pink Steelers beard and pink Terrible Towel

“The way that the team is playing, he is practically a cancer to his own team.”

Yes, sports fans, you are familiar with that expression. One week, that cancer might be Chris Johnson. Another week, the cancer might be Mark Sanchez. And sometimes, the cancer is the underperforming first round pick in your fantasy league draft!

In our society today, the overly politically-correct bristle whenever anyone likens someone else to that word. CANCER…bad. Lollipops…good.

Born in early July? Then you must be a cancer, too!

We cannot label anyone as a cancer, a retard, a cunt, or an adult male “Twilight” fan without some repercussions. Yet those words were created in the English language for a reason.

So, in this contemporary era of constant (often overboard) political correctness, is it PC to say that there exists such a thing as a “good cancer to his own team”? As opposed to a “bad cancer to his own team”.

For instance, Indianapolis Colts Head Coach, Chuck Pagano, who was recently diagnosed with a form of leukemia, was probably a good cancer to his own team. And that’s not just because the Andrew Luck-y Colts upset Aaron Rodgers and the favored Green Bay Packers in NFL Week #5.

The entire Colts team, the entire organization, the entire Indianapolis community, the entire league, and the entire cancer world won from the inspiration of Pagano’s new battle in the trenches with leukemia. For a lesser man, that may not have happened. But Pagano is quite beloved–even for a head coach in the NFL.

Flaming Bag of Poo wonders: have all those pink accessories lost their novelty amid such a savage and manly sport such as pro football?

Have we lost sight of the true meaning? Are we, as a society, trivializing cancer?

Every cause has one of those little rubber bracelets. Pretty soon “Athletes Foot” and “Jock Itch” will have their own rubber bracelets.

We seem to be commercializing cancer in the same way that we commercialize Christmas.

On a warmer day, we might have seen the pink rug on his shirtless back.

And do we really need to see NFL cheerleaders wearing sexy pink outfits on the sidelines?

(Well, they may not be the solution, but they certainly aren’t the problem either!!!)

Hooray???

The way that Matt Cassel has been playing quarterback, some critics believe he is a cancer to the under-achieving Kansas City Chiefs.

So when Cassel lay on the ground motionless for a few seconds after a knockdown, a noticeably vocal portion of the hometown KC crowd actually cheered his demise.

The hometown crowd. Cheering. An injury to one of its own.

Kansas City Chiefs’ offensive tackle Eric Winston instantly became my new sports hero with his post-game locker room interview. Winston could have gone off on a profanity-laced tirade. Winston could have said it all in a horribly misspelled 140-character limit Tweet.

(I, myself, am guilty to believe that a 300-pound lineman could never be more eloquent than either 2012 Presidential candidate.)

Instead, his speech to the KC fans sounded like this.

Credit Eric Winston and his most eloquent speech to the Kansas City media. It will go down in post-game interview speeches alongside Jim Mora’s “Playoffs?” and Allen Iverson’s “Practice?” sound bytes.

Any sports fans–who cheer when any player (much less one of their own) is injured—are the cancer within any of the NFL markets.

The Kansas City crowd should have booed the fans who were cheering Cassel’s injury. Nobody will ever believe they were cheering for second-string QB Brady Quinn warming-up. I guess that I was always falsely led to believe that the people with better morals and values could be found in the heart of America.

A Devil’s Advocate may believe that fans deserve to spend their hard-earned money to watch hockey skirmishes, boxing matches, and MMA fights knock each others’ brains out.

But some football players are often defenseless. Quarterbacks (standing tall in the pocket while blitzing linebackers crash down from their blindside) are defenseless animals. Add kickers, punters, and holders as well. On the otherhand, hockey players, heavyweight boxers, and MMA fighters battle on equal footing with equal intent and equal opportunity for violence.

I used to always hated when commentators referred to any professional athletes as “courageous”. Athletes are playing a game. Athletes aren’t fighting a war. Or running into burning buildings. Or staring down some psycho pointing a gun back at him or her.

However, when you think about it, quarterbacks are pretty courageous. Because how would you like to walk down the street to work and have somebody clock you in the head with a football helmet?

Today, Eric Winston is not a unanimous hero around Kansas City. The blogosphere and sports talk radio airwaves are full of fans now criticizing Winston as perhaps the new cancer to the Chiefs.

Flaming Bag of Poo thinks Eric Winston is a good cancer. Maybe in some small way, his insight will enlighten our society. Even if the Kansas City community never becomes enlightened.