Every October, NFL players and personnel hit the field with pink accents – pink gloves, pink towels, pink wristbands, etc – in honour of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. There is a branch of the league website – nfl.com/pink – dedicated to “A Crucial Catch,” the NFL’s breast cancer awareness program.
There are three videos on the page, including one featuring Pittsburgh Steelers running back DeAngelo Williams, who lost his mother and four aunts to breast cancer. The same DeAngelo Williams who was fined last month for writing the message “Find the Cure” with a pink ribbon on his eye black.
The NFL also recently rolled out a new anti-domestic violence PSA, a spot that features Williams’ teammate, cornerback William Gay talking about his mother, who was killed at the hands of a domestic abuser when he was eight years old. A couple days later, the league handed Gay a fine for wearing purple shoes in honour of Domestic Violence Awareness Month.
Oh by the way, not much of the money generated by the sales of all that pink NFL apparel actually makes its way to the American Cancer Society. Julie Dicaro sums up the ridiculousness of it all for The Cauldron and Sports Illustrated.
But here’s where it gets worse.
Johnny Manziel quarterbacked the Cleveland Browns on Thursday night. The same Johnny Manziel who is currently the subject of an ongoing investigation over a potential domestic violence incident from a couple weeks back when he was speeding down the shoulder of the interstate and allegedly restrained his girlfriend from getting out of said vehicle. When police arrived on the scene, Manziel’s girlfriend, Colleen Crowley, told officers Manziel was “beating the s*** out of her” and that she was “in fear for my life.”
She later recanted, saying it was a private matter and that she and the former Texas A&M standout were good, but hasn’t the NFL learned its lesson about blowing by these potential instances of domestic abuse? Why in the hell was Manziel able to take the field on Thursday night, for a nationally televised game, when this investigation is still ongoing?
Maybe sit him down until things are sorted given that at the absolute least a kid who spent part of his summer vacation in rehab copped to having a couple drinks several hours before speeding down the shoulder of the interstate and getting into a squabble with his girlfriend that was bad enough that the police had to intervene.
If you’re keeping score at home, it shakes out like this: paying tribute to your lost family members gets you fined, but a potential domestic violence incident where the police are called to help cool things out and assess the situation doesn’t come with any repercussions whatsoever.
Good job, NFL… keep showing you have no %$#*ing clue.
