Steelers DE Cameron Heyward said that he and the NFL yesterday "came to an agreement" regarding the fines he was facing for wearing eye black honoring his late father, former NFLer Craig "Ironhead" Heyward, according to Mark Kaboly of the PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW. He had been fined $5,787 for wearing the unapproved eye black during the team's Week 5 game against the Chargers, but Heyward indicated that the league has "reduced the fine to an undisclosed amount." He also announced a "charitable partnership with EyeBlack.com where a portion of the proceeds will go to his foundation, The Heyward House" (PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW, 10/21). ESPN.com's Jeremy Fowler noted Heyward "again wore the eye black Sunday" against the Cardinals, which "would have been a $11,576 fine for a second offense." Heyward on Twitter wrote, "I consider myself a team player and someone who puts others before myself, and I don't want to be a distraction to my teammates or the Steelers organization. With that, I will not be writing on my eye black going forward anymore. I will be honoring my father in other ways on and off the field." Fowler noted buying pre-designed "Iron Head" EyeBlack online "earmarks money for the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh and the Southeastern Brain Tumor Foundation, with which his father was associated during his cancer fight" (ESPN.com, 10/20).
BAD PR LOOK: THE MMQB's Robert Klemko writes the NFL should "limit its uniform fines to individual expressions which blatantly subvert its business interests." He noted one such example would be a player "wearing cleats with a visible non-Nike logo." Klemko: "It doesn't take a public relations expert to see the league's fight with Cameron Heyward as a lose-lose situation. ... There's no sanctity to protect here, no slippery slope" (MMQB.SI.com, 10/21). But Showtime's Boomer Esiason said of Heyward, "I understand his passion, I understand his love for his dad, and I understand his dad was an ex-football player. ... But you can’t just keep breaking the rules without some sort of penalty that’s going to be attached to it” ("Inside The NFL," Showtime," 10/20). NBCSN's Ross Tucker wrote on Twitter, "Popular to crush NFL on this but where do you draw line?" (TWITTER.com, 10/20).
