In the NFL, the month of October has become intrinsically connected to breast cancer awareness. Everything is pink or accented with pink, from players’ cleats to towels to the gear coaching staffs wear on the sideline. Expect that to change in 2017, when the league shifts its focus to raise awareness for all types of cancer instead of focusing simply on breast cancer.
NFL teams can choose their own cancer awareness cause next October
The NFL will broaden its focus to include more than just breast cancer awareness during the month of October.
Photo by Jim Rogash/Getty Images
Jeanna Kelley has been covering the Falcons for The Falcoholic since 2011 and the NFL for SB Nation since 2015.
NFL teams were told in a league-wide conference call in early December that each club will get to choose the type of cancer they’d like to raise awareness for next October, according to The MMQB. The NFL has spent two years discussing a potential change with the American Cancer Society, and that change will come in 2017.
The name of the initiative, “A Crucial Catch,” won’t change. Teams can choose to continue a focus on supporting screening and early detection efforts for breast cancer, shift to other forms of cancer that are treatable with early detection, or emphasize a type of cancer that the team has a personal connection to instead.
Devon Still, the Houston Texans defensive end whose young daughter, Leah, fought childhood cancer into remission, was a catalyst for this change.
Still and Leah shared her battle with Stage 4 neuroblastoma with the world. When NFL commissioner Roger Goodell reached out to Still to express his support for Leah’s fight, Still took the opportunity to push for change. He pushed for the NFL to expand its focus in October to include more than just breast cancer awareness.
“It lets me know that he’s listening,” Still said. “For a long time, we have been supporting causes close to the heads of the NFL. To find out they are really following through with this, it makes me feel like the players are gaining more of a voice.”
The focus of “A Crucial Catch” will remain on cancer prevention, screening, and early detection, as opposed to raising funds for research toward cures.
Over the eight seasons the NFL’s October breast cancer awareness initiative has been in place, the league says it has raised nearly $15 million for the American Cancer Society. Those funds come from the sale of officially licensed pink merchandise, auctioning off game-worn equipment and donations from corporate partners.
The shift to a broader focus on cancer awareness in October is another departure for the NFL, which allowed players to support charitable causes close to them with the “My Cause, My Cleats” campaign in Week 13 of the 2016 season.
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