A college football player was pulled off a flight and arrested because he was wearing his pants too low.

Deshon Marman, 20, a University of New Mexico player was boarding a flight back to college when he was stopped because his pants were ‘below his buttocks, but above the knees, and his boxer shorts were showing’.

Police said the man who was flying back to Alberqurque from home in San Francisco, California, was told by a U.S. Airways employee to pull up his pants, but he refused.

Officers said that after 15 minutes Marman left the aircraft and was arrested for trespassing. ‘One of the flight attendants on that aircraft was offended by the fact that she could see the outline of his private area,’ Sergeant Michael Rodriguez said.

Marman was taken to San Mateo jail and has been charged with trespassing, battery and resisting arrest. A U.S. Airways spokesman said the airline’s dress code forbids ‘indecent exposure or inappropriate’ attire.

But his mother Donna Doyle said: ‘He was attacked for three reasons – his clothing, his skin, and his hair.’ She admits that her son should have pulled up his pants, but said he was upset as he had just come back to San Francisco to attend the funeral of fellow former high school football star who was murdered.