Two police unions honor to pay fine levied against former Kentucky LB Avery Williamson

Two New York and New Jersey police unions told The Tennessean that they plan to pay the fines levied by the NFL against former Kentucky and current Tennessee Titans linebacker Avery Williamson, who plans to wear red, white and blue cleats to commemorate 9/11 on Sunday.

The league notified Williamson that he would be fined for wearing the custom cleats due to a violation of the 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 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.”

After reading about Williamson’s intention to wear the cleats, Bobby Egbert, the public information officer for the Port Authority Police Benevolent Association, the union that represents the police officers of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Police Departments, emailed The Tennessean early Saturday morning with an offer to pay the penalty.

“The PAPD is the police department that has always patrolled the World Trade Center complex. On September 11, 2001, the PAPD lost 37 police officers at the World Trade Center, the largest, single loss ever suffered by a police department in the history of American law enforcement.

“We read, with understandable interest, your piece on Avery Williamson and the NFL’s stance on Avery honoring the September 11th victims. We, along with the New Jersey State Police Benevolent Association, are offering to pay any reasonable fine levied by the NFL if Avery chooses to wear his 9/11 cleats.”

The Titans will host the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday at 1:00 p.m. EST at Nissan Stadium.

Williamson played at Kentucky from 2010-13. He recorded 102 tackles, including four for loss and two fumble recoveries and was named a second-team All-SEC selection in 2013.

Jason Hall

Jason covers SEC football for Saturday Down South.