New England Revolution striker Kei Kamara is someone who isn’t afraid to speak out on issues and at times where he feels he’s been wronged. Sometimes, that has caused a rift among his team but Kamara has been unusually open and candid on various issues, which you don’t normally see in athletes.

This time, Kamara revealed via Twitter that he was fined $1,250 for wearing the wrong socks. MLS, like any pro sports league, has strict uniform rules and due to their agreement with Adidas, players must wear Adidas socks. Kamara, even showing a doctor’s note, wore TruSox, a brand endorsed by Luis Suarez, Gareth Bale, Alexis Sanchez and Javier Hernandez, because of an issue with Kamara’s toes.

Totally unrelated but I just want to get this out of the way. The entire video very much has the feel I’m about to watch a nut job conspiracy theorist video about how the moon landing was faked or something.

Anyway, back to the video, Kamara came out guns blazing saying he was “pissed” about the fine from MLS. Kamara took his fine to his Players Union because he felt the fine was “unfair” since more players than just him are wearing TruSox in MLS. This is where the story takes a strange turn.

Instead of appealing the fine on Kamara’s behalf, Kamara reported he was told the Players Union had done nothing after a couple weeks. But Kamara said he was told by the Player’s Union that because he’s a “high-profile player” that he shouldn’t be wearing TruSox. This led Kamara to investigate and prove that very high-profile players such as Michael Bradley and Jozy Altidore have been photographed wearing TruSox during games and according to Kamara, neither of them have been fined.

In fact, in a 2015 Grant Wahl article for Sports Illustrated, he lists in addition to Bradley and Altidore, Clint Dempsey, Mix Diskerud, Omar Gonzalez, Jermaine Jones, Hope Solo, Kelley O’Hara, Megan Rapinoe, Heather O’Reilly and Ashlyn Harris not only wore TruSox but weren’t being paid a dime for their endorsement. Things may have changed but two years ago, only Luis Suarez had been paid for endorsement while everyone else were only given free socks (which retail at $40/pair). They were just wearing the socks because in their view, they were and are better.

Wahl did say that an unnamed USMNT player had paid around $5,000 in fines for uniform violations due to wearing TruSox and MLS had been fining players so it’s possible that Bradley and Altidore have been fined. It’s just that a $1,250 fine affects a player like Bradley (making $6.5 mil/year) and Altidore ($4.8 mil/year) a lot less than Kamara (making $800k/year).

If something is against the rules and everyone is being fined the same amount, regardless of how stupid the rule is, it’s fair. I’m not going to assume who has or hasn’t been fined for wearing a different brand of socks but Kamara’s post has led to some interesting points that make this an issue worth discussing.

Despite boots being a part of the uniform, players don’t need to wear Adidas boots during MLS games. Kamara said it himself that he wears New Balance and players wear a variety of different boots because having the right pair of boots is kind of important to playing soccer. So why are socks any different? As long as the socks are the same color as the uniform and every player on a team is wearing the same color socks, shouldn’t players have the right to treat their socks like their boots and try to get what they feel is the best for them? Adidas has branding on every kit and pair of shorts on every MLS player so it’s not like Adidas is losing out much on branding. And I’ll promise you, when I’m watching a soccer game, I’m not staring at a player’s feet. So I’m more likely to be seeing the kit, which has Adidas prominently displayed than on their socks.

Also, and I touched on this earlier, maybe players like Bradley and Altidore wear TruSox knowing they’ll get fined because a $1,250 fine doesn’t mean as much as 90% of MLS players. Within the CBA, teams are limited to having four chartered flights per season because not every team can afford commercial flights all season and that could constitute an advantage. So why is this any different? If TruSox is what its players say it is and are superior, then how is this any different than teams being limited in scheduling chartered flights? I’m sure the MLS rookie making $60k a year isn’t even going to look at a pair of TruSox, much less wear a pair because they aren’t going to risk having to pay 2% of their annual salary each game. But for Michael Bradley, paying .019% of your annual salary each game sounds like the juice is worth the squeeze if it really does make you better. Thus, that constitutes an advantage based on cost and is comparable to MLS teams and chartered flights.

Surely, between MLS, the Players Union and Kei Kamara, common sense should, and needs to, prevail. The most important body part to a soccer player is their feet. If their feet aren’t happy, their play suffers and the quality of play goes down. Whether it’s boots or socks or anything else by the feet, if a player feels that something is making them a better player, they should be able to do just that whether or not it’s from Adidas. It’s okay with boots and if they are way more visible than socks, then socks should be no different. Kamara likely knows that he has no choice but to pay this fine and probably the fine that’s going to come with this video, but not posting this video leaves those fans and the media in the dark and thus a dumb rule like being fined for wearing the wrong socks would continue to prevail while everyone else is blissfully ignorant.

Also, TruSox should probably send Kamara a fruit basket or something for all this free publicity. I can already see TruSox’s next slogan. “TruSox: So good you’re willing to get fined in order to wear them.”

About Phillip Bupp

Producer/editor of the Awful Announcing Podcast and Short and to the Point. News editor for The Comeback and Awful Announcing. Highlight consultant for Major League Soccer as well as a freelance writer for hire. Opinions are my own but feel free to agree with them.

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