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COLUMBUS — Ohio State has suspended third-team quarterback Antonio Henton after his arrest Monday night for soliciting sex.

Henton, a redshirt freshman, completed a pass in four attempts for 20 yards and also ran for 31 yards on seven carries in the eighth-ranked Buckeyes’ 58-7 win over Northwestern on Saturday.

Henton will not travel to Minnesota for Saturday’s game.

“It’s a great disappointment for our Buckeye football family, and we are very concerned for Antonio,” said OSU coach Jim Tressel. “We want to help him utilize any available resources, including counseling, to deal with any problems and seek solutions. Antonio is keenly aware of the standard we have for ourselves, and that makes this even more disappointing.

“Antonio will not lose any academic privileges as an Ohio State student, but he will certainly be suspended indefinitely in terms of his athletic privileges. Specifically in the short term, he will not be traveling with us to Minnesota this weekend.”

Columbus police arrested him at 8:30 p.m. Monday south of campus.

Henton, 20, entered a not guilty plea this morning in Franklin County Municipal Court to the misdemeanor charge. Lara Baker, chief prosecutor in the city’s attorney’s office, said the penalty carries a maximum six months in jail and a $1,000 fine, but generally results in a small fine.

Judge Amy Salerno told Henton to consider his visibility in the community and his status as an “ambassador” for his school.

“I, as well as I’m sure many fans and graduates of Ohio State University, are very disappointed to see you here today in my courtroom,” Salerno told Henton.

Henton, 6-foot-2 and 210 pounds, is from Fort Valley, Ga. He fought for the starting quarterback job last spring but had less game experience than starter Todd Boeckman and backup Rob Schoenhoft. Henton is in the mold of last year’s starter, Heisman Trophy winner Troy Smith — mobile and able to escape pressure, with a strong arm.

In the Buckeyes’ 38-6 win over Youngstown State in the season opener, he threw a 37-yard touchdown pass to freshman receiver Taurian Washington.

On the season, Henton is 3-for-6 passing for 57 yards with the one touchdown and no interceptions. He is the Buckeyes’ fourth-leading rusher with 41 yards on nine carries.

Ohio State officials did not return phone calls regarding Henton’s status for Saturday’s game at Minnesota.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Ohio State’s third-team quarterback and fourth-leading rusher has been accused of offering a female police officer $20 for sex, authorities said Tuesday.

Antonio Henton, a redshirt freshman, completed a pass in four attempts for 20 yards and also ran for 31 yards on seven carries in the eighth-ranked Buckeyes’ 58-7 win over Northwestern on Saturday.

Columbus police arrested him at 8:30 p.m. Monday south of campus.

Henton, 20, entered a not guilty plea Tuesday morning in Franklin County Municipal Court to the misdemeanor charge. He was released on bond later Tuesday, according to court records.

Judge Amy Salerno told Henton to consider his visibility in the community and his status as an “ambassador” for his school.

“I, as well as I’m sure many fans and graduates of Ohio State University, are very disappointed to see you here today in my courtroom,” Salerno told Henton.

Lara Baker, chief prosecutor in the city’s attorney’s office, said the soliciting charge carries a maximum penalty of six months in jail and a $1,000 fine, but generally results in a small fine.

Ohio State coach Jim Tressel said Henton will not travel to Minnesota for Saturday’s game.

“What’s most disappointing to me is that our guys know deep down what is expected. And when we err — in other words, a player, a coach or whomever — that’s disappointing,” Tressel said at a midday media briefing Tuesday.

The coach said he had not yet spoken with Henton.

There was no phone listing at the address for Henton in suburban Hilliard provided in court records, and a phone listing was not available for his defense attorney, Tasha Ruth. A message seeking comment was sent to Henton’s e-mail address found in Ohio State’s online student directory.

Henton, 6-foot-2 and 210 pounds, is from Fort Valley, Ga. He fought for the starting quarterback job last spring but had less game experience than starter Todd Boeckman and backup Rob Schoenhoft. Henton is in the mold of last year’s starter, Heisman Trophy winner Troy Smith — mobile and able to escape pressure, with a strong arm.

In the Buckeyes’ 38-6 win over Youngstown State in the season opener, he threw a 37-yard touchdown pass to freshman receiver Taurian Washington.

On the season, Henton is 3-for-6 passing for 57 yards with the one touchdown and no interceptions. He has rushed for 41 yards on nine carries.

Nearly a month ago, San Francisco presented Barry Bonds with the key to the city. Friday, the Giants gave Bonds the keys to the street, announcing that the free agent-to be won’t be back next season.

In the press conference announcing the decision, Giants owner Peter Magowan and general manager Brian Sabean lamented the need to part ways with the aging slugger, but both agreed that the time had come.

Now that Bonds is finally gone, though — albeit one season too late — we can dissect the merits of his legacy in San Francisco.

Bonds’ 15-year reign in the City by the Bay did include some good things.

For starters, Bonds put butts in the seats, first at Candlestick and later at PacBell/ SBC/AT&T Park. Love him or hate him, the guy did some exciting stuff on the baseball field. The statistics are worth checking out.

Bonds had shoulders broad enough to carry the franchise at times. The Giants won the Wild Card in 2002 and the NL West in 1997, 2000, and 2003. And who can forget 1997? When the Giants clinched the division at Candlestick, Bonds stood on the dugout and celebrated with the fans. It’s one of my best memories as a Giants fan. And even though San Francisco choked away its World Series hopes in 2002, Bonds was a huge part of the reason the Giants got as close as they did.

And of course, Bonds will be forever associated with the home run ball. The assault — and I mean assault — on McGwire’s record in 2003 was exhilarating, naive though I was to assume it was legitimate. And though many had grown tired of Bonds’ circus act coming into this season, #756 seemed a fitting reward for the remaining loyal fans.

But for all of the seemingly wonderful things that took place on the field, Bonds has been a nightmare off it. For 15 years, it was Barry’s world and his teammates, managers, the media and the fans were just living in it.

Jeff Kent was the lone Giant to stand up to Bonds, but I think Kent’s frustrations about Bonds’ selfishness were the rule rather than the exception. He just happened to be brave enough to act on them. Rick Reilly captured it pretty well back in 2001.

In addition to the dissension Bonds stirred up, a dark, shadowy cloud has followed him around for the past three or four years. Game of Shadows, Love Me, Hate Me, and dozens of other books and articles have implicated Bonds with steroid use. Debate it all you want, but the rumors and legal proceedings have become such a distraction that what happens on the field has become of secondary importance.

Lastly, there is this uneasy sense — at least in my mind — that Bonds has inhibited the Giants franchise from moving forward by his insistence upon staying in the game. There is no doubt that Bonds can hit, and it could be argued that he still is the Giants’ best hitter. But with the number of games he plays these days, and the lack of turf he covers in left field when he does, Bonds has become a liability.

And when the franchise has to allocate $16 million for 125 games and a headache, that’s going to prevent the team from getting better.

Make no mistake about it, Barry Bonds is a heck of a baseball player, and I think he’ll be a first ballot Hall of Famer. But he has overstayed his welcome in San Francisco, and as Magowan finally realized, “there comes a time when you have to go in a different direction.”

Goodbye, Barry. Goodbye and good riddance.

Bonds says he wants to continue in baseball

SAN FRANCISCO
In a not entirely unexpected coda to the continuing refrain of scandal surrounding home run record-holder Barry Bonds, the San Francisco Giants last week announced they would not renew his contract next year.

“It’s always difficult to say goodbye,” Giants owner Peter Magowan told CBS Sports. “It’s an emotional time for me. We’ve been through a lot together these 15 years. A lot of good things have happened. Unfortunately a lot of bad things have happened. But there comes a time when you have to go in a different direction.”

Bonds says he will continue to play baseball for another team, reports USA Today, and while he said he was disappointed in the team’s decision, he said he held no “ill feelings” toward the Giants.

The San Francisco Chronicle’s Henry Schulman notes that even though Bonds leaves the team as the all-time home-run leader in professional baseball, controversy surrounding him eventually wore out his welcome with team management: “The last four years were Bonds’ most controversial in San Francisco, as he became a central figure in baseball’s steroids scandal. A federal grand jury reportedly continues to hear evidence in a bid by prosecutors to indict Bonds for alleged perjury in connection with the BALCO case, and many believe his single-season home run record of 73, set in 2001, and his all-time record are tainted by drug use.”

As ESPN reports, Bonds, who has not been convicted or formally charged in any steroid-related case, has been dogged by fans who argue his historic 756th home run should be highlighted by an asterisk in the record books.

In a related development, ESPN reports that the person who bought Bonds’s record-setting baseball has set up an online poll to determine the ball’s fate: blast it into space, donate it to the National Baseball Hall of Fame, or donate it to the Hall of Fame with a branded asterisk to denote the steroid suspicions.

Just how strongly the steroid issue figures in Bonds’s departure is a matter of speculation, according to press reports. The 43-year old Bonds, while playing well lately, suffered a recent foot injury and the Giants, who have had an undistinguished season, are beginning a rebuilding program reportedly focusing on younger players.

Breaking up is hard to do.

It’s not that I’ll miss Barry Bonds—“miss” is entirely too subjective a word, even for someone who’s bled orange and black for the better part of three decades.

It’s just that Barry’ll be gone.

And I’ll know it.

And in the knowing I’ll be something a little different, a little less, than what I was before.

It’s been 15 years since Bonds signed with the Giants. In that time, No. 25 has played the part of asshole, enigma, and best damned baseball player anybody had ever seen—sometimes alternately, sometimes all at once.

He was sublime. He was surly. He was a hero and a villain and a victim and a cheat.

He was, Bubba—he just was.

And now he’s not.

And it seems to me that that’s about the end of the story.

It’s a funny thing, being a fan. Sluggers come and sluggers go, but you remain the same. Sort of. The actual truth is that sluggers come and sluggers go, and you try your very hardest to believe that you do in fact remain the same—that You are somehow eternal amidst the coming and the going; that You are, yourself, anything other than a fleeting and fluxive Free Agent.

We’re fans, in part, because our icons cement our sense of being.

And when they go, there’s not much left of anything at all.

Barry Bonds turned on an inside fastball like nobody I ever saw. That sentence shouldn’t make me misty-eyed. It does, though—not for Barry, or even for myself, but rather for some thing, some idea, that is both Barry and me and more and less and Nothing.

Barry Bonds turned on an inside fastball like nobody I ever saw.

That’s not a statement, or a memory—it’s just a Moment.

And now it’s gone.

Which I guess means I’m only just saying, is all…

MANCHESTER, England – The English are renowned for being reserved and modest. Enter American boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. – dripping in bling and full of bravado – to promote his eagerly anticipated bout with Ricky Hatton.

On the final leg of a weeklong trans-Atlantic tour to promote their Dec. 8 fight in Las Vegas, the WBC welterweight champion came to Hatton’s hometown – and didn’t relent with his taunting of the “Hitman”.

“I never knew really knew who Ricky Hatton was. If you’re not a major name in the sport I don’t know who you are,” the 30-year-old Mayweather said at Manchester Town Hall.

“For him to be even sharing the same stage with me is a privilege because I didn’t have to come out of retirement … I’m a legend in the sport, I could retire today and I’m going in the Hall of Fame.”

Even when surrounded by Hatton – the undisputed light-welterweight champion and undefeated in 43 fights – and 4,000 of his loyal fans crowding a public square, the cocky Mayweather continued his goading – and scoffed at the idea he had landed in the lion’s den.

“I’m the lion, I’m the king of the jungle,” Mayweather, a six-time world champion in five weight divisions, yelled out to the hostile crowd, braving a heavy downpour.

The fans responded with a chant routinely heard in English soccer stadiums: “Who are ‘ya?”

And as a band played the tune to “Winter Wonderland”, they sang: “There’s only one Ricky Hatton.”

The atmosphere between the undefeated boxers was increasingly similar to a soccer match. The American even donned a Manchester United jersey and cap to bait Hatton, a fervent supporter of cross-town rival Manchester City. Not even that could rile Hatton.

“He is a great fighter, the best pound-for-pound boxer in the world, but everyone has seen first hand today that as a person he is seriously lacking in areas,” the 28-year-old Hatton told The Associated Press.

“I didn’t go out to play mind games, but he has. I think he will be going back on the plane and think they have backfired … He does everything wrong the way he acts. I think he makes a fool of himself.”

Hatton said his lifestyle couldn’t be further removed from that of Mayweather, who likes to flaunt his wealth.

“Half of them out there I’ve probably had a pint with,” Hatton said, looking out over the emptying public square. “They don’t look at me as just a British fighter. They look at me as their mate, really, and I’m no different to them.”

And neither, perhaps, is his language.

Hatton used expletives during a live nationally televised news conference, forcing Sky Sports News to cut away twice and apologize for the language.

The December fight at the 16,000-seat MGM Grand casino sold out in 35 minutes.

Next up for Hatton is weeks of training in a Manchester gym.

That’s not Mayweather’s style.

He’ll be in a television studio competing in the “Dancing with the Stars” series.

But that isn’t a sign of Mayweather getting soft.

“I’m going to punish him, you watch,” Mayweather said in a parting shot. “When I stop him, I’m going to come out here and party.”

Season five of ‘Dancing with the Stars’ begins tonight and we will be watching a whole new list of celebrities putting their dance moves to the test. The first up tonight will be the women celebrities. Tomorrow the guys will have their turn.Who are the celebrities competing this time around?

Melanie Brown is a former member of the Spice Girls and was “Scary Spice.” The Spice Girls are planning a reunion tour starting in December of 2007. Brown has been involved with a controversy that involved the birth of Eddie Murphy’s child. She also has another child from another relationship. She is married to Stephen Belafonte, a movie producer. She will be dancing with Maksim Chmerkovskiy.

Sabrina Bryan is an actress and recording artist who gained popularity with her role in the Disney Channel’s ‘Cheetah Girls’ movies. Bryan has put together a fitness dance DVD called BYOU that is for young girls. She has singing and choreography skills, plus she has plenty of energy with her young age. Bryan is a National Spokesperson for Healthy Kids Challenge, which promotes good eating habits in the United States youth. Bryan will also be starring in “The Cheetah Girls 3” playing the role of Dorinda. Bryan is only 23 years old.

Jennie Garth is a popular TV actress that was most known for her role in ‘Beverly Hills 90210’ and also on the show ‘What I Like About You.’ She also has acted is several made for TV movies. She has three daughters and is married to Peter Facinelli, who is an actor.

Josie Maran is a model and an actress. She is starting up her own makeup line called, Josie Maran Cosmetics. She modeled for several magazine covers, and most noted as a Sports Illustrated swimsuit model. Maran will be dancing with Alec Mazo.

Marie Osmond is most known as a singer, but has also acted and co-hosted TV shows. Osmond also has a successful collectible doll line. Osmond not only has been a bestselling author, but she also is co-founder and a co-host for the Children’s Miracle Network. Osmond will be dancing with Jonathan Roberts.

Jane Seymour is also a do it all, with many credits to her name. Seymour is an actress, artist, author, activist, and designer of home décor and accessories. We will all be watching to find out if she can dance too! Seymour is well known for her role as in the TV show ‘Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman.’ She is involved in activist for abused and poor children around the world. Seymour will be dancing with Tony Dovolani.

Helio Castroneves is a two time winner of the Indianopolis 500. This race car driver is from Brazil and is a partner and owner of NasrCastroneves racing team. He has also raced for Team Penske. He will be partnered with Julianne Hough.

Mark Cuban owns the Dallas Mavericks. He first gained his fortune from founding Broadcast.com which was purchase by Yahoo! Cuban has created a successful enterprise with the Mavericks as well. But can he make his dance steps win the dance competition?

Cameron Mathison is an actor on the daytime soap ‘All My Children.’ He has also acted on ‘CSI’ and ‘The Drew Carey Show.’ People magazine named him as one of the 100 Top Bachelors.

Floyd Mayweather is the WBC Super Welterweight Boxing Champion. He is paired with Karina Smirnoff. He gained the nickname “pretty boy” because he didn’t get cuts and scrapes on his face when he would box. In 1996, he won a bronze medal at the Olympic Games for Featherweight division boxing.

Wayne Newton is famous for his singing and performing at Las Vegas casinos. This has gained him the name, “Mr. Las Vegas.” He has released 165 albums to date. He will be dancing with Cheryl Burke.

Albert Reed is a model which recently been in the ad campaigns for Abercrombie & Fitch, Diesel Clothing, Arrow Clothing, Rayban and Reebok. He is still quite young at only, 22 years old. He also was a competition surfer in his teens. Reed also said he is an actor, musician, and an artist.

You can go to abc.com and you can play along to win yourself by guessing which one will get voted off the show. ABC is also doing this with the TV reality show ‘The Bachelor.’

I suspect that Sabrina Bryan and Albert Reed will do well on the show. I suspect that Wayne Newton will stick around for a while, but it will be difficult to keep up to the end. I will enjoy seeing Marie Osmond, and hope she gets to stay for a while. I don’t know if Melanie Brown will make it, she just had a baby and I am not sure if she is the same as when she was in the ‘Spice Girls.’ I try to keep track of the competition as it evolves. Each season is so much fun, because they have new diverse group of celebrities.