The uniform-obsessed NFL is permitting a significant deviation for Week Four of the 2009 season.
As recently reported by Sean Jensen of the St. Paul Pioneer Press, players will be allowed to wear pink cleats and/or pink gloves to promote breast cancer awareness.
In Week Four, and presumably only in Week Four.
And, of course, Bengals receiver Chad Ochocinco sees this as an opportunity to push the individuality envelope. He has indicated, Twitter style, that he plans to wear pink shoes and gloves for the entire month of October, and to supplement them with a pink chin strap and a pink mouthpiece.
He also says that he’ll match any fines imposed with a donation, most likely to breast cancer research groups.
Given his specially-made cleats and orange chin strap and “Ocho Cinco” name plate and the change his name to “Ochocinco” to circumvent the rule against using anything other than his name on his name plate, Chad craves to be different, and he plans to take full advantage of the tiny crack in the door that the NFL is providing by kicking it all the way in.
And so the NFL faces a real dilemma here. If the league office repeatedly fines him for blending pink with orange for the entire month of October, the league office might look like it’s bullying a guy who is merely trying to promote breast cancer awareness.
So stay tuned.
Meanwhile, Jensen has an updated item that addresses the extent to which Brett Favre and other Vikings players will be wearing pink shoes on Monday night.
“He’s tough enough to wear pink,” Deanna Favre, a breast cancer survivor, said of her husband.
“There’s nothing he wouldn’t do for me, so he’s helped so much through my cancer and through my treatments,” she said. “He was very supportive, and he continued to treat me like a wife, not some sick person.”
So it’s great that the league is doing this. And, as usual, we can count on Ochocinco to make it even more interesting.