New Mexico Coach Mike Locksley Acknowledges Altercation With Assistant

New Mexico coach Mike Locksley released a statement Monday acknowledging an altercation with wide receivers coach Jonathan "J.B." Gerald. Locksley allegedly punched him in the face during a team meeting last Sunday. ESPN says that a police report indicates that during the meeting Locksley grabbed Gerald by the collar, and then punched him in the mouth.

Gerald refused to press charges, but allowed the incident to be part of a police report. Locksley is a first-year coach, hired from Illinois to replace Rocky Long after he resigned following a 4-8 season. The Lobos are winless this year, and have struggled with Locksley's specialty, offense. The incident happened the day after a 37-13 loss to Air Force.

Locksley's statement was as follows:

"I apologized to Coach Gerald, the coaching staff and our team for my poor judgment. I would also like to apologize to Lobo fans. Our focus is now preparing to play a very good Texas Tech team Saturday in Lubbock. Like I remind our players, when mistakes are made, you acknowledge them and deal with the consequences.

Locksley was verbally reprimanded by the school and a letter was placed in his permanent file.

This was Locksley's second off-field incident since New Mexico hired him in December. Sylvia Lopez, a former football administrative assistant, accused the first-year coach of age discrimination and sexual harassment in a complaint filed to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in April.

Locksley sued Lopez's lawyer, Whitney Warner, for defamation of character in August after the lawyer made the complaint public.

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

9-29-2009 @ 5:31AM

bflanatty said...

Where are the assault charges. No one is above the law. The local DA should file the charges on behalf of the fine people of New Mexico so this behavior will bring about the appropriate consequences (hopefully jailtime) and a little accountability for one's actions.

9-29-2009 @ 6:21AM

King Orgasmic said...

trying to be like those white nfl coaches..assimulator!!!!!

9-29-2009 @ 7:40AM

Koch said...

Why no charges? Oh thats right locksley is black. Again it must be his culture. gang mentality. It has to be somebody elses fault.

9-29-2009 @ 10:25AM

bjyellen said...

Yuo do not know the facts and make a racial allegation. That is sick, but unfortunately typical in our society. If the Asst. Couch does not press charges there are no charges to file.
By the way, I am Caucasion.

9-29-2009 @ 10:47AM

Buffy said...

I agree with bjyellen, I also am caucasian and to make up for all the years we held black people down we must not get upset when we get attacked by minorities for a while, the same we must get used to getting bombed by muslims as they go thru this all the time over in there country and to become more tolerant we need to experience it first hand, so suck it up, speaking of sucking we need to teach our kids to be a little more gay also to round out a more perfect USA

9-29-2009 @ 11:48AM

papam11 said...

I could care less what color the coach is--what is the LAW and why isn't it being followed? At minimum, the coach should be arrested and charged with assault, and the college should discipline him, up to and including termination. An example should be set here. Had it been a professor whacking a student in class, I bet I know what would happen. What happened to that other coach who nailed an assistant? He still hasn't been arrested. Crap like this is an absolute farce.

9-29-2009 @ 11:51AM

People shouldn't be allowed to refuse to press charges. It's not up to the victim what state laws should be enforced. What was he going to do, press charges, then be fired for doing so?

9-29-2009 @ 1:49PM

Richard Knudson said...

bjyellen: When someone types something online to be read by hundreds or thousands of people, don't you think they should take a little time to proofread their message to make sure it's grammatically correct. It just shows someone's ignorance to do otherwise. There are plenty of resources available to do it right. If one take the time to do it wrong, why not take the time to do it right! It's hard to take someone seriously when every other work is misspelled (Yuo-?, Asst. Couch-is this anything like an ass't coach?). And the best for last, if you can't spell caucasian you better just stick with being white!).

9-29-2009 @ 1:57PM

socaldave613 said...

Is this an application to work for the Oakland Raiders?

9-29-2009 @ 1:59PM

Leon said...

Didn't something similar to this happen in Oakland recently? Must be the new thing in football now-a-days.

9-29-2009 @ 2:29PM

BIGBOY said...

ITS TIME TO FIRED HIM NOW NOT AT THE END OF THE YEAR, HE WAS TOO YOUNG THATS THE DAM PROBLEM NEED SOMEBODY WITH SOME SENSE THIS NOT GOOD HE SHOULD NOT BE COACHING ON SATURDAT AGAINST TEXAS TECH

9-29-2009 @ 3:06PM

bbdwalsh60 said...

Lets see... first a sexual harrassment law suit against him and now an assualt accusation. Loooks like this guy is trying to pad his resume to get a job at Miami University!

9-29-2009 @ 4:03PM

hello master said...

TO KING ORGASMIC: NOT ONLY IS YOUR TITLE A JOKE..BUT YOUR RACIST COMMENT ABOUT COACH LOCKSLEY TRYING TO BE LIKE THE
WHITE COACHES IN THE NFL SHOWS YOUR TRUE COLOR. YOUR BOYFRIEND CALLED. HE SAYS YOUR BROTHER IS THE REAL KING!!

9-29-2009 @ 4:04PM

TOM said...

Everywhere I have ever worked, if you struck another employee you were immediately FIRED! Apparently the UNM administration has no back bone.

9-29-2009 @ 4:22PM

chilco said...

Sounds like a Federal Hate Crime to me. Where does the Federal Prosecutor stand on quickly filing charges?

9-29-2009 @ 4:32PM

Stephanie said...

so what! the dude probrably needed the punch. I will punch you, if I were close by...... everyone needs a punch now and then. I need a punch right now for writing this, knowing nothing about these people. Be happy. It's a wonderful day!

9-29-2009 @ 4:55PM

weekend relief said...

another black thug and another Obama supporter....a common denominator here...get used to it folks...the Rocket

9-29-2009 @ 8:27PM

terryl1114 said...

Now what did Obama have to do with it?
I suppose we could blame the tragedy of the war
on George W.
Obama is the president and you must admit if you can be honest,he inherited alot of the problems.
I will be honest and think that the coach should be fired,not a letter in his file.
How do you know this coach is a supporter of Obama?
He could have voted for the republican party.