Last weekend, San Francisco 49ers star pass rusher Nick Bosa interrupted his teammates’ interview to show off his “Make America Great Again” hat to television cameras ahead of the upcoming election. But despite a perceived loophole in the league policy, it does not sound like he’s going to avoid punishment from the league.
NFL insider Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk fully anticipates that Nick Bosa will be penalized for the political display.
“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,” Florio wrote for Pro Football Talk.
Florio doesn’t believe any supposed loophole will protect Bosa from punishment, either.
“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,'” he explained.
“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,” Florio elaborated. “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.”
Needless to say, this news led to a lot of reactions on social media.
“Worth every penny cuz it’s an important time,” one fan wrote on X.
“Don’t they have political messages on the back of like half the helmets in the NFL?” another fan added.
“I think they are going to be owners fighting each over this, one will probably volunteer and pay it because of how much they love the oompa loompa,” another fan wrote.
“Fine him now,” another fan added.
“There is a loophole. He’s really good at football. That’s all you need when you break the rules if they decide whether you should be punished for something or not,” another fan said.
“Bosa should refuse to play until this is resolved,” another fan added.
We’ll have to wait and see what form Bosa’s punishment will take.
