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SALT LAKE CITY — October is breast cancer awareness month. The NFL celebrates and promotes this as well as any other entity. The masculine of masculine sports has their players wearing pink socks, shoes, gloves and towels that they usually sell after to promote breast cancer awareness.
This year, they took it a little farther, thanks to an idea from an 11-year-old boy named Dante Cano from New Jersey. He wrote NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell a letter that the commissioner posted on his Twitter account and on NFL.com that had the idea to use pink penalty flags for the month.
Goodell's timeline on Twitter is full of what came from the letter and the great, but simple, idea. He invited Cano to the game where they would use the pink flags — Miami Dolphins at the New York Jets. His family was invited to attend the game and see young Cano presented the refs with the flags that were used through the game.
Head shaving for breast cancer awareness:
An unlikely couple of pro athletes joined the support for breast cancer awareness, which involved a head shaving. Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald joined forces with Minnesota Timberwolves power forward Kevin Love in a campaign where one shaved the others head bald.
Fitzgerald has a long healthy head of hair that he has grown into dreadlocks. He kept his locks, but he took his barber skills to shave Love's head bald, with a razor. They said they would donate money for retweets and Facebook likes.
In the YouTube video, Fitzgerald talks about how he lost his mother to cancer and wants to help others. Love is playing in Minnesota, and that is where Fitzgerald is originally from.
Why can't college kickers make a field goal?
Everyone in Utah can join together in their utter disappointment in kickers. This season has just been bad. Utah State, BYU and Utah have seen kicks go wide left, right and short. These kickers are getting a free education to make kicks, but it's just not working.
Well, now there are two kickers out there that might help out.
Most fans have probably seen or heard of the high school senior Austin Rehkow. Maybe not by name, but he is the player that sent his high school game into overtime by kicking a 67-yard field goal.
Yes, 67 yards. That means they snapped the ball from the 50 and he made the kick. There is only one made field goal over 50 yards by the three FBS Utah schools: Nick Diaz of Utah State has a 53-yard field goal. Utah has a 48-yard field goal and BYU's long is 35. That means Rehkow almost made a field goal from twice the distance of BYU's long.
He is a senior and will probably be getting some offers from college.
What might be more surprising is this next kick. It is only 63 yards — "only" the NFL record. It might be more surprising and actually impressive because the kicker, Blake Carter, is in eighth grade. He is 14.
The kick took place in practice, the video is grainy and he probably had a bunch of attempts, but he is 14.
Will it translate to college or even high school? Who knows. But for now, just enjoy some actual kicking.
$2.4 million fish:
Dave Sanchez basically bought one lottery ticket on a whim and won $2.4 million. He is a fisherman from Kansas City who had never gone fishing for marlins, but his first one let him cash in.
It was part of the Black & Blue Marlin Jackpot tournament and Sanchez's 465-pound marlin was the only fish that qualified for the money.
The prize money would have been split with other fishers had any other fish made it over the 300 lb plateau, but luckily for Sanchez that didn't happen.
