The star kicker for a Mississippi high school has sued after he says he was kicked off the football team in October for wearing pink cleats during Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The lawsuit notes that the NFL encouraged its players to wear pink gear, including shoes, to support the cause.

Coy Sheppard, a senior, said his great-grandmother gave him the cleats to honor family members who have had breast cancer. He wore them Oct. 8 in Mendenhall High's game against Richland, and, says the suit, filed Thursday, the coach berated him at halftime. Sheppard says that at the first practice after the game he was kicked off the team, and that the coach refused his apology the next day.

"The coach told him that he needed to remove the pink cleats or no longer be part of the team," Sheppard's lawyer, Oliver Diaz, a former state Supreme Court justice, told WAPT-TV. "He said that he would bring the old cleats the next day and he would never wear the pink cleats again if the coach didn't want him to."

The suit seeks to prevent the school from taking away credits for playing football, which Sheppard needs to graduate.

Principal John James told the Biloxi Sun Herald that "there's a lot more to it than just that," but that he couldn't say more about the school's version of events.

(Posted by Michael Winter)