Watching football this autumn, you may be wondering if new parts of uniform design were the color pink and pattern camouflage. Uniforms, goal posts, and towels were some of the many football accoutrements to sport the trim. All for good reason, and another good reason: breast cancer awareness and saluting our military veterans, respectively.

With the NFL and college football at their peak popularity, the sports are using their high profile to elevate these causes, and that helps a lot of people. Yet, you wonder how many involved – players, especially – truly understand the effort they are promoting by wearing these colors.

The players were excited by hot pink jerseys, socks, and other gear to the point that the look was becoming bigger than the meaning.

Recently on the blog Uni Watch, a story was relayed about how a high school football team wanted to wear all sorts of pink uniform accessories in October to mark the occasion of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The players were excited by hot pink jerseys, socks, and other gear to the point that the look was becoming bigger than the meaning. When the team’s coach said something more subdued would be a more-appropriate way of drawing attention to the cause, parents got upset. Their kids wanted to have the cool look of the moment, and how dare the coach get in their way? Oh, by the way, remember why the pink is being worn? Ah, who really cares, pink is the thing.

Gray has become a go-to alternate shade, and that does not even come with the “burden” of an associated substantive meaning. Someday, it’ll be another color. The main reason the uniform is becoming more important than the uniform tribute is the trend towards wild images that appeal to teenagers and potential college recruits. Players go bonkers when they see their new all-black alternate uniform unveiled (Google the video of the Ohio University’s team reaction and you will see what I mean). College teams have upwards of six helmet designs per-season, all for the sake of interest and variety.

There used to be a time when a team had two types of uniforms: home and away. One would be predominantly white; the other would feature the team’s colors. As the decades rolled along, teams would gradually add an alternate version, maybe a throwback. Only in the last decade-plus as uniform merchandise has become a big business and the game became more image-focused have we seen the acceleration in design diversity. Thus, having a theme of colors for health, veterans, or other causes – unthinkable on a league- or sport-wide basis last century – is now commonplace.

Generally speaking, the latter is a good thing. If we can use our dominant popular sport to motivate women to get mammograms and maintain respect for the work of our veterans, then we have moved our society forward. The problem arises when the brand – the image – becomes larger than the meaning, whether intentional or accidental. The problem comes when a Chicago Bears wide receiver wears green shoes to raise awareness for mental illness and gets fined by the NFL for breaking uniform protocol even as the rest of his teammates wear pink-everything under encouragement from the league. The problem comes when Northwestern wears a uniform for the Wounded Warriors Project covered with the design of a distressed American flag – fair enough, but the design also looks like splattered blood, even if that is not the intent.

The problem is that we get to the point where the underlying sentiments are sales, looking trendy, and conformity to a promotional campaign. Where October comes and players wear pink and we focus more on how outlandish this year’s uniforms will appear, where we approach Veterans Day and college programs try to out-do each other’s incorporation of camouflage and the Stars and Stripes.

I was at the recent Packers-Eagles game at Lambeau Field and took part in a card stunt where every fan held up a piece of paper to create a bowl-wide image stating “Packers Salute Military,” and watched a halftime jump from the All Veterans Parachute Team. Many vets will receive tangible help from that day’s donations. For this and other charitable efforts in sports, I can only hope those on the field – and in the stands – remember the “why” and avoid getting used to the annual “wow.”