SEATTLE. Seattle Seahawks’ reserve placekick holder Lloyd Verbeik has got “nothing against breast cancer–maybe that didn’t come out right–but a lot of us are glad October’s over,” he says. “The whole Breast Cancer Awareness thing was fine,” he notes, referring to the pink gloves and shoes that players donned for games last month, “but it created a lot of violent color clashes for our team because the accessories didn’t go with the electric green stripe in our unis.”
Verbeik and the rest of the league have moved on to another, less fashionable ailment, but one that hits closer to home. “Jock itch is a debilitating disease that could strike any of us, at any time,” the second year pro out of San Dorito State says. “People complain that we’re always grabbing our crotches on TV, but what are we supposed to do?”
“Hey–that’s my job!”
Until the playoffs begin in December, Verbeik and his teammates will don unwashed athletic supporters previously worn by high school players around the country who have succumbed to pediatric jock itch to raise awareness of what spokesman Jon Ravenstahl calls “the silent killer of young men’s dreams.”
Jock itch, or more properly Tinea cruris, is also known as “crotch rot” and eczema marginatum. It is a dermatophyte fungal infection of the groin area that can occur in either sex, but which overwhelmingly afflicts males, especially those with poor nether regional hygiene.
“I think we’ve done enough for the ‘girly’ diseases,” says assistant special teams coach Butch Van Nostrand of the Cleveland Browns. “It’s time we did something for the guys in the trenches, and his charges agree. “I’ve played half a game with a concussion,” notes kick returner Dequan Jamieson, “but that’s nothing compared to seeing a locker room full of guys wearing brown, orange and pink.”
That does sound like an issue closer to their heart. So to speak.