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 / Updated / Source: TODAY By Molly Blake 
 
 Pittsburgh Steelers running back DeAngelo Williams announced earlier this month that his nonprofit organization, The DeAngelo Williams Foundation, will cover the cost of 53 mammograms at hospitals located in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Pittsburgh. Williams, who lost his mother, Sandra Hill, to breast cancer in May 2014, dyed the tips of his hair pink instead. Williams told Salters: "It's not just about October for me; it's not just a month, it's a lifestyle. Charles LeClaire/USA TODAY Sports 
 
 He wanted to wear pink shoes or pink wristbands throughout the year, not just during the traditional breast cancer awareness month of October, to honor his mother and those who have lost loved ones to breast cancer. (2:05) 
 
 SAN DIEGO -- DeAngelo Williams was told over the phone by NFL vice president of football operations Troy Vincent that he couldn't wear pink accessories throughout the season because there are no exceptions to the uniform policy, the Pittsburgh Steelers running back told ESPN on Monday night. The league works with the clubs and players to raise awareness collectively for breast cancer during the month of October.” 
 
 It’s not the NFL’s first (nor likely the last) brush with players testing the league’s patience.
– "My hair is pink, my heart is pink, and my toenails are pink." That's the confession Pittsburgh Steelers running back DeAngelo Williams offers in a video he posted to Twitter Sunday, and the reason he did so shows his heart is as large as it is colorful. He explains that he wears it to honor those who are fighting or have fought breast cancer—including his mom, Sandra Hill, who died of breast cancer at the age of 53 in May 2014, as well as four of his aunts who succumbed to the disease, Today reports. It was Williams who led the drive to allow NFL players to wear pink accessories (think pink cleats) during Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October, something the league has permitted since 2009, per Fox Sports. He tried to get permission from the NFL to accessorize with pink for the entirety of this season—a request that's been denied due to the league's uniform rules; his hair, dyed pink at the tips, apparently does not violate those rules. "Pink is not a color, it's a culture to me," he says in the video, which is accompanied on Twitter by the hashtag #WeAreInThisTogether. (A promising new study says a gene test can show which breast cancer patients need chemo and which ones don't.)