Pink is not the new brown (or blue)

About two weeks ago, I began to notice a new trend in athletic apparel that I just can't understand.

I was at the opening game for the Cleveland Browns wearing my brown Kellen "I pop wheelies and break bones" Winslow jersey amidst a mirage of orange, brown and white. I expected to see a hint of black due to Cincinnati Bengals fans but I definitely didn't expect to see what I saw.

Like an out-of-place grapefruit in a bowl of oranges, a pink Braylon Edwards jersey stood out in the crowd.

Last time I checked, the Browns colors were orange, brown and white. Off the top of my head, I can't name a single team that includes pink as one of its colors yet I've encountered a wide variety of pink sporting apparel.

I'm not talking about pink sweatpants or sporty clothing. I'm talking officially licensed products with team names or logos.

This is an issue that is not contained to just the Cleveland Browns or the team's stadium. No, this epidemic is widespread.

A walk into the university bookstore is all it takes to understand the severity of this plague. When dressing up for Bulls athletic events, most tend to wear royal blue and white, whether it be in the form of a t-shirt or body paint yet the manufacturers of UB apparel have decided to open the floodgates and add pink as a possible color of choice.

Now, I'm all about choice in many different aspects but when the choice is about team garb and the colors don't fall within those of the team, I get a bit confused. School spirit is my thing but this takes spirit to a level I wish to never visit.

I'm not saying that those who purchase and wear pink athletic apparel are in the wrong. It is a person's choice what they wear and what they buy but their options lie solely in the stores that sell the product and the manufacturers that create it.

I understand that they have a product to sell and a market to appeal to but while the manufacturers create the clothing, I feel pink sporting apparel may create false assumptions in the minds of those who are quick to judge.

The pink may be feminine and cute to some but others may take think it's a way to dumb down sports and reformulate them for women, assuming that women aren't going to be interested in wearing the team colors because they're brown and orange or blue and white and not pink and purple.

Those people are most likely the same who feel a woman doesn't know about sports and would rather be in the kitchen fetching her significant other a frosted beverage while he sits on the couch, rooting on his favorite team on Sundays.

Ideas like that irk me. Just like men, women vary in their knowledge and liking of sports, from those who are just as into it as the men, if not more, to those who think the "guy who hikes the ball" is called a hiker. (FYI - he's really a center.)

You will never find me in a pink jersey or pink sporting apparel of any sort, but chances are you can find me in the stands of a sporting event, proudly wearing my team colors and hooting and hollering just as much as the shirtless man next to me.