Crisis Averted

Via his Twitter account on Tuesday, Steelers DE Cam Heyward announced an agreement with the NFL regarding two weeks of fines he has received from the NFL for his Ironhead eye black message, which he wore as an honor to his father who passed away from brain cancer.  Being that October is breast cancer awareness month and the Shield has taken part by promoting their Crucial Catch campaign ($85 Mens Crucial Catch Redskins Sweatshirt available here with 100% of the proceeds going to the American Cancer Society), critics of the league have been quick to point out the seeming contradiction in Pinking Out the league but fining Heyward and, in a separate instance, ruling that RB DeAngelo Williams may not wear pink outside of October to honor his mother, who passed away from breast cancer.

The settlement between Heyward and the NFL essentially boils down to:

1. Heyward stops wearing messages on his eye black and gets back in uniform.
2. The NFL knocks down his fines for the two weeks of uniform violations to nominal figure.
3. A partnership with eyeblack.com has been established where 50% of the revenue from orders using the code Ironhead will be donated to Heyward’s foundation, The Heyward House.

With the agreement, Heyward gets to further a worthwhile cause and the NFL gets to uphold their uniform policy without another embarrassing PR scandal. For my two cents, I would have liked to see Heyward hold out and fight the good fight but who am I to talk? I’m selfish. So good on him for at least using his leverage to get some of that cancer money that may otherwise be going to pinkwashing campaigns and funneling it to resources that directly support patients and their families.

But given that the Steelers pulled off unexpected victories over the Chargers and my Arizona Cardinals (two of the NFL’s five Big C teams) during the Ironhead era, I’ll be glad to know that Heyward’s good luck eye black won’t be a factor if the teams meet in a rematch of Super Bowl XXXXX.