Antonio Brown says refs warned him to take off custom cleats or be sidelined

The NFL will always take its uniform code way too seriously, and that won’t change.

It’s not just the hefty fines. Pittsburgh Steelers receiver Antonio Brown said officials last Sunday told him if he came out for the second half against the Philadelphia Eagles with his blue cleats, which had the faces of his four children on them, they would not let him play.

DKPittsburghSports.com first reported that officials told Brown to stay in the locker room if he didn’t change his cleats. Brown confirmed that story on his WDVE radio show, via ESPN. Brown complied, and wore league-approved cleats for the second half.

Here are the custom blue cleats, which are pretty cool:

Brown is likely going to get fined for the custom cleats and hopefully he brings back his epic quote about getting fined for twerking after a touchdown, when he told reporters the fine was “nothing to a boss.”

Even though the NFL lightened up for a week and didn’t fine players who wore cleats that marked the 15th anniversary of 9/11, but the league had to know that it was in for a lot of bad publicity if it gave out those fines. The wasn’t going it continue, however. The league has a uniform code, and will even take one of its best players off the field to enforce it.

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Frank Schwab is the editor of Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at shutdown.corner@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
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