Posts by Sportz Assassin at FanHouse - AOL Sports Blog

Former Bengals receiver Chris Henry can now leave his home to look for a job after being on house arrest for several weeks. The problem is that he won't have a home for too much longer.

Henry's Florence, KY home will be put up for auction due to foreclosure:

According to court records, Henry has paid less than $800 for the home in the 1100 block of Appomattox Drive.

The home was appraised at $360,000, and the bank said Henry still owes $359,205.84 on the residence.

Not bad. I mean, we see people decide to stop paying Rent-A-Center for a television or couch or something after around a month. But paying just $800 on your home? Classic, especially when you are a football player.

In all seriousness, this is a sad step in the events of Henry's life. You knew that once the Bengals cut him after his latest run-in with the law, he wouldn't be living in the area anymore (well, unless he gets incarcerated). Just as anyone who loses their job, you fear that you'd lose your home ... and that's just not funny (especially in a time where people are losing their homes all over this country).

However, when you've been making a fairly decent check playing NFL football and you paid just $800 on your home ... that's just downright stupid. It also shows the extreme amount of immaturity that has been on display since Chris has been here.

The Washington Redskins have placed WR/KR Jerome Mathis on waivers. After the draft, it was obvious that Mathis ... who signed with Washington on April 4th ... didn't have a good shot at sticking with the team.

At the draft, the Redskins drafted recievers Devin Thomas and Malcolm Kelly. Both would've pushed Mathis down on the receiving depth chart. Mathis' return duties took a hit with the drafting of Thomas (who could find a nice role there) and cornerback J.T. Tryon.

Second off, Mathis has had some troubles with Johnny Law of late, which didn't make his signing very tantalizing in the first place. One was for mishandling his pit bulls ... and the second was for punching his common-law wife.

All this could mean that Mathis' NFL career may come to a halt. Depite being a Pro-Bowl player in his rookie season (2005), he wasn't highly sought after during free agency and may have trouble landing a new gig.

Dan Dakich led the Indiana Hoosiers to a 3-4 record after taking over for Kelvin Sampson late last season. He was promptly replaced by Tom Crean ... and shown the door.

Dakich won't leave empty handed, however, as the school will pay him the settlement of $185,000.

Indiana University has reached a settlement with former interim coach Dan Dakich, paying him the $185,000 he was scheduled to earn next school year.

IU spokesman Larry MacIntyre confirmed the deal, saying Dakich was owed a base salary of $110,000 with a supplemental bonus of $75,000.

But transcripts obtained by News 8 raise questions about whether he was actually making the grade in the classroom during his junior season, specifically in math.

His transcripts show he received no grades at all his fall semester. His final grade was changed to a 70 in September of 2005 with no explanation of why.

If in fact Arthur had failed math that fall, he would not have been eligible to play basketball, and many of his team's victories in that championship season might have to be forfeited according to University Interscholastic League standards.

According to the report, math teacher Winford Ashemore notified the principal and basketball coach that Arthur was not only failing miserably, but not even giving an effort to try. When told that Arthur would receive a failing grade, he was abruptly dropped from Ashemore's class and given a grade of 70 ... which was passing.

It is also reported that the principal signed off on another changed grade in the spring of 2003.

The conference's TV contracts are in place through the end of the 2010-11 academic year. Any serious tinkering with the ACC's schedules will come when the TV deals expire, so that the conference can maximize the financial payoff of its changes.

The conference feels that they don't want to give away extra games for free.

After all, they know that the ACC is still damn good TV. Five of the top ten college hoops games on ESPN involved at least one ACC team. The second North Carolina-Duke game was ESPN's highest rated game -- ever. As for football, Clemson-Florida State was the World Wide Leader's top rated college game ... while Boston College-Virginia Tech was ESPN's highest rated Thursday game -- ever.

Ya know, when I wonder aloud about where I want to go to have a nice glass of wine ... I usually end up thinking of Michael Vick.

In an effort to diversify his debts, Michael Vick was loaned $1.3 million from Wachovia Bank in order to open Atlantic Wine and Spirits and the adjacent Tasting Room Restaurant. Both are located in the Atlanta area -- slightly north of Buckhead (or, as the official website reads, S.N.O.B.). Now, he needs to pay those loans back.

a summary judgment in favor of Wachovia against Vick was granted in the amount of $1,117,908.85. The figure represents the initial principal balance outstanding ($937,907.61), interest accrued as of Dec. 4, 2007 ($14,596.97), additional interest accruing from Dec. 4, 2007 to May 13, 2008 ($32,507.51 â€" 161 days at $201.91 per day), outstanding fees ($305.83), overdrawn accounts ($34,064.72) and attorneys fees ($98,526.21). Further interest could be accrued.

Vick is currently serving a nearly two year bid for some dogfighting ring or something. Last week, Vick was ordered to pay $2.5 million for a defaulted loan to the Royal Bank of Canada.

My favorite line in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's article was the final one:

Phone numbers for Atlantic Wine and Tasting Room restaurant have been disconnected.

Miami-Dade County State Attorney's Office spokesman Ed Griffith says Wednesday that 16-year-old Timothy Brown is charged with first-degree murder. He is also charged with armed burglary of an occupied dwelling.

Brown also won't face the death penalty.

Currently, Brown is sitting in jail in Lee County, FL and it isn't known when he will be moved to Dade County. It has been rumored for quite some time that police were looking at a fifth suspect in the killing of Taylor, a safety for the Washington Redskins. Taylor died from massive bleeding of a gunshot wound during a robbery gone bad (when do they ever "gone good"?)

The trial for the other four accused is August 25th.

Back in February, there was quite a disagreement to what position Terrell Suggs plays. The Baltimore Ravens used the franchise tag for a linebacker on Suggs. However, he believed he was a defensive end.

Doesn't seem like a big deal, but it is an $800,000 deal. You see, if you earn the franchise tag you will earn the average of the top five players at your position. Being a defensive end brings in more money for Suggs. He challeged the designation and many were eager to see how this all played out.

Well, we have our verdict.

Thanks to an agreement by the Ravens, Suggs' agent, the Management Council and the NFL Players Association, Suggs gets the best of both worlds. The settlement, which is being finalized by lawyers for the NFLPA and the Management Council, creates a new position in franchise designations -- a defensive end-linebacker. Once the paperwork is completed later this week, Suggs, designated as a franchise linebacker, will be re-designated as a defensive end-linebacker, and his one-year franchise tender will increase from $8.065 million to around $8.5 million.

Curtis Whitley, a center who started all 16 games of the Carolina Panthers' inaugural 1995 season, was found dead in Texas. He was 39 years old.

Family members said Monday night that they learned earlier in the day that Whitley, who turned 39 on Saturday, had been found dead in Texas, where he was living. They were awaiting details about the cause of his death.

Whitley, who was with the San Diego Chargers, was selected by the Panthers in the expansion draft and started every game during the team's first season. That season was played at Clemson's Memorial Stadium, where Whitley starred at during the early 1990s. He would start eight games during the 1996 season, but then was suspended for violating the NFL's substance abuse policy.

He would come back and play for the Raiders in 1997, but was suspended again in '98 ... ending his career. It was originally thought that the suspensions were due to alcohol abuse, but Whitley later admitted that he was using crystal meth.

Don't get bent out of shape: the NCAA is looking at changing the goaltending rule, but it isn't anything drastic.

The NCAA is looking at making any touching of the ball after it has been banked off the glass a goaltending violation. Currently, if the ball hits the backboard but is still going up (like on a layup), it can be touched and not ruled goaltending.

Doesn't seem like a major deal, but it will make those borderline calls much easier to make.

Also, the NCAA is looking at requiring making the home team wear white/light uniforms and the road team wearing dark uniforms ... or a switch if both teams agree. Currently, it was recommended but not required ... so you could have one team wearing orange and another wearing blue out on the court.

As of now, there are many proposals being discussed (including widening the free throw lane) but don't seem to have much support.