Before Thursday night's NFL matchup between the Giants and Bears even started, the game's winner was clear: Bears receiver Brandon Marshall.
October is Breast Cancer Awareness month, which is why many NFL players have been wearing pink cleats with their uniforms to support medical research and foundations that work to fight the disease. That's legal under NFL rules. But when Marshall announced that he'd wear lime-green cleats of his own on Thursday night to support Mental Illness Awareness Week, which runs from Oct. 6 to 12, it was reported that the NFL would likely fine him for the non-standard uniform tweak.
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Marshawn Lynch of the Seattle Seahawks, for example, was fined $5,250 for wearing incorrectly colored cleats in a game earlier this season. But the irony of Marshall likely being fined for wearing bright-green shoes in a game where hot-pink cleats are just fine was not lost on many fans and media, who were quick to criticize the league.
Marshall — who was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder in 2011 and has been a mental health advocate since — took the high road and did miffed fans one better. How? He pledged to wear the green shoes no matter what, and said he'd match whatever amount the league fined him with a donation to charity.
"I'm going to get fined and I'm going to match that, and we want to partner with a cancer-care [charity]," Marshall told ESPN.com. "We're still working on the details to give, really give back to an organization that is doing work in the mental health area. [Also], the diagnosis of breast cancer can hit families hard. It affects all of us."
That, on top of the avalanche of press coverage and social-media chatter that Marshall's move generated, brought more attention to Mental Illness Awareness Week than he likely ever could have alone.
On Twitter and Instagram, Marshall spent the days leading up to Thursday night's game promoting his lime-green cleats and what they represent.
He posted this photo with the hashtags #limegreen and #TNF:

He also retweeted this message from a supportive fan:
LOL at the @nfl. @BMarshall will get ejected Th if he wears green cleats to support Mental Health Awareness Week. #WhatAJoke #Priorities
— Jacob Harrison (@jh_03) October 9, 2013
But perhaps it was Reddit user JesusCantPlay_Rugby who summed up the situation best. This meme, titled "Good Guy Brandon Marshall," ascended to Reddit's number-one spot on Thursday evening:

You can tune into NFL Network for Thursday night's 8:25 p.m. ET game to see Marshall's lime-green cleats in action.
Image: Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images