Pink Penalty Flags will be Thrown at the Jets-Dolphins Game [OPINION]

This Sunday when the Jets take on the the Dolphins could be the first time you see a referee throw out a penalty flag in a game and instead thinking of false starts, offsides or holding -- it will have you thinking about breasts.

It was all because of an 11-year-old New Jersey kid who decided to write NFL commissioner, Roger Goodell, a letter asking to change the yellow penalty flags to pink -- to continue to raise awareness for breast cancer.

Goodell agreed and mentioned some of the simplest ideas are the best as he applauded the fifth-grader.

On today's edition of Sports Spin the idea that the NFL is taking the whole "Think Pink Campaign" too far, hit a nerve with me.

When it comes to cancer, of any kind, it's not so much about raising awareness about the disease, it is quite simply about showing support. Even the toughest professional athlete can say chemotherapy and radiation are two opponents they'd never want to go up against in their lives.

The marketing strategy of putting the toughest and strongest men in our sports world on the field decked out in pink cleates and gloves to match -- drives home the message that no man is too tough to bow down to a disease that's been taking the lives, of primarily women, for far too long. However, showing support for those fighting the fight, is what keeps some of these survivors going.

Just like the stadiums filled with fans decked out in their team colors, rooting on their team to win, the NFL has done the same thing on a much larger scale with a uniform pink color.

As the most highly watched sport in America, the NFL has used this platform to spread the word and show support for those those that continue to fight a battle we can't seem to find a cure for -- not yet at least.

For those that believe throwing pink penalty flags will make Sunday's game any different than last weeks, should match their out-of-date ideals with a black-and-white television -- just so they are not distracted by the action on the field or blame the turnout of the game on the fact the penalty flag thrown cost a team 15 yards all because it was not yellow.

I am a proud niece of a breast cancer survivor, but in my family cancer has interrupted the lives of a college roommate my age, took my grandfather and my best friend's mother.

I wish I could say, I will never know what it's like or was like to be in their shoes, but the reality is I have a one-and-eight chance of finding out.

According to the American Cancer Society we WILL lose over half a million people to cancer in 2012 alone. Losing 1,500 people a day!

So throw out as many pink flags as you want refs, but throw them at the people who think this is a marketing tool for publicity, because I call "un-human-like conduct."

In sport, we talk about their being "cancers" in the locker room. In life, there are also those who can be a "cancer" in any room, bringing forth negativity and bringing down those around them.

One "cancer" that spreads the fastest, comes in the form of regurgitated nonsense that comes from the mouths of those who are less inclined to understand what a real "W" is in life as opposed to just on the field.

Click here for more information on why this young boy felt compelled to write this letter.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FCEavz2X04&sns=em

YouTube/AmerCancerSociety

YouTube/daveb6t1