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Bears' Earl Bennett Loves His Shoes

CHICAGO (CBS) -- The NFL has reportedly fined Bears wide receiver Earl Bennett $10,000 for wearing orange cleats for the second straight week, violating the league's uniform policy.

Bennett was fined $5,000 two weeks ago for wearing the same cleats during the Bears game in Philadelphia, but as CBS 2's Jill Carlson reports, Bennett is used to paying top dollar to make a fashion statement with his sneakers.

As the Paolo Nutini song goes, "Hey, I put some new shoes on, and suddenly, everything's right." And everything has been right since Bennett put on those bright orange shoes.

Bennett has caught 11 passes for 176 yards in two games.

It is almost worth the thousands of dollars in fines with which the NFL has slapped him for wearing them.

His shoes even have their own Twitter account.

"It's crazy, actually," he said. "D.J. (Moore) – he's the one who saw it and, you know, retweeted it, and now everybody wants me to change my name to Agent Orange, and I mean, it's just crazy."

As you might have guessed from the orange shoes, Bennett is a self-described sneaker-head. And it's not just any sneakers – he likes limited-edition shoes.

Where better to go shopping than Foot Locker's House of Hoops? Carlson joined Bennett there on Wednesday.

"The limited-edition shoes are very rare," he said. "It's hard to get them, so I try to call as many people as I know to try and get them. I loved them growing up. I love shoes, but my mom only said I could have one pair at a time. But I mean now, I have tons of shoes – probably about 60 pairs."

Bennett says in his closet, he has 230 or 240 pairs of shoes.

"My closet's a mess right now, though. My wife won't even clean it up for me," Bennett said.

He's right up there with Imelda Marcos.

Bennett even gave Carlson some shoe advice. She tried on some Nikes with hot pink laces.

"I like them. They look good. They go with your outfit, what you have on now. You have the black and the purple on, and the pink just throws everything off and makes it all come together," he said.

The word is we won't see Bennett wearing his offensive orange cleats against the San Diego Chargers this weekend, even though a few of his teammates reportedly chipped in to pay his fines.

Even though the Bears sometimes wear orange jerseys, the NFL uniformity rules require white or black sneakers.

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