NFL won’t fine players who wore 9/11 tribute cleats

Tennessee Titans linebacker Avery Williamson, New York Giants wide receivers Odell Beckham Jr. and Victor Cruz, Atlanta Falcons wide receiver Mohamed Sanu, Houston Texans linebacker Brian Cushing and Indianapolis Colts punter Pat McAfee all wore cleats to honor 9/11 victims and first responders during their respective games on Sunday. Falcons receiver Julio Jones wore similar cleats during warmups.

The NFL consistently fines players for uniform elements that don’t fit within the guidelines of the NFL’s strict dress code.

“I just felt like I got so much support across the country, and especially when the New York and New Jersey police unions said that they would pay my fine, that really meant a lot,” Williamson told reporters on Sunday, “I felt like if I didn’t wear them, I just wouldn’t have felt good about it. I felt like I had to do that, just for myself and to represent the people that were lost and the people that do their jobs every day to protect us. I feel like it was just a duty.”

Had Williamson been fined, Titans head coach Mike Mularkey had said he was willing to pay the fine on Williamson’s behalf.

Williamson will auction off the cleats, along with a meet and greet, two VIP tickets to a Titans game and a signed jersey. The proceeds will benefit Operation Warrior Wishes, a nonprofit that provides NFL game day experiences to wounded veterans.

The NFL has been unflinchingly rigid in its enforcement of the dress code, and has previously drawn criticism for uniform fines. In 2013, then-Chicago Bears receiver Brandon Marshall was fined for wearing green shoes to highlight Mental Health Awareness week.

Last year, Pittsburgh Steelers running back DeAngelo Williams was fined for wearing “Fine the Cure” eye black for breast cancer, Steelers cornerback William Gay was fined for wearing purple cleats for domestic violence awareness and Steelers defensive lineman Cameron Heyward was fined for wearing eye black to pay tribute to his father, who died of bone cancer.

Given the NFL’s history of inflexibility, the players wearing the cleats on Sunday all seemed fully aware of the fact that it could cost them:

The NFL’s full rules for shoes under the uniform policy mandate that “each team must designate a dominant base color for its shoes, either black or white (with shoelace color conforming to the dominant base color of the tongue area of the shoe).”

The NFL is expected to ease up on its rigid rules governing shoes, at least to an extent, during Week 13 of the 2016 season, according to Jonathan Jones of Sports Illustrated. Players will be permitted to show support for a charity or a cause on their cleats. The catch is that the league has to approve the charity or cause, and the cleats have to be auctioned off after use, with all of the proceeds going directly to that charity.