Where's the pink?

This is more just curiosity on my part... I'm just wondering why CFL players don't wear pink in October for Breast Cancer month like NFL players do.

That is SO not where my mind went when I read the title of this thread! :oops:

Personally I'm glad they don't.

Does anyone know if NFL players will all be wearing something blue in November for prostate cancer month?

Personally, I'm glad the CFL doesn't just blindly follow the NFL on this one (sorry, but the cynic in me tells me they're doing this cause related marketing effort more to court female fans than an act of altruism).

Prostate cancer kills nearly as many men as breast cancer does women in the United States (40,000 women to breast cancer to 30,000 men for prostate cancer) yet breast cancer research gets more than twice the federal funding.

While all forms of cancer deserve our attention and funding to help eradicate them, I'd rather the CFL teams accessorize with the colour "blue" during a week in September to bring attention to prostate cancer (I think a whole month is a little over the top).

I seem to recall reading once that in Canada, more men die from prostate cancer than women die from breast cancer, although again the latter gets way more public funding.

Can you imagine the howling from the feminist lobby were the funding to have been otherwise?

There are a lot of news stories ( google if you want to read them ) regarding the Pink campaigns and how much actually goes to Breast cancer research from them. The NFL has deep enough pockets to go pink and turn over cash - The CFL does not. I believe that if they where to copy cat the NFL it would be symbolic only with no real actual revenue generated. As such it would be best left to teams to take donations at the gate ( this is something the wives - mothers and cheerleaders could run ). Going pink simply because it is popular lessens the importance of it in my opinion. Seems every consumer product is offering a pink’d version of their products and folks are now starting to ask the question of what if anything actual goes to the charity.

That and I agree with the other poster regarding prostate cancer. If the CFL was to do a league wide organized Cancer support program it should be inclusive of both and not just one. :cowboy:

And why stop with just those 2 forms of cancer. . . there are lots of other forms of cancer as well. . . why are some more ‘deserving’ of campaigns and not others?

By inclusive I mean of both genders and cancers that effect everyone - not limited to just 2 forms.

because we have a phobia about the NFL up here. We dont want the CFL to do anything like the NFL, more than already is.

Hell, once our players start wearing pink, the next step may be 4 down football :wink:

I think it’s an individual player’s choice to wear pink. I noticed several players from both teams who were not wearing any.

It's not up to the players to wear pink, it's more appropriate for fans to do that if they wish. I believe the first game in Oct. at McMahon, they were selling pink merch for the fans to wear to show support for breast cancer month (proceeds went to breast cancer research).

According to the latest estimates from the Canadian Cancer Society, more women will die in 2010 from breast cancer (5,300) than men from prostate cancer (4,300). A different picture appears when gender population is taken into account. Out of 100,000 men or women, 21 women will die in 2010 from breast cancer while 22 men will die from prostate cancer. And almost as many people will die from colorectal cancer as from breast and prostate cancer combined. And lung cancer deaths exceed all three of those cancers combined.

So why does pink get the lion’s share of the funding and charitable contributions?

To be honest, I kind of looked at it as creating awareness. Most people are aware of lung cancer, but not as many are aware of the dangers of breast cancer. I suppose both leagues could wear blue in Sept if they wanted. Like I said, this was more just curiosity on my part. I have seen people in the stands wearing pink, which is cool. :thup:

Personally, I see people being even less aware of the dangers of prostate and colorectal cancers, both of which are at least as common and deadly as breast cancer. And much less likely to talk about them.

I wouldn’t mind so much except that any money contributed to the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation can only be used to help breast cancer; legally, it cannot be made available for research in any other cancer field. And so the aggressive advertising, sorry, awareness campaign by CBCF ends up diverting funding away from other cancer research.

I think my mind was in the exact same place when I read the topic title!!!

Anyway, I will get my mond out of the gutter now…

The CFL only allows approved colours to be worn as part of the uniform and pink isn't an approved colour. The Bomber players were wearing the pink gloves during practice last week and they are being auctioned off at CFL Auctions. The Bombers also sold pink t-shirts, toques and scarves for the game.

[quote="Chief"] Most people are aware of lung cancer, but not as many are aware of the dangers of breast cancer. /quote]

Do you really believe that ???

It's a herd mentality. Raising money for the "pink" cause became the thing to be seen doing if you want to be seen as "caring", so everybody jumped on the bandwagon.

Minor details like where the money would actually do the most good or which cancers are more dangerous don't factor into it. Hell, if you really wanted to make a difference, something simple like cutting salt content in food by 33% would save more lives then all the pink fundraisers combined.

But that kind of change requires actual effort rather then buying special merchandise.

Same with the NFL. Chad Ochocinco was fined last season for wearing an orange chin strap during a pre-season game.