NFL Pink Game Worn Items Worth Big Donation

 Content Originally Published by Sports Collectors Daily on Wednesday December 29, 2010.

The NFL will donate more than $1 million to the American Cancer Society as a result of this year’s A Crucial Catch breast cancer awareness campaign. Earlier this season, players and coaches donned special pink-colored gear during selected games, with many of the items sold as part of the fundraising campaign.

Proceeds will support both national and local breast cancer initiatives of the American Cancer Society, which has a presence in more than 5,100 communities nationwide. 

A Crucial Catch, in collaboration with the American Cancer Society, encourages women 40 and older to get an annual mammogram.

This year’s NFL donation is comprised of profits raised through the auction of special pink items—many of them game-worn—at NFL Auction and the sale of pink items at retail outlets. In addition, many NFL sponsors and licensees also contributed a percentage of their sales of pink items in October to the cause.

The NFL and NFL Players Association supported October’s National Breast Cancer Awareness Month with their largest on-field presence to date.

Games throughout October featured pink cleats, gloves, wristbands, chin straps, sideline caps, helmet decals, eye shield decals, captains’ patches, sideline towels, quarterback towels and footballs with pink ribbon decals.  Breast cancer awareness games also featured on-field pink ribbon stencils, A Crucial Catch wall banners and pink goal post padding in end zones.

Game-worn pink merchandise and footballs were autographed post-game and auctioned at NFL Auction. All NFL Auction proceeds during the month of October benefitted the American Cancer Society and team charities.

“We are extremely grateful to the NFL and its players for providing breast cancer and the American Cancer Society with such a visible awareness platform, and for the league’s generous donation to the Society’s ongoing involvement in so many local and national breast cancer initiatives,” said Scott Bennett, American Cancer Society national vice president, marketing. “We greatly appreciate the NFL’s strong commitment to this cause.”

NFL Players also raised money for breast cancer awareness with collective and individual efforts across the country. Through the NFL Players Association’s One Team for the Cure and their own foundations, players hosted a variety of events and fundraisers in their team cities and home communities.