from sporting any other manufacturer around their ears. The ban extends from practice interviews to game days to post-game locker room and podium interviews. (SB Nation)
Team Beats has already come forward and issued this statement…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=HESJgpYYUyM
A Beats representative has issued a statement on the ban.
“Over the last few years athletes have written Beats into their DNA as part of the pre-game ritual,” a Beats spokesperson said. “Music can have a significant positive effect on an athlete’s focus and mental preparedness and has become as important to performance as any other piece of equipment.” (Statement)
The NFL has countered Beats’ comments with its own statement.
“The NFL has longstanding policies that prohibit branded exposure on-field or during interviews unless authorized by the league. These policies date back to the early 1990s and continue today,” an NFL spokesperson said in a statement. “They are the NFL’s policies – not one of the league’s sponsors, Bose in this case. Bose is not involved in the enforcement of our policies. This is true for others on-field.” (SB Nation)
No stranger to bans, Beats suffered a similar fate earlier in the year.
Such deals aren’t that unusual elsewhere. FIFA, for instance, prevented teams at the 2014 World Cup from using Beats either on game days or at media events. For Americans, though, the NFL exclusive is bound to be much more noticeable — something Bose is no doubt counting on as it tries to win the high-priced audio wars. (Engadget)
In other words, Bose wins! Lol…
Looks like Beats better start spending some of that money with these Leagues and not just with star players. It’s gonna cost more but it will pay off more as well. Time to step it up or get shut out.
Too late for the ban …… any time you see somebody with those cans on their head you automatically think Beats …… Dre won ….. NFL mad cause their greedy ass can’t get a cut
I don’t think Beats is just gonna take this lying down… interesting to see how this develops. Powermove by Bose though
It’s already developed. Bose owns sponsorship. Why you think MTV is always blurring out brands on people clothes? If Nike is your sponsor, you can’t be shown wearing Reebok. Bose sponsors the NFL. end of story unless Beats offer more then Bose when contract is up for renewal. Jordan built his own brand and had his own license that NBA licensed games couldn’t use Jordan as a character. They replaced him with “Player”