Dwinsgames
10-31-2014, 05:14 AM
PITTSBURGH -- William Gay (http://www.nfl.com/player/williamgay/2507220/profile) thinks it was the interception. Or, more accurately, the funky two-step he performed as he danced the interception into the end zone Sunday afternoon.
Suddenly, folks noticed the bright purple cleats the Pittsburgh Steelers (http://www.nfl.com/teams/pittsburghsteelers/profile?team=PIT) cornerback was wearing -- and suddenly, folks wanted to know why.
October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month (http://www.ncadv.org/takeaction/DomesticViolenceAwarenessMonth.php), and purple is the flag-coloring hue used to promote domestic violence awareness. It has now been some two decades since Gay's mother was shot and killed by her husband, making her a victim of the all-too-often-quieted kind of violence.
"We never knew," Gay said of himself and his stepbrothers, and of the abuse he eventually learned his mother, Carolyn Hall, suffered at the hands of his stepfather. When Gay was a child, he said, his mother attempted to leave; his stepfather found her, shot her, then killed himself, leaving three boys without parents and igniting a certainty in Gay that he would always work to pull back the curtain that hides this one type of hurt.
And so he wears the cleats.
the rest of the story ......... http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000420245/article/william-gays-purple-cleats-part-of-antidomestic-violence-efforts
Suddenly, folks noticed the bright purple cleats the Pittsburgh Steelers (http://www.nfl.com/teams/pittsburghsteelers/profile?team=PIT) cornerback was wearing -- and suddenly, folks wanted to know why.
October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month (http://www.ncadv.org/takeaction/DomesticViolenceAwarenessMonth.php), and purple is the flag-coloring hue used to promote domestic violence awareness. It has now been some two decades since Gay's mother was shot and killed by her husband, making her a victim of the all-too-often-quieted kind of violence.
"We never knew," Gay said of himself and his stepbrothers, and of the abuse he eventually learned his mother, Carolyn Hall, suffered at the hands of his stepfather. When Gay was a child, he said, his mother attempted to leave; his stepfather found her, shot her, then killed himself, leaving three boys without parents and igniting a certainty in Gay that he would always work to pull back the curtain that hides this one type of hurt.
And so he wears the cleats.
the rest of the story ......... http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000420245/article/william-gays-purple-cleats-part-of-antidomestic-violence-efforts