football cleats

今は短編集The Shell Collectionの中の短編The Caretakerを読んでいます。
内戦の続くナイジェリアで主人公Josephの母親も犠牲者になった様です。Josephは何か月も母親の行方を捜しましたがついに諦めてナイジェリアから逃れます。
Twenty times he is stopped and harassed; at makeshift checkpoints soldiers press the muzzles of rifles into his chest and ask if he is Liberian, if he is a Krahn, why he is not helping them fight the Krahns. Before they let him go they spit on his shirt. He hears that a band of guerillas wearing Donald Duck masks has begun eating the organs of its enemies; he hears about terrorists in football cleats trampling the bellies of pregnant women.
"football cleats" の "cleat" はロープを括りつける為の船についているT字型の金具（大昔ヨットに乗っていた頃に覚えた）あるいは9/9/2013に取り上げた "belay" の説明文 "fix (a running rope) round a cleat, rock, pin, or other object, to secure it" に出てきた金具はいずれもロープと関係がありますが、この "cleat" はロープとは関係が無さそうです。辞書を見ます。
・Oxford English Dictionary: (cleats) North American Athletic shoes with a cleated sole, typically used when playing football.: He shows no signs of slowing down at the age of 35, when most players have traded their cleats for slippers or golf spikes.
・Vocabulary: a metal or leather projection (as from the sole of a shoe); prevents slipping: A soccer store in suburban Dallas donated cleats to players with worn-out footwear.
"cleats" はサッカーシューズの底についているスパイク（少なくとも日本ではラグビーシューズや野球のシューズでもスパイクと呼ばれていると思う）と同じですね。