Not in the pink of health

By Paul Kokoski
| Thu, October 18, 2012 - 12:01 AM

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Football, like other sports, has become too commercialized and dominated by special interest groups that include and involve everything from breast cancer to Bud Light beer.

I am especially disappointed at the way and extent to which the latest “pink campaign” against breast cancer has infiltrated and imposed itself on football.

First of all, it takes away from the aesthetic beauty of the game. The splotchy pink apparel inconsistently applied to both teams’ uniforms dirties up and confuses the colours that separate one team from another. This is not helped by the fact that players are already wearing undecipherable tattoos while playing on fields littered with advertising.

Secondly, the pink campaign is covertly a pet project of various radical feminist groups who have hijacked the main focus of health care to their own advantage. It is not at all inconsistent with the Hollywood set and its radical obsession with AIDS awareness at the expense of other crippling diseases.

Finally, and most importantly, as noble as the fight against breast cancer may be, the pink awareness campaign is not in keeping with the true nature and spirit of giving, which demands that each person give of their own time and possessions anonymously, without coercion, and without expecting return.

Footballers should not be forced to play under the threat of being labelled a spoilsport if they refuse to conform to someone else’s or group’s (non-football) agenda. This is not the way to promote true compassion and charity.

On the contrary it is the path to fear and political correctness. Think pink! But leave football to football!