Former U.S. Rep. Chip Pickering, a Mississippi Republican who often ran on a family-values platform during his 12 years in the U.S. House, fought with a youth soccer coach after a game. Police investigators are trying to determine who started the fight after the U-12 match. Both Pickering and the coach, Christopher Hester, a nurse, claimed in affidavits that they were hit by the other.

Hester's team was playing against Pickering's son's team in Jackson, Miss., and Pickering approached Hester about the way his son was treated, and the incident escalated from there, Madison Police Master Sgt. Robert Sanders said. Pickering said in a statement that he approached Hester after "the coach verbally abused and physically intimidated my son, visibly upsetting my son to the point of uncontrollable crying." Hester said he was wearing a neck brace because of a recent surgery when Pickering pulled him from his Nissan Armada. He said they had to be pulled apart by spectators.

"I tried to explain to him, 'Sir, I don't know who you are. I don't know who your son is.' He just blew up," Hester said. "He proceeds to start threatening and yelling at me. It scared the crap out of the kids in my car."

 

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