The ability of Cowboy’s defensive lineman Greg Hardy to say really stupid things about women got me to thinking … Why does the NFL care if women get breast cancer, but not care if they get abused by their intimate partner?
Considering the recent track record of the NFL’s employees (players), you would think the league might be concerned about both issues. But I have to assume they don’t care much about domestic violence, because I saw a sea of pink this weekend but no extra purple.
Pink is the color for Breast Cancer Awareness Month while purple is for Domestic Violence Awareness Month — both of which are observed in October.
This post isn’t anti Breast Cancer Awareness. Breast cancer is an insidious disease with 300,000 new cases each year, according to BreastCancer.org. If women are more likely to take part in early detection and prevention programs because of pink campaigns like the NFL’s — and statistics suggest they are — then that is awesome and the NFL should continue to wear pink in October.
But there is also room for purple.
Consider the staggering numbers for domestic violence. According to the Centers for Disease Control: “On average, 20 people per minute are victims of physical violence by an intimate partner in the United States. Over the course of a year, that equals more than 10 million women and men. Those numbers only tell part of the story—nearly 2 million women are raped in a year and over 7 million women and men are victims of stalking in a year.”
The National Coalition Against Domestic Violence says that one-third of all women in the United States is a victim of some form of physical violence by an intimate partner during their lifetime.
Why is the NFL not rallying to the Domestic Violence Awareness banner?
One of the main messages during Breast Cancer Awareness Month is that early detection and lifestyle changes to lessen risk are important and can save lives.
The same can be said for domestic violence; early detection and lifestyle changes can save lives. Plus, domestic violence is theoretically 100 percent preventable.
But first we have to get people to care as much about purple as the do pink.
Like the people who run the NFL.
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I signed this petition to get the NFL to support Domestic Violence Awareness by wearing purple.
Michael V. Hannigan 