NFL vetoes Avery Williamson 9/11 tribute cleats for being code violation
With Sunday being the 15th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks, expect to see lots of tributes on the opening Sunday of the NFL season. One thing you won’t be seeing is Avery Williamson’s custom footwear.
The Titans linebacker had planned to wear star-spangled custom cleats with “Never Forget” on them, but he backed down when informed by the league that doing so would violate uniform code.
“I don’t want to draw negative attention, so I’m just going to focus on playing the game,” Williamson told The Tennessean’s Jason Wolf on Friday. “Once I heard from them, I didn’t even try to argue anything. I just left it alone. I didn’t want to press the issue.”
The league mandates that teammates must wear shoes that share a color scheme. Instead of wearing the shoes, Williamson will auction them off for charity on behalf of veterans.
The NFL is, by its own admission, all about patriotism. It’s also all about its uniform code, and such displays apparently have to come on their terms and no one else’s.
