# Does the NFL have any other illness week besides breast cancer? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [October 3, 2010, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-nfl-have-any-other-illness-week-besides-breast-cancer/555939 "2010-10-03T19:26:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Cubsfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Cubsfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cubsfan)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2010, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-nfl-have-any-other-illness-week-besides-breast-cancer/555939/1 "2010-10-03T19:26:44Z")
I don’t understand cwhy the NFL has Brest cancer week. Aren’t there more deadly and more prolific diseases than that? How about just “cancer week”? Or no special week at all? Makes it seem like breast cancer is more important than all the other kinds. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc348/32.png) [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Flying_Dutchman)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2010, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-nfl-have-any-other-illness-week-besides-breast-cancer/555939/2 "2010-10-03T19:29:11Z")
Us men who like football also place a high priority on healthy boobs. ---
**Author:** ![Cubsfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Cubsfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cubsfan)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2010, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-nfl-have-any-other-illness-week-besides-breast-cancer/555939/3 "2010-10-03T20:10:47Z")
And why not take the $100s of K that it took to make special pink shoes and other gear that will only be used for one game one week across the NFL and donate that to cancer research? What a colossal waste of money. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2010, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-nfl-have-any-other-illness-week-besides-breast-cancer/555939/4 "2010-10-03T20:19:55Z")
That gear can be auctioned off. Hopefully the proceeds will go to cancer research. ---
**Author:** ![Shawn1767](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Shawn1767](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shawn1767)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2010, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-nfl-have-any-other-illness-week-besides-breast-cancer/555939/5 "2010-10-03T20:46:25Z")
Perhaps you should read this: [http://www.salon.com/life/cancer/index.html?story=/mwt/feature/2010/10/01/breast\_cancer\_month\_overload](http://www.salon.com/life/cancer/index.html?story=/mwt/feature/2010/10/01/breast_cancer_month_overload) ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2010, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-nfl-have-any-other-illness-week-besides-breast-cancer/555939/6 "2010-10-04T05:52:39Z")
It’s a scam, basically. Penn and Teller devoted an episode of Bullshit! to the Breast Cancer Awareness movement, and it was chock full of bullshitty goodness. Breast cancer is not the leading threat to women’s health, not by a long shot. But it’s the most fun to promote because it’s titillating. Breast cancer is sexualized, and sex sells. So slapping a breast cancer logo on your product helps sell it better than any other disease. The sexualization of breast cancer isn’t a marketing thing, and it’s unique. I say it’s not a marketing thing because it’s the breasts themselves that sexualize the disease. The marketers are chasing the phenomenon, not creating it. And it’s unique when you consider that there’s nothing hot about ovarian cancer, but with breast cancer…BOOBIES!!! If women got butt-cheek cancer, it would have just as strong of a marketing lobby. Or if guys got ab cancer. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2010, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-nfl-have-any-other-illness-week-besides-breast-cancer/555939/7 "2010-10-04T06:45:34Z")
I heard that the Browns support colorectal cancer. ::d&r:: ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2010, 11:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-nfl-have-any-other-illness-week-besides-breast-cancer/555939/8 "2010-10-04T11:01:29Z")
> [@EllisDee](#): > > It’s a scam, basically. Penn and Teller devoted an episode of Bullshit! to the Breast Cancer Awareness movement, and it was chock full of bullshitty goodness. > > Breast cancer is not the leading threat to women’s health, not by a long shot. But it’s the most fun to promote because it’s titillating. Breast cancer is sexualized, and sex sells. So slapping a breast cancer logo on your product helps sell it better than any other disease. I’m a woman, and I’m glad that breast cancer is no longer considered an unspeakable, shameful thing, something that most sufferers seemed to feel “defeminized” them. However, you’re right, the marketing machine behind it is really at crazy levels. I don’t buy pink stuff, especially since it’s hard to tell how much profit actually goes to any breast cancer support/research groups; if I want to donate to causes I try to do it directly. Heart disease is the big killer of women if we’re talking about diseases. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2010, 11:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-nfl-have-any-other-illness-week-besides-breast-cancer/555939/9 "2010-10-15T11:15:27Z")
It’s a month, not a week. And a month with five weeks of games at that. The NFL goes in for this breast cancer promotion for the same reason Major League Baseball does the pink bats and gloves on Mother’s Day: they’re trying to attract female viewers, and breast cancer is universally seen as a good cause. Of course it _is_ a good cause, but there are a lot of good causes. Breast cancer is a good cause that is also about as uncontroversial as they come. You’d think prostate cancer or testicular cancer would be a natural fit for the NFL, but it’s not as easy to market because men don’t deal with those cancers the same way women deal with breast cancer. ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2010, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-nfl-have-any-other-illness-week-besides-breast-cancer/555939/10 "2010-10-15T14:29:56Z")
Well, it’s not _official_, but _every_ week is [Traumatic Brain Injury](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traumatic_brain_injury)week in the NFL. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2010, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-nfl-have-any-other-illness-week-besides-breast-cancer/555939/11 "2010-10-15T14:44:22Z")
The NFL has an image problem with regard to women plus they want more women to watch games on Sunday. Add those together and you get Breast Cancer Awareness in the NFL. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2010, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-nfl-have-any-other-illness-week-besides-breast-cancer/555939/12 "2010-10-15T14:46:01Z")
There’s the insanity that permeates the entire week before the Super Bowl. Even my wife mentioned this past Monday evening that she’s beginning to tire a bit of the incessant, ubiquitous pink. It does seem like it’s far more prevalent this year than any in the past. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2010, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-nfl-have-any-other-illness-week-besides-breast-cancer/555939/13 "2010-10-15T14:50:20Z")
> [@lieu](#): > > It does seem like it’s far more prevalent this year than any in the past. I’m pretty sure they only started doing that last season. [In 2008 (and maybe before that) they did some breast cancer stuff](http://www.nfl.com/news/story?id=09000d5d80b4eda7&template=without-video&confirm=true), but they didn’t turn parts of all the uniforms pink. They may have stepped it up some more this year. ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2010, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-nfl-have-any-other-illness-week-besides-breast-cancer/555939/14 "2010-10-15T16:55:19Z")
The NFL might not be the ones promoting it, but you can’t watch it on TV without learning a little bit _too_ much about erectile dysfunction. ---
**Author:** ![Ponch8](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponch8/32/9883_2.png) [@Ponch8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponch8)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2010, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-nfl-have-any-other-illness-week-besides-breast-cancer/555939/15 "2010-10-15T21:59:03Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > It’s a month, not a week. And a month with five weeks of games at that. The NFL goes in for this breast cancer promotion for the same reason Major League Baseball does the pink bats and gloves on Mother’s Day: they’re trying to attract female viewers, and breast cancer is universally seen as a good cause. Of course it _is_ a good cause, but there are a lot of good causes. Breast cancer is a good cause that is also about as uncontroversial as they come. You’d think prostate cancer or testicular cancer would be a natural fit for the NFL, but it’s not as easy to market because men don’t deal with those cancers the same way women deal with breast cancer. At least Major League Baseball tries to balance things out by making Father’s Day prostate cancer day. ---
**Author:** ![Omniscient](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omniscient/32/3290_2.png) [@Omniscient](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omniscient)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2010, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-nfl-have-any-other-illness-week-besides-breast-cancer/555939/16 "2010-10-15T22:18:03Z")
> [@Ponch8](#): > > > [@Marley23](#): > > > > It’s a month, not a week. And a month with five weeks of games at that. The NFL goes in for this breast cancer promotion for the same reason Major League Baseball does the pink bats and gloves on Mother’s Day: they’re trying to attract female viewers, and breast cancer is universally seen as a good cause. Of course it _is_ a good cause, but there are a lot of good causes. Breast cancer is a good cause that is also about as uncontroversial as they come. You’d think prostate cancer or testicular cancer would be a natural fit for the NFL, but it’s not as easy to market because men don’t deal with those cancers the same way women deal with breast cancer. > > At least Major League Baseball tries to balance things out by making Father’s Day prostate cancer day. How do they do that? What color or Prostate Bats? ---
**Author:** ![Ponch8](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponch8/32/9883_2.png) [@Ponch8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponch8)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2010, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-nfl-have-any-other-illness-week-besides-breast-cancer/555939/17 "2010-10-16T01:15:17Z")
> [@Omniscient](#): > > > [@Ponch8](#): > > > > At least Major League Baseball tries to balance things out by making Father’s Day prostate cancer day. > > How do they do that? What color or Prostate Bats? Light blue. (I’m not sure if they actually use blue bats, but players’ wristbands and what not are blue.)