The drama at New Mexico continues now with former WR coach JB Gerald's lawyer wanted $500,000 for media silence after he was punched in the face by head coach Mike Locksley.  October 12th was when JB Gerald turned in his University issued cell phone and car keys and the reason was not revealed, but today is loud and clear: hush money. 

Odds are that Gerald could have stayed on with the staff especially since he has been coaching with Locksley while at Illinois.  However with the news of black mail surfaced there was no way he could stay on, the 500k also just happened to be six times his annual salary as the wide receivers coach:

A time line distributed by the university states that on Oct. 1, "university receives letter from J.B. Gerald's attorney offering continued media silence in exchange for a $500,000 settlement figure."

The real interesting news is that some of the original notes were accidentally tossed out:

University officials told the Journal this morning that the athletics department employee who took those notes didn't realize they were part of an investigation and that they should be preserved.

"She has destroyed her initial notes," Schmidly said.

Copies provided to the media have missing passages, parts are unreadable, and they appear not to show the margins of the originals.

In what is considered by me a bone head move by the lawyer and Gerald is that the hush money was requested a full three days after his police report statements became public.   Gerald has yet to speak publicly about the incident and head coach Mike Locksley acknowledges only being physical but not punching or choking out the former wide receivers coach.

Anyone want to put odds on what will happen first:

a) Locksley gets frist win

b) Locksley is fired

c) Lawsuit

I go with the second answer and that is why New Mexico is going to be stuck in the bottom of the Mountain West for at least the next five years with this coaching miscue.  Enjoy the newsconfernce below that includes pictures of JB Geralds injuries and talks more in detail about the investigation.