Throughout October, high school football players around the country have been wearing pink to show their support for National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. But when a group of Seattle-area referees did their part last week by donating their game checks to the Susan G. Komen for the Cure and blowing pink whistles, they drew penalty flags from the Washington Officials Association. "They chose not to ask for permission, not to go the right route," WOAC chair Todd Stordhal told television news station KING5. "It sends the wrong message to kids that are playing the game." Stordahl added that the refs with pink whistles may receive a two-game suspension during the state playoffs for their actions.
"You would think that because the refs were donating their pay to a recognized charity, … the pink whistle infringement could be overlooked, and certainly not punished as severely as was done," noted a commenter on the website for Tacoma's News Tribune. "If we are talking about setting an example, what kind of an example is the association making by punishing a good ... deed?"
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But Washington's referees aren't the only ones paying a price for displaying their support for breast cancer research. Coy Sheppard, a senior kicker at Mendenall (Miss.) High School, claims he was booted from the team after refusing to trade in his pink cleats for a more traditional color. "The young man was defiant, and I don't know many coaches in the state that wouldn't do the same thing," Simpson County Schools deputy superintendent Tom Duncan told WLBT.com. "And his dad understands completely."
"I do understand, and we don't condone being disrespectful to coaches," Joey Sheppard, Coy's father, told the NBC affiliate. "But he was standing up for what he thought was right. He's had five or six different colored shoes throughout his last two years of kicking for Mendenhall, and when he got the pink shoes, that's when it became an issue. I think it is the pink shoes."
