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.

“For us,” said Pasternack, “Breast Cancer Awareness month is about celebrating strength, celebrating courage, and celebrating all these warriors, whether they are currently fighting it or whether they fought it in the past.”

Today, the 49ers will have a halftime ceremony at their official Breast Cancer Awareness game for those women warriors and their caretakers.

“We’re trying to bring visibility not just to the prevalence of breast cancer, but also to the importance of a support network,” said Pasternack. “That’s something that really resonates with football. Our guys are not individuals out there on the field. They’re a team. They’re working together. They have coaches. They have people back at home who are helping them. So, each lady is bringing somebody who was their cheerleader through the process. Some ladies are bringing their husbands. Some ladies are bringing their children. Some ladies are bringing their best friends - whoever that person who was pivotal in their fight and their and positivism as they went through it.”

INTANGIBLE BENEFITS

Last year at the 49ers’ Breast Cancer Awareness game, Pasternack heard one of the ladies on the field say, “The NFL is using us for this platform.”

“If you feel like you are being used to promote something,” Pasternack said to her, “you absolutely are. Through telling your story, we’re able to reach so many people. Please embrace the moment. Let us use you. Let us use your story, because your story is exactly what is going to personalize this for people.”

Pasternack likes to tell two stories in particular.

Story No. 1.

At the Breast Cancer Awareness game in 2012, the Niners invited a season-ticket holder named Kari onto the field. Kari was a 50-year-old breast-cancer survivor who had beaten a very rare type of the disease. She detected it early.

“She is a woman of great financial means,” said Pasternack, “and so she was able to find THE specialist who could take care of this particular form of breast cancer. And she’s going strong five years out.”

When Kari was standing there waiting to go on the field for the ceremony, she started talking to a young woman who had just been diagnosed with the exact same form of breast cancer. This woman’s name was Annette, and she was about 30. “She had no financial means,” Pasternack said. “She was a single mom worried about how she was going to do this without working. She had no health insurance.”

The two women connected instantly, and Kari took it upon herself to set up an angel investment fund for Annette. Kari connected Annette with her doctor and told her the money was being taken care of, even though Kari really was paying for everything.”

And when Annette would go to the doctor for treatment, Kari’s son would babysit Annette’s little girl. Annette and Kari still are friends.

Story No. 2.

Six years ago at the 49ers’ Breast Cancer Awareness game, one of the Niners’ former players, cornerback Shawntae Spencer, connected with a woman named Sherry. Sherry and Shawntae both had kids around the same age.

Spencer eventually tracked down Pasternack, handed her a pink cleat and said: “This is for Sherry. This is her kick-cancer cleat. Give it to her.”

“So I reached out to Sherry,” Pasternack says. “She’s going to be with us again on Wednesday - she has now beaten breast cancer twice since that time six years ago - and I gave her the cleat. She took it to every single chemo infusion. She would put it up on the shelf next to her, or put it at the foot of her bed.”

When Spencer found out Sherry was in remission, he ran around the Niners’ locker room and got every player to sign a helmet for her.

Spencer hasn’t been with the 49ers since 2011, and he is now retired. A couple of weeks ago, he happened to be in Pittsburgh the same time the Niners were there to play the Steelers. Again, he tracked down Pasternack, and this time asked, “How’s Sherry?”

“That’s what the pink is about,” Pasternack said. “It brings awareness on TV, but it also gives the guys this connection and helps them be a part of the platform. Just put some splashes of pink (on them), and all of a sudden you’ve got women going out and having their lives saved.”

Grant Cohn writes sports columns and the “Inside the 49ers” blog for The Press Democrat’s website. You can reach him at grantcohn@gmail.com.