Brody's Scribbles... Mississippi H. S. Football Player Told He Can't Play- Again!

Sheppard Family Photo Courtesy Of The Clarion-Ledger

By Brody Levesque (Bethesda, Maryland) NOV 14 | Wow, just wow... This is almost as unbelievable as the original incident involving 17 year old Coy Sheppard from Mendenhall, Mississippi. The High School Senior was kicked off his team for refusing to remove his pink football cleats that his great grandmother gave him. It didn't seem to matter that he wore them in honour of her being a breast cancer survivor during National Breast Cancer Awareness month in October along with damn near all the major league professional athletes.

Young Coy ended up taking the Simpson County School District to court and then agreed to withdraw the lawsuit if he was allowed back onto the team, which according to his attorney, Oliver Diaz, he was.

Reportedly, Coy and the uber masculine Head Football Coach Chris Peterson had even hugged and then Coach Peterson welcomed him back to the team after the agreement was reached. (Yes folks, real men bonding with real men.)
Too good to be true I guess. Here's an account in today's edition from the largest newspaper in the state, the Jackson, Mississippi's Clarion-Ledger:

Friday's game against Purvis in the second round of the state high school playoffs would have been the first game in a month in which Sheppard was able to take the field after his attorney resolved the issue with the school district. Sheppard had planned to play in his regular cleats. But before the football game on Friday, Sheppard was told he would not be allowed to dress out with the team, said Oliver Diaz, his attorney.

"Coy was devastated," Diaz said. "He (Coy) was fully expecting to join his team as a full participant. And when he was not allowed to do so, he was crushed."

The coach unilaterally reneged on the agreement before thousands of hometown fans, which Diaz said he considers the action a "bad faith breach of the settlement agreement," and he is considering an amended complaint to ask for additional damages.

"So not only is this coach making bad decisions, he is also costing the taxpayers of Simpson County a good amount in legal damages," Diaz said.

Diaz and the district have disagreed on why Sheppard was booted off the team. Deputy Superintendent Tom Duncan told reporters that Sheppard was tossed for ignoring orders from Peterson to take off the pink cleats and that the matter is not about a lack of support for breast cancer awareness.

What is it with these guys? I actually caught flack from some readers of my first editorial that I was unfairly painting Mississippians with too broad of a brush, accusing or implying that the whole state was homophobic. Okay, so how do you folks explain this attitude then? What gives?

Maybe's its the old expression there's something in the water?

Actually, it doesn't matter because the reality here is that school officials, who by the way refused to comment to inquires from the Clarion-Ledger and neither did the school district's attorney, Daniel C. Jones- are not acting responsibily.

The example and inference here is clear, not unlike that fool next door in Arkansas two weeks ago who said Gay people should kill themselves.  This is homophobic bull crap, being glossed over and portrayed as a simple discipline problem and I, for one, don't buy that nonsense for a split second.
Then there's what some folk refer to as a "teachable moment," this absolutely and clearly sends a message to LGBTQ youth, and even other children, that its all about perceptions. Yes siree, we can't have Gay now can we?
This is simply beyond reprehensible and that Coach has just signaled to the entire globe,  that he has no honour, no common sense, and that he's just a typical uptight hyper masculine Neanderthal who can't even uphold the golden rules of sportsmanship.
I feel sorry for Coy and I really feel sorrier for the children of Mississippi who are conditioned in that culture to this type of ignorant thinking and come away with the lesson that its normal and okay.