Good Guy Award: @DeAngeloRB

Charles LeClaire/USA TODAY Sports

So many of us have been touched by the ravages of cancer either ourselves, or through family or friends. In this modern age, there is no concept of "six degrees of separation" regarding this awful disease.

DeAngelo Williams, who is currently playing as a running back for the Steelers, was recently told by the NFL he was not allowed to wear pink all year (courtesy USA today) to both honor his mother who he lost to the disease, but also as a reminder to women that it is critical to get tested as early detection is key to many such cancers.

Where I really start to appreciate Mr. Williams is his persistence in keeping his real goals of wearing pink, not the marketing campaign the NFL performs annually to bolster its image. Mr. Williams is steadfast in his belief and has gone so far as to dye his hair and paint his nails pink as well as provide funding for women to get screened out of his own pocket.

No so much for the NFL in the moth of October where their behavior is nothing short of a pink clad scam. I offer the following:

Take a look here from an article from Jezebel:

"Since the program's inception four years ago, the NFL has raised $3 million for breast cancer. In 2009, the League made $8.5 billion. Last year, they made $9.5 billion. Commissioner Roger Goodell has set a revenue goal of $25 billion per year by the year 2027. A million per year out of between $8.5 and $9.5 billion in revenues? Pardon me while I don't slobber all over the NFL's pink-drenched marketing campaign."

Okay, that is one opinion ... here are a few others:

Vice Sports:

"In fact, the NFL's claim of 100 percent proceeds from auction and 100 percent proceeds from retail has translated to an average of just $1.1 million every year since they partnered with ACS six years ago. That's less than .01 percent of the approximately $10 billion the league made in revenue last year. And almost five times less than what ACS' other partners, such as Walgreens, manage to donate to the same program—a program that, again, gives zero dollars to cancer research."

Sports Illustrated:

"Approximately 8 percent of sales from pink NFL merchandise go toward cancer research, according to a report this week from Business Insider."

... and my personal favorite from Business Insider, "Is The NFL Profiting Off Of Breast Cancer?"

So from all of these it seems fairly clear that the NFL is actually profiting from the disease and while I thought my view of them could not get any dimmer, it just did.

Listen, I get why the NFL can't support having players wearing what they want all the time, it would descend an already morally challenged league into visual chaos. There are uniform standards to uphold and sponsors pay big money for their stuff to be seen. I understand.

All credit to Mr. Williams however in appropriately thumbing his nose at the NFL with changing his hair color to honor his mom and also staying within the "uniform standards." Where the NFL just pays lip service to a devastating disease and is indeed making a few bucks in the process, Mr. Williams to me gets a good guy award for letting his actions speak louder than any words the NFL propaganda machine is spouting.

Lies!! Damn Lies!!! Part Deux.

Product is property of Power Balance

In an earlier post I spoke about this Power Balance product and how they got caught scamming folks at $60 a pop.

Well, as I said the product is available much cheaper from outlets like Amazon.com.

Just for kicks I got curious how the live demo's (as seen in the earlier post) actually work. As luck would have it I found this really funny post on Amazon with one person's experience and what he did to thwart the scammers.

151 of 166 people found the following review helpful:

 Sales rep... Busted! *READ IT*, September 22, 2010

By 

jtvt "Justin"

This review is from: Power Balance Silicone Wristband Bracelet --(Color:black; Size: L) (Misc.)

Allow me to relay an experience I had with a sales rep at the local fair recently, which may be illuminating. 

I was wandering through the sales tent with my girlfriend, and paused in front of a booth with stacks of these wristbands, official PB sales material, and photos of star athletes with PB bling on their wrists. 

"Have you heard of the PB wristband?" Salesman (as of then) asked. 

"No, what is it?" 

"It's embedded with a positively charged hologram that reacts with certain frequencies in the Earth to improve balance, strength and flexibility". ...


See the full review here, courtesy of Amazon. It is funny!

Lies!! Damn Lies!!!

I just caught this and as it was tangentially soccer related I posted it for all.

For anyone who has seen the add for "Power Balance" or heard their claims that "Power Balance wristbands improved your strength, balance and flexibility."

I hate to break it to you ... it was all a lie.

After all how does one expect the "... harness(ing) naturally occurring frequencies and program them into a mylar hologram," to work any way? No really, watch the ad above.

Well someone caught up with these snake oil sales folks as the following "corrective advertisement" can be found on their Australian site.

It states basically ... we lied, we made it up, we got caught, and we'll give you a refund.

Nice.

Fortunately no one in the soccer world seemed to pick up on this scam and endorse it ... or did they?

Check out here. You will get a couple pictures of Becks and the kids from US Weekly and People Magazine from the offending company's site.

Who says sports isn't big business? At $59.95 a pop (or $5 on Amazon.com), and Becks as an informal spokesman, who could go wrong?