NFL reportedly botched breast cancer awareness PSA
The NFL is probably hoping that Breast Cancer Awareness month will remind viewers how much the league cares about women, but botching a breast cancer awareness PSA is not going to help. According to the New York Post, two NFL players were supposed to film an ad for breast cancer awareness recently but never showed up.
The Post reports that a breast cancer survivor drove from Boston to New York on Sept. 16 to film a “Crucial Catch” PSA that encourages women to get mammograms regularly. Carolina Panthers running back DeAngelo Williams and New England Patriots wide receiver Danny Amendola were supposed to join her, but they left a film crew “waiting for hours.”
“The shoot was ready to go. The players’ flights were set … but they never arrived,” an NFL source reportedly told the Post. “Everyone was frustrated, they’d spent months on this.”
So what happened? A source close to Williams said the running back canceled the night before the shoot because he was rehabbing from an injury. The person said that Williams, who lost his mother to breast cancer, would never just not show up.
“He would never not show up,” the source said. “His mission is to help [find] a cure for breast cancer.”
While there were flights booked in Amendola’s name, his representatives said he was never even contacted about the shoot and that Patriots rules would not permit him to make an appearance like that in the middle of a season anyway.
The NFL reportedly scrambled to find a replacement who lived in the area and ended up getting in touch with New York Giants punter Steve Weatherford. A Giants rep said Weatherford agreed to appear in the ad but was told he was no longer needed by the time he was scheduled to be picked up for the shoot. An NFL rep told the Post that the players failed to show up due to “unexpected conflicts” and that they changed the PSA to focus solely on the cancer survivor.
In the wake of all the off-field drama surrounding the NFL, this isn’t the type of publicity the league needs.
