Buffalo Bills wide receiver Stefon Diggs paid tribute to Betty White with a pair of custom cleats he wore before the Bills’ final regular-season game of the 2021 season on 9 January 2022.
One shoe showed a cartoon portrait of the actress smiling and making a rock-on hand sign. The other carried the words Thank You For Being a Friend, the title of the theme song of The Golden Girls, the sitcom in which White played Rose Nylund from 1985 to 1992.
A familiar ritual
Diggs is known for pregame footwear. He regularly works with custom shoe artists to mark causes, events and people he admires, and he often shows the designs during warm-ups before switching to his usual game cleats. He has used the same idea to honour other public figures who died in recent years.
The Betty White pair was designed by an artist who regularly paints shoes for NFL players, and pictures of them spread quickly on social media on game day.
Remembering a television pioneer
White died at her home in Los Angeles on 31 December 2021, less than three weeks before her 100th birthday on 17 January. Her career on television spanned more than eight decades, from early live broadcasts in the 1940s to The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Golden Girls and Hot in Cleveland. She won several Emmy Awards and was also widely known for her work on behalf of animal welfare.
Diggs had posted a short message of condolence on the day her death was announced. Tributes came from across sport and entertainment in the days that followed, and many fans marked what would have been her centenary with donations to animal charities, an idea that became known online as the Betty White Challenge.
The Bills beat the New York Jets 27-10 that day to win the AFC East title, and Diggs went on to play in the team’s playoff run later that month.
Sources: social media posts by Stefon Diggs and the designer of the cleats (January 2022), NFL game reports.