LAS VEGAS (AP) -Miami Dolphins linebacker Joey Porter pleaded no contest Wednesday and paid a $1,000 fine for punching Cincinnati Bengals offensive lineman Levi Jones after a disagreement at a casino blackjack table.
Porter did not appear in Las Vegas Justice Court while his lawyer, Karen Winckler, entered the plea to a misdemeanor battery charge and paid the fine, said a court aide to Justice of the Peace Pro Tem James Gubler. Gubler accepted the plea.
Winckler did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment.
Authorities had said Porter faced up to a year in jail and the $1,000 fine. Jones was not charged.
Las Vegas police said Porter and Jones scuffled March 18 in the valet area of the Palms hotel-casino after a disagreement inside the casino.
Jones, who suffered a cut on his forehead, said Porter “approached him to fight because they argue on the football field,” according to a police report. The report says Porter threw the first punch.
Porter, 6-foot-3 and 250 pounds, left the Pittsburgh Steelers after eight years and signed a five-year, $32 million deal with the Dolphins earlier this month. Jones, 6-5 and 307 pounds, missed much of last season with a knee injury.
The two players had a history of on-field trash talking with each other when the Steelers and Bengals played twice a year in the AFC North.
Neither Jones nor the Bengals had any comment, Bengals spokesman Jack Brennan said Wednesday from Cincinnati.
Dolphins team spokesmen did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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