Odell Beckham Jr. could not possibly have come up with a better pair of cleats with which to pay tribute to Craig Sager, the TNT NBA reporter who died earlier this week of leukemia. Like most of the clothes Sager was known for wearing, the shoes were bright. They were bold. They were gaudy. They featured about five different patterns.
They also were subject to a big fine by the NFL.
Just when you want to applaud the league for suppressing its inner Grinch by giving Ezekiel Elliott a pass and not fining him for jumping into a Salvation Army kettle during a touchdown celebration, it drops the hammer on Beckham for shoes that violated rules about uniforms.
Bah humbug.
Beckham shared the news that he had been fined $18,000 in a reply on an Instagram post by DeSean Jackson of the Washington Redskins. Jackson had lamented being fined for wearing his shoe choice Monday night and Beckham replied:
“Don’t worry I got fined 18k for Craig Sager cleats that were auction [sic] off the cleats to the highest bidder and donating the proceeds to his cancer research. 18k like it’s nothin to them, no warning to take them off or anything, noTHING!”
So, to summarize, Elliott draws awareness to the Salvation Army (and donates $21,000) with his leap, getting only a penalty flag, and the NFL cannot announce quickly enough that he would not be fined. Meanwhile Beckham is out $18K for trying to raise money for the SagerStrong Foundation, perhaps partly because the league designated Week 13 as the one in which players could wear nonconforming shoes to raise awareness for their pet causes.
Earlier in the week, Beckham had speculated that there was a double standard in play, that he would have been fined had he jumped into a kettle. Elliott was, no doubt, helped by the fact that his celebration occurred during prime time and raised considerable awareness and money for an organization that also, ahem, happens to have long been affiliated with the Cowboys. The red kettle has been an end zone fixture from Thanksgiving to Christmas for years.
“There’s double standards everywhere,” Beckham said. “It’s just how life is. I’m absolutely positive if I would’ve done that, I would’ve been fined. It’s whatever. It’s nothing against Zeke [Elliott]. Zeke is my boy. I have a Zeke jersey right there, so there’s no problems with anything like that.
“You set rules and limitations, but you don’t follow them.”
(c) 2016, The Washington Post ยท Cindy Boren
Image: Getty Images
