The NFL makes money from breast cancer?

This is my shocked face.

Just so you know, all of those angry and hateful thoughts you’ve levied toward the NFL for the Annual October Pink-Out might be justified. So don’t feel bad for hating the awareness initiative, considering the League might be using breast cancer as a marketing tool.

Business Insider published a report detailing how the NFL profits from the sale of pink gear. Though all proceeds from auctioned items worn by coaches and players is donated, only 5% of all the sales from items sold in stores and online is donated to the American Cancer Society.

And while such a report has drawn the ire of media outlets for what is clearly a shady business practice by a multi-billion dollar company, International Thumb Wrestling Champion Mike Florio took to the League’s defense on his ProFootballTalk blog.

He points toward a post on Parenting.com, in which a reader writes in about the time last year her husband was watching the Jets game and she noticed the plethora of pink.

“I didn’t know why and asked my husband. He said it was for breast cancer awareness. That night for the first time ever I gave myself a self breast exam. You guys saved my life!”

Congratulations, Mike Florio, for shedding light on the one person Susan B. Komen hasn’t sunken her greedy claws into. The League has done something good! Despite all of the profiting from a terrible disease, they’ve saved a woman’s life!

Fuck the doctor actually diagnosed her, and fuck whoever did the surgery! Fuck whoever tech administered her chemo and FUCK HER FAMILY for supporting her through such a difficult time! It’s not like the pink ribbons on every Kellog’s box clued her in. Before the NFL came along, she had NO IDEA what breast cancer was!

And to be fair, that’s the most the NFL has ever promised to do. After all it is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, not Let’s Donate A Bunch Of Money To Cancer Research Month. That one doesn’t roll off the tongue as well.

This is the same NFL that hypocritically preaches safety all while allowing inexperienced high-school referees call their games, the same NFL that continues to dodge responsibility for the degenerative brain damage of retired players. Are we really that surprised they’re making money off of breast cancer?

There is no denying that breast cancer is the ‘sexiest’ of all deadly diseases, for lack of a better word, and it rakes in more and more money every year. The League is in a unique position to do more than spread awareness of deadly diseases. If they choose to focus on breast cancer, one that already gets A LOT of attention, they could at least do  more for the cause than profit from it.