EGG HARBOR CITY, N.J., Sept. 12 (UPI) -- A young New Jersey football player, barred from a game for wearing pink gloves in support of his mother's cancer treatment, got his coach's apology, he said.
Julian Connerton, 12, of the Egg Harbor City, N.J., Crusaders, walked off the field last week after Coach Paul Burgan told him he could not wear the pink gloves he intended to wear to raise awareness of his mother's breast cancer treatments, WCAU-TV, Philadelphia, reported Wednesday.
"I love my mom more than I love football," he said.
"My son deserves an apology. Women everywhere battling breast cancer deserve an apology," his mother, Mayra Cruz-Connerton told the television station.
Coach Burgan apologized Tuesday, saying he had forgotten Cruz-Connerton's situation, adding that Connerton could have worn the gloves had he remembered.
"He did something 100 percent right, he stood up for his mother," Burgan said. "That's what you want every kid to do."
The apology came as a relief to Connerton, who said, "Everything is just gone, like my throat's clear, my stomach's clear, everything."
He will return to the field Saturday, and teammates will wear pink socks, Burgan said.
