The NFL…Not Just A Bunch of Jocks Who Are Pretty In Pink
By: Dwan Samuel

Pretty In Pink

    Just when I thought that there were very few things that could occur within the NFL to make me love the league, its employees, and the fans even more; well, they have officially found a way to make me fall in love all over again.  

    Weeks four and five brought, not only, my game day excitement, but I found myself beaming with pride.  

    Yea, yea… sometimes I can be a rather sentimental chick, but I had good reason to be the past two Sundays.  Every October, I attempt to find ways to assist in raising money and bringing awareness to finding a cure for breast cancer.  I believe in doing any and everything possible from saving the lids of my Yoplait Yogurt cups to participating and/ or donating to the Susan G. Komen’s Race For The Cure.  

    Sometimes a charitable cause becomes more than charity to us.  It becomes a fight, an epic battle even.  

    When we watch football, it’s not much different from the Romans piling into the Coliseum to watch the best, most courageous gladiators battle for victory; but being realistic, football is not life or death.  It’s a game that we hold near and dear to our hearts, but if we lose a game or even a Super Bowl, life goes on.  

    In 1999, I had to face the reality of how precious and fragile life can be when my Grandmother was diagnosed with breast cancer.  Not only did she have her left breast removed, but she had to go through chemo therapy.  To watch my Mother have to pump blood from my Grandmother’s breast after the surgery and to have to see the side effects of chemo therapy scared me.  I was in high school at the time and my Grandmother had lived with my family since I was around eight years old.  She was a second mother to me. 

    She was always happy and constantly on the go.  During chemo therapy she was extremely sick and when her hair began to fall out we were afraid of her reaction.  Apparently it didn’t bother her a bit because she got up one day, went to the barber shop and had her head shaved bald. She wore it proudly without wigs I only recall her wearing hats during the summer months.  She never showed fear and never once did she allow the disease to cause her to give up.  

    Gram (as she is affectionately known to most), fought a battle for her life… and won!  Her cancer has been in remission for ten years and I hate the thought of another person and their family going through dealing with such a horrific and devastating disease.  Gram and our family were lucky, but there are so many families who do not win the battle over breast cancer.   

    Football is a violent sport just as cancer can be a violent and deadly disease, but unlike football, cancer is not fun to watch.  

    I thought of writing a piece on the fans’ beloved 40-year-old  gladiator’s  “revenge” against his former team or even the fact that the Brett Favre is not just a 40-year-old QB, but that he and the Vikings are currently 5-0.  I thought of discussing how Matt Hasselbeck and the Seahawks attacked Rashean Mathis and the Jaguars to no avail.  I could have chosen to write about the Bengals embarrassing the Ravens or the Patriots losing steam.  I won’t bother to mention what the Falcons are capable of after a bye week and I definitely won’t make jokes about how Donovan McNabb quiets his critics after sitting out a couple of games (whether it’s because of Andy Reid benching him or because of broken ribs).  As badly as I wanted this piece to be about the elation that I feel over the fact that Rush Limbaugh will no longer be allowed to purchase the St. Louis Rams because the group that was planning to make the bid with him has decided to proceed without him because of the uproar felt by the NFL’s Players Union (NFLPA), fans, owners and others throughout the world, I will not write about that today.  

    I could go on and on about all of the action (and for some teams, lack there of) that we have witnessed, but today I will veer from my usual course and take time out to acknowledge the league for its efforts during Breast Cancer Awareness month.   

    We read and watch all of the negatives about the players and the league itself on a constant basis.  Admittedly, I am one of the people who can tell you all of the things that the Commissioner and the league are doing wrong (in my opinion), but today I want to commend them and show my gratitude for what they are doing that is right.   

    To many people seeing coaches, referees, and players in pink is more of a fashion statement or a nod to breast cancer, but to me it is touching and honorable.  It is not simply a bunch of pink tossed onto the field and onto those affiliated with the NFL.  It brings awareness.  It reminds women to perform their monthly breast exams and teaches boys and men to remind the women in their lives to perform those exams.  That pink that the men look so stunning in impacts breast cancer research by causing fans to want to go to www.nflshop.com to purchase the pink wide receiver gloves, hats, shirts and other apparel.  Parts of the money spent on those popular items goes towards finding a cure that is so needed.   

    Many have asked me over the past decade how I know that the money is being used for research.  Until recently, I simply had faith that the money was being used for what it was supposed to be used for, but now that I have a friend who goes to work five days or more each week to sit in a lab pretty much isolated from others, I can say that the money is very likely going where it is supposed to go.   

    My friend, Diondra Hill, has explained to me the difficult, tedious and necessary task of the research that she performs.  From her explanations of her current research, she “is attempting to find a therapeutic solution to target a specific protein that is robust in breast cancer cells and will prevent patients from having to go through chemo therapy and its harsh side effects from the treatment.  This will also allow all of the healthy cells to remain unaffected by the radiation.”  We are all hopeful that some of her research along with research from others around the world will possibly one day lead to a cure and even a way in which to prevent the disease.

    Granted all of that stuff is way over my head, but hearing her explanations continue to give me hope that one day Gram and every other woman on the planet will have not only a cure for breast cancer, but hopefully the research that massive amounts of money are raised for will ultimately assist in a prevention technique for breast cancer and all other types of cancer as well.

    As much as I may complain about what the league does and does not do, I must admit that I won’t be able to complain much now (well, not for the month of October anyway).  All jokes aside, I truly would like to thank the league, the fans, the analysts who look dashing in their pink neckties and pink ribbons and everyone else who takes time out to support such a worthy cause. 

    Sometimes football transcends into more than just a game and this month, my hope is that we all take time out to remember that as much as we all love the sport and enjoy filling up stadiums to cheer on our favorite gladiators and await the ensuing battle, it is a battle that allows its gladiators to live to fight another day.  Chad Ochocinco made the comment in week four that he was “pretty in pink, well, I say that all of you who support Breast Cancer Awareness are pretty in pink!
A special thanks to Diondra Hill for her laymen’s terms explanation of her research and to Gram for allowing me to tell a very small part of her story.

Dwan Samuel

dwanls@gmail.com