Source: mark wragg / Getty
DeAngelo Williams, the Pittsburgh Steelers Running back, has a special reason that is dear to his heart to celebrate “Crucial Catch” this October month.
DeAngelo’s mom lost her battle with breast cancer in 2010, her name was Sandra Kay Hill and she was his world.
Their back story was written by DeAngelo in 2014, in a story for MMQB, Sports Illustrated about his mom.
In his story, he wrote, “Her father had the mutated breast cancer 1 gene and passed it along to his five daughters. My first aunt diagnosed with breast cancer, Linda Faye, died in 1992, at 32. Mamie Earl was my second aunt to pass away from the disease, in 2004, the same year two of her sisters (Mary Beatrice and my mom) found out they had breast cancer. Mary died in ’05. My youngest aunt, Theresa Gaye, died from it three years ago; then my beautiful mom on May 16, 2014.”
DeAngelo decided to dye the tips of his hair pink in honor of his mom and he also painted his toe nails pink too.
Why his toe nails?
He explains that it was something he little girl did in 2010 when his mom had just been put into hospice.
During an interview about his toes he says that he went to go visit his mother in hospice and she said, “I was like, oh I like your toes.” and that was when he decided that he was going to keep them like that.
He says, “You know what, I’m going to keep them painted like that. And so I keep them painted pink now and I wear sandals during training camp or during hard times or potential hard times so when I drop my head and look down and I’m feeling sorry for myself I know that my mom and my aunts are looking over me.
And like it could be so much worse. So I instantly get a smile on my face pick my head up and I go about my work.”
It’s unfortunate that according to Lisa Salters on ESPN’s MNF broadcast, Salters said that, he wasn’t “able to do that” regarding his request to wear pink throughout the season.
Via:sbnation.com
