NFL colored in pink during Breast Cancer Awareness Month
Pink cleated shoes, pink wristbands, pink gloves, pink sideline caps, pink captains’ patches, pink chin straps, pink shoe laces, pink skull caps, pink sideline towels, pink helmet decals, pink eye-shield decals, pink kicking tees, pink goal-post padding in the end zone, pink headsets for the coaches, pink whistles for the officials, pink pompoms for the cheerleaders.
What’s the deal with all the pink in the NFL during Breast Cancer Awareness Month? What does the pink symbolize, what does it accomplish, and whose idea was it to wear pink in the first place?
This is the story behind the pink.
THE ORIGIN
The idea behind the pink gear came from former Carolina Panthers and current Pittsburgh Steelers running back DeAngelo Williams. He wanted to wear pink cleats to honor his mother, who was battling breast cancer at the time. She passed away from the disease in May of 2014. Williams dyed his dreadlocks pink shortly after.
Back in 2009, the NFL started allowing players and coaches to wear specific pink attire on the field during October - initially just hats, wristbands and cleats. Now, almost everything is pink - even the coin the referee tosses before the game.
“The campaign was initially designed to raise awareness for breast cancer screening by using the popularity of the NFL and the unique implementation and visibility of pink apparel on the field,” the NFL’s Vice President of Social Responsibility, Anna Isaacson, wrote in an e-mail.
The pink merchandise became an immediate hit. Fans requested to purchase the pink stuff they saw players wearing on the field. “The NFL decided early on that it would make no profit from the sales,” Isaacson wrote, “and instead would donate to the American Cancer Society any licensing revenue the league would normally receive from merchandise sales … One hundred percent of the NFL’s proceeds from pink products auctioned on NFL Auction or sold at retail go directly to ACS.”
Since 2009, the NFL has raised more than $8?million for the American Cancer Society.
TANGIBLE BENEFITS
After games in October, one equipment manager for each team gathers up all of the pink gear the players wore that day. Then, the equipment manager labels everything, walks around the locker room and gets players to sign the gear.
Say tight end Vernon Davis signs a cleat. That cleat would go in a box, which would go to the office of Joanne Pasternack, the 49ers’ director of Community Relations. She would then donate the autographed cleat to a breast-cancer related organization - an advocacy group, a treatment center, etc. A single Vernon Davis signed cleat put in an auction could raise between $2,000 and $2,500.
“We’re able to take something that, otherwise, who knows what would happen to it?” Pasternack said. “We’re able to monetize that for breast cancer. You can’t really trace the path of that. We’re talking about $8 million (the NFL has raised), but there is so much more.”
How does the American Cancer Society feel about the NFL’s high-profile gesture?
“Well, we participate in that,” ACS communications manager Angie Carrillo said over the phone. “We’re grateful - the fact that the players are willing to wear pink and celebrate the women in their life and let men and women that are watching the game understand that breast health, breast detection is important.”
Next week, the American Cancer Society will award two Bay Area clinics with money that was raised through a program called, “Crucial Catch.” It is a day when the NFL helps their fans understand how important it is for women to detect breast cancer at its earliest and most treatable stage. The campaign raises awareness, and also raises money for clinics in underserved areas where women cannot afford to get mammograms or exams on their own because they’re poor or uninsured.
“Crucial Catch has been very beneficial,” Carrillo said. “We’re going to be awarding $50,000 to a clinic in Fremont and that same amount of money to a clinic in San Francisco next week, and it has all been funded through the Crucial Catch, through the NFL’s partnership with us.”
Crucial Catch is not solely a money-raising campaign. Through that campaign, the American Cancer Society will have a night with the Oakland Raiders this month when they invite women undergoing breast-cancer treatment to come to Raiders’ headquarters in Alameda for an evening away from cancer. Survivors and their caregivers will be taken on a tour of the building and treated to dinner with the players.
On Sept. 30, the 49ers hosted 40 women, either breast-cancer survivors or women who were currently fighting the disease, to a day of pampering - manicures, massages and makeup. Afterward, the Niners invited the women to watch practice and to hand the pink gear to the players - from one warrior to another.
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