Jimmy Iovine on NFL Beats Ban: 'I Can't Believe I'm This Lucky'

Beats co-founder Jimmy Iovine commented on the NFL's ban of Beats headphones while on camera during a talk at University of Southern California's Global Conversation, reports BusinessInsider.

"We didn’t do anything, and now the players are going out and putting black tape on our logo," Iovine said.

"It’s like, I can’t believe I’m this lucky," he said, laughing. "I feel like sending them the tape."


49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick was fined $10,000 by the NFL for wearing his Beats headphones on camera. He has since used a piece of tape to cover the logo on his headphones.

"What happened there, you have a tech company that’s culturally inept," Iovine said. "There’s no one at the company that said, 'If you ban these guys, you’re going to look bad to the young people, and they’re going to look like superheros even though they’re just pure capitalists — well they’re not pure capitalists, but they’re real capitalists and [they] sold that company to Apple — but you’re going to make them look like the underdog."

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