Julian Connerton’s mother is a breast cancer survivor. On Saturday night, Connerton, a 12-year-old football player for the Egg Harbor City Crusaders, wanted to wear pink gloves to show support for his mom. His coach wouldn’t let him because the players were supposed to wear black gloves. So Connerton quit.

From the Press of Atlantic City:

“He was like, ‘You know, Mom, I’m really upset, you know, he’s not supporting me.’ I was like, ‘Well, what do you want to do?’ and he said ‘I want to leave. I don’t want to play for someone if he’s not going to support me.,”

Julian and his family left the game and Sonia Cruz, Julian’s aunt, went over to the coach at halftime to return Julian’s uniform. Cruz said when she asked Burgan why he refused to let Julian play if he was wearing the pink gloves, “He said, ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about. I gave him the uniform and he threw it on the floor.”

Later that night, Julian began receiving text messages from his friends and teammates that surprised him. His teammates were supportive of his decision and bewildered about the incident. But they also said Burgan was “bad-mouthing” Julian in front of the team.

But what was said, Julian and his family don’t know. “I told them I didn’t want to know,” he said. “The whole time, I had like butterflies in my stomach.”

Connerton was invited to participate in team pictures this week and everyone expects him to be back on the team. I’m sure the truth is somewhere in the middle of all this. The kid was hurt and the coach probably should have just let him wear the pink gloves, but at the same time the coach was probably just trying to keep everyone on the same page and the kid isn’t supposed to quit on his entire team like that. No one is really right here.

[Press of Atlantic City, Image]