By Ben Cooper ’16

The NFL annually dedicates the month of October to Breast Cancer Awareness and allows players to wear pink gloves, cleats, wristbands and other gear to raise money for the cause.

DeAngelo Williams, a running back for the Pittsburgh Steelers, lost his mother to cancer in 2014. This year, Williams wanted to do more than just raise awareness in October; he wanted to wear pink gear all season long to honor his mother. However, the NFL shot him down and rejected his request to do so. Similarly, Pittsburgh Steelers defensive end Cam Heyward had the words “Iron Head” written on his eye black to honor his late father who passed away from cancer. The next week, Heyward was fined and told he could only use the NFL provided eye black that says “Tackle Cancer.” Most recently, Josh Norman of the Carolina Panthers was fined for wearing patriotic cleats during a “Salute to Service” game.

These instances demonstrate the NFL’s unreasonableness and hypocrisy. How can the NFL be so indifferent to their player’s personal lives just to uphold a uniform policy? The fact that the NFL only condones supporting breast cancer in the month of October seems to be fueled by money rather than trying to cure cancer. After the players have worn the pink gear, the NFL auctions it off. A portion of the money goes to cancer research, but the other portion is kept by the NFL. These players are trying to do their part in raising awareness, but because the NFL wants to maximize their profit, they can’t. It should be apparent that shedding light on cancer for more than one month is beneficial, whether it brings in money or not.

The NFL seems to lag behind other major sports leagues in giving their players freedom to customize their gear (to an extent). Baseball players can alter their bats, gloves and wristbands. Yet, Heyward isn’t allowed to customize his eye black to commemorate his father. He isn’t purposefully trying to show the NFL up by doing so, he just wants to appropriately honor a loved one. The decisions to fine Heyward, as well as tell Williams that he can’t wear pink after October are truly confusing in this sense. The NFL may enforce this because they don’t want to set a precedent for other players to customize their gear in other ways. The easy solution to this is to enforce the rule individually, rather than generally apply the rule to a large number of players. The inability to make this change and sympathize with a player’s desire to bring awareness to cancer epitomizes the NFL’s lack of common sense.

After the horrifying terrorist attacks in Paris on November 13, the NFL announced that it would not fine players for honoring the victims for the following Sunday. It shouldn’t take an awful tragedy for the NFL to decide that it shouldn’t punish those who just want to show support for a cause. Clearly, if the NFL had still fined players for honoring Paris victims, there would have been even more backlash than there is now. Moreover, the fact they even had to announce this is a troubling sign that there is something wrong with how current situations of showing support for a cause are being handled. If a tragedy has to occur for there to be no fines, then the NFL’s policies have some very major flaws.