Think Pink

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, which you should certainly know by now if you are a football fan. Pink has been everywhere in the NFL this month, from coaches to referees to players' equipment. It's all part of a partnership with the Susan Komen Foundation to raise awareness and money; as a public relations campaign, it's been one of the biggest and best ever for breast cancer prevention and treatment.

Other sports have done similar things, but nothing on the scale of what the NFL has done, and it's almost impossible to watch a game this month without seeing the signature pink color associated with breast cancer treatment. The Komen Foundation deserves credit for aligning itself with the highly visible NFL and getting a massive amount of publicity.

It's a more interesting decision on the part of the NFL, which usually keeps its charity work much more low key. The NFL never exactly said why it was going all out for breast cancer, other than it's an obviously worthy cause, and it would be interesting to know exactly why the league went with this instead of say, arthritis or Alzheimer's. (With all the crippling injuries that result from playing the NFL for a long period of time, one would think the league would be raising money to help its retired players).

I would imagine other charities will be lined up to try and get the same kind of exposure and publicity the NFL offers. In the meantime, congratulations to the Komen Foundation for a master stroke of public relations. As just a side note, at our local high school football game Friday night the field was decorated with a pink ribbon and cheerleaders went through the stands collecting for breast cancer. I don't know who's doing PR for the Komen Foundation, but that person deserves a raise.