S.F. chief stops firefighters from buying Super Bowl badges
- custombadges
- Jan 6, 2016
- 3 min read
S. F. is playing Super Bowl hosting city, but yet Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White has cancelled the very idea of specific firefighters obtaining the NFL-sanctioned memorial badges that celebrate the occasion - mainly out of worry that the occurence contributes to domestic assault.
Hayes-White described the badges, which are on the market for $124.99 each to public safety authorities through the San Francisco Bay Area, would likely trivialize the department’s “rich 150-year history.”
“The Super Bowl is not happening within S . F .. It’s the commercialization of a thing that I don’t think there's a substantial nexus in” for the unit, Hayes-White discussed.
There is also one other reason for standing against Super Bowl badges.
“It was raised there is the largest accounts of domestic abuse on the day of the Super Bowl ove

consideration prior to being brought to my focus.”
The idea that occurrences of domestic assault heighten on Super Bowl Sunday has turned into a press staple for years. It’s too one that plenty of lecturers that have examined the matter say has little basis in fact.
“It’s an urban misconception,” expressed Kathy Black, executive director of Casa de las Madres, a protection shelter for domestic physical violence victims.
Hayes-White’s stand attracted a immediate response from San Francisco Firefighters Association President Tom O’Connor.
“It doesn’t sound right,” O’Connor had said. “Is (Mayor) Ed Lee and the city government accepting domestic abuse simply by starting a Super Bowl town and inviting everyone here to rejoice in San Francisco?”
Fire Commission President Andrea Evans, who discussed with the chief well before Hayes-White turned thumbs down on the badges, would say just that she fully backed the decision.
More than 20 public safety businesses in Northern California are making it possible for their authorities and firefighters to purchase the NFL-licensed badges, which look like the dept badges along with a Super Bowl 50 emblem. The California Highway Patrol is permitting 1,800 authorities who obtained the badges to don them whilst on shift.
Over at the San Francisco Police Department, scores of law enforcement from Chief Greg Suhr on down have paid out for their Super Bowl shields, that includes their ranks and even badge numbers.
Police officers, however, isn't going to enable authorities to wear them on their uniform. And only to be assured, the police brass are hanging on to the momento badges under lock and key until after the Feb. 7 game.
“We intend to make sure we all look the same, and there isn't any question who is a S . F . police officer - specially in today’s world when we should be on high alert through the competition,” Suhr had said.
“We don’t need anybody pondering whether that the stars are not legitimate.”
Our personal simple investigation found that authorities in a variety of public safety sections have already been putting on the commemorative Super Bowl badges.
“I’ve been sporting mine the past couple of months,” said Lt. Kurt Clarke of the 143-member police force in Santa Clara, where the game is actually occuring. “However it’s important to indicate that this is at no cost to the city, and it was covered by the staff by themselves.”
In S. F., Mayor Lee has been out of town and was not aware Hayes-White’s judgement, said speaker Christine Falvey.
“He’s leaving it up to the chief and also the commission,” Falvey said.
Hayes-White said she wasn’t “judging other departments” that opted to get acquainted with the program, and that “as a native San Franciscan, I’m proud the San Francisco Bay Area is hosting the Super Bowl.”
But she said, “Ultimately it was my choice, and I put some thought into it ... and stand by it.”
Comments