Less than a week after his team was disciplined for a bench-clearing brawl on the gridiron, Kennedy High School's head football coach resigned this week amid a new controversy – the release of a photo on the Internet purportedly showing the coach clad only in a thong.

Sacramento City Unified School District spokesman Gabe Ross confirmed Thursday that Henry Lusk, a former NFL player in his second year as Kennedy's coach, resigned on Wednesday.

Ross said he could not comment on the reason for Lusk's resignation, saying it is a personnel matter.

As school let out Thursday at Kennedy High in the Pocket area, students said the coach's resignation had been a popular topic of discussion, with much of the day's chatter centering on the Internet photo.

As first reported by News10, Lusk's resignation came after a photo surfaced on the Internet of a man wearing a thong taking a cellphone photo of himself in a bathroom mirror.

The district office would not comment on whether Lusk is the man in the photo. Attempts to contact Lusk on Thursday were unsuccessful.

Sacramento Police Department spokesman Sgt. Andrew Pettit said Lusk is not the subject of a criminal investigation.

It's unknown how the photo came to be public or who posted it on the Internet.

Twitter archives accessed through an Internet search engine Thursday showed that the owner of a now-deleted Twitter account had posted several messages claiming to have a compromising photo of Lusk before posting a photo.

That photo appears to have been uploaded to Twitter either Tuesday or Wednesday and was apparently re-tweeted by dozens of accounts that referred to Lusk as the photo's subject.

The photo had been deleted from Twitter as of Thursday morning.

Kennedy High Principal Chad Sweitzer also would not comment on the reason for Lusk's resignation Thursday, adding "we are all trying to move forward."

The coach's departure follows Friday night's highly publicized on-field fight between the Kennedy and McClatchy high school football teams, which made national news and resulted in the district ordering both teams to forfeit their games this weekend.

Kennedy also dismissed eight players for the season and McClatchy dismissed one.

Lusk had told The Bee late Wednesday afternoon that he was not stepping down, nor had he been fired after the fight, which broke out in the game's fourth quarter. But later Wednesday, Ross said, Lusk informed Sweitzer of his resignation.

In the aftermath of last weekend's brawl, both teams Thursday participated in a district-mandated sportsmanship summit that reportedly included athletic directors, coaches and team captains.

"It was fantastic. We all came together as one in an effort to re-create our image," said Kennedy High senior lineman James Allison, a team captain. "We're good schools that have a lot of great character, but we were also 15-, 16-, 17-, 18-year-old kids who made a bad mistake with a football fight."

As for the departure of Lusk, Allison said the team is "just all trying to move forward."

"We want to end the football season with good memories, and leave a good message that we can do good things in football," Allison said.

Sweitzer said Chris Williams, formerly an assistant coach with the team, has been promoted to interim head coach of the varsity program and will lead the team the rest of the season.

This is the second time in five seasons that Lusk has left a city football program amid controversy.

Lusk was hired as McClatchy's football coach following the 2006 season, but he lasted only a few months – he coached no games – before the school relieved him of his duties.

McClatchy administrators never divulged why he was let go, with then-athletic director Christine Rodness telling The Bee in 2007, "The decision was in no part his. We terminated his contract."

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Call The Bee's Matt Kawahara, (916) 321-1015. Bee staff writer Melody Gutierrez and researcher Pete Basofin contributed to this report.