by Dick MacMendenhall High School football coach Chris Peterson and Simpson County School District attorney Daniel C. Jones are two happy men, now that the lawsuit against them has been dropped and an agreement has been reached with high school senior Coy Sheppard. Sheppard was ridiculed by his high school football coaches for wearing pink cleats during breast cancer awareness month, and when they dismissed him from the team over the pink cleats, the school district's attorney came to the coaches' defense.
They are insisting that Sheppard's dismissal from the team had nothing to do with pink cleats, only with his failure to follow orders.
It is not clear that the coaches ever issued an order that he could not wear pink cleats or face consequences of dismissal, but it is clear that they ridiculed him for the color of his cleats.
Of course, this scumbag coach and his defenders are back-pedaling as fast as they can in an effort to avoid further bad publicity and potential damages. What isn't clear is that these scumbags have learned anything about (1) how to treat other human beings, (2) the value of honesty when abusing a minor in front of his peers, or (3) that the color pink has nothing to do with a young man's gender identification, masculinity or sporting acumen.
High school football players often supply their own shoes (cleats), and it is not unusual to see a high school squad on the field wearing a rainbow of different shoe colors. It is rare, however, to see pink shoes on a football field. This is rooted in our long-established and completely fabricated notion that pink is a color for girls. And this is what makes the use of the color pink so perfect to promote breast cancer awareness among athletes.
Sheppard's octogenarian grandmother, who is a breast cancer survivor gave him the cleats as a gift, so he could help promoted breast cancer awareness. it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what happened when his coaches saw pink cleats on their football field. Let's see . . . they could have (1) shaken his hand, patted him on the back and congratulated him for supporting breast cancer awareness; (2) giggled nervously and exclaimed that they 'ain't never seen no pink cleats on a football player afore'; or (3) pointed at him and laughed, ridiculed him and questioned his masculinity.
I think it's safe to say that the first option did not happen among a group of good ole boys in Mississippi. I think a sophisticated man in Mississippi (if such a thing exists in Mississippi sports) might have chosen the second option of giggling nervously and remarking on the color of the cleats and let it go at that, but that didn't happen. It's pretty easy to conclude that a bunch of Mississippi leather heads would have ridiculed anyone wearing a girl-y color like pink. So, it's easy to conclude that the third option is the most accurate description of what likely occurred on that practice field.
So, in conclusion, it looks like this: a young man honored his elderly grandmother by wearing a color that raises awareness about breast cancer, a group of adults in authority over this young man hung tightly to their bigoted notion of who wears pink and who wears blue, the young man was ridiculed by the men who are supposed to protect and teach him, these same men decided this was just to much of an attack on their sensibility and fired the young man.
Wow! That's pretty scummy, and for that reason: coach Peterson and attorney Jones, you are the biggest scumbags in the world.
Oh, and Coy Sheppard: thank you for promoting breast cancer awareness, being a great grandson, and admirable athlete.
