The NFL's Pink-out is a Total Scam

Jezebel.com

I've tried to give the NFL the benefit of the doubt with its annual month-long pink promotion. Sure, I said, it needlessly sells out the uniforms' aesthetic integrity. Sure, it's a large exercise in look-at-me altruism. But at least the money goes to a good place, right?

Wrong.

According to a Business Insider article, the NFL actually pockets almost all of the money raised by selling pink merchandise. Ninety-five percent, to be precise.

"If the pink products have a typical 100% mark-up at retail, that means the NFL is keeping 90% of the profit from the sale of Breast Cancer Awareness gear," author Cork Gaines wrote. "And then consider that only 70.8% of money the ACS receives goes towards research and cancer programs. So, for every $100 in sales of pink gear, only $3.54 is going towards research while the NFL is keeping approximately $45 (based on 100% mark-up)."

And there are plenty of those pink products. Nearly a thousand available on the NFL's online shop, as I write this.

Yes, it's a good thing that the NFL, as it likes to tell us, has raised $3 million for the American Cancer Society since 2009. But just think of how much money it could have donated if they weren't so busy lining its own pockets with all those pink dollars.