Assistant's hush money offer rejected

COLLEGE FOOTBALL: New Mexico says no to coach's offer to settle dispute for $500,000

McClatchy news services | • Published November 05, 2009

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University of New Mexico president David Schmidly said Wednesday that an attorney representing an assistant football coach sent a letter offering "continued media silence" in exchange for a $500,000 settlement in a dispute with football coach Mike Locksley.

Schmidly said the overture was rejected.

“I outright refused it,” Schmidly said during a news conference. “I turned the letter over to our legal staff and told them the answer is no.”

Julian Haffner, a lawyer in Bethesda, Md., who is representing receivers coach J.B. Gerald, didn’t immediately return telephone messages seeking comment.

Gerald, who claims he was punched and choked by Locksley, made his first public comments about the dispute during an interview broadcast last week by ESPN.

Gerald said he sustained a split lip when Locksley struck him. Locksley admitted grabbing Gerald’s collar but maintains he never threw a punch.

Spikes to sit for full game

With all the negative attention “weighing heavy on his heart,” Florida linebacker Brandon Spikes asked to serve a full-game suspension for apparently trying to gouge the eyes of Georgia running back Washaun Ealey.

Coach Urban Meyer obliged, saying it was in the top-ranked Gators’ best interest that Spikes sit out. Meyer had faced some criticism for only suspending his star defender for the first half of the game against Vanderbilt.

Spikes stuck his hand into the facemask of Ealey during Florida 41-17 victory over Georgia.

Another arrest in stabbing

De’Quan Muhammad, an 18-year-old from Hartford, Conn., was being held on $200,000 bond and charged with making a false statement, hindering prosecution and interfering with an officer in the stabbing death of UConn football player Jasper Howard. He is the sixth person to face charges stemming from the Oct. 18 incident.