NFL Breast Cancer Awareness: Less than 10 percent of profit to cancer research

(UPI) -- Only about eight percent of sales from pink NFL merchandise goes toward cancer research.

Every October the NFL dresses its fields and its players in pink in an effort to raise money for breast cancer research. However, a very small amount of the profit from the pink sales are actually used to fund the cause.

According to data obtained from the NFL by Darren Rovell of ESPN, the NFL "takes a 25 percent royalty from the wholesale price (1/2 retail), donates 90 percent of royalty to American Cancer Society."

The remainder of the profit is then divided between the company that makes the merchandise -- which gets to keep 37. 5 percent -- and the companies that sell it, often the NFL individual teams, which get the other 50 percent.

In the end, only 8.01 percent of money fans spend on NFL pink merchandise goes toward cancer research.

According to the NFL, any money that it keeps that is not donated to ACS is used to cover the costs of their breast cancer awareness program, "A Crucial Catch." The NFL told Business Insider that the company donated an approximately $1 million per year to the ACS in the first three years of the program.