A South Jersey boy will take the football field with his teammates on Saturday after walking off the field last week when his coach told him he couldn't wear pink gloves in the game to honor his mother.
Egg Harbor City Crusaders football player Julian Connerton, 12, planned on wearing pink gloves this football season in support of his mom, Mayra Cruz-Connerton, who is battling breast cancer, but when he was told by coach Paul Burgan he wasn't allowed, Connerton walked off the field.
"I love my mom more than I love football," said the boy.
The 12-year-old said he won't play again until he gets an apology.
"My son deserves an apology. I deserve an apology. Women everywhere battling breast cancer deserve an apology," Cruz-Connerton told NBC10.
And on Tuesday night, that exactly what Connerton got, an apology from Coach Burgan
“He did something 100 percent right. He stood up for his mother,” Burgan said. “That’s what you want every kid to do.”
Burgan said that he had forgotten Connerton's mother's situation and that had he remembered, his player would have been allowed to wear the gloves.
Connerton will return to the field this Saturday. His teammates will wear pink socks in honor of Cruz-Connerton and breast cancer awareness, according to Burgan.
"Everything is just gone. Like my throat's clear, my stomach's clear, everything," Connerton said after receiving the apology.
