Football Player Gets Probation in Brutal Locker Room Assault

An Idaho judge has sentenced a high school football player to three years of probation and 300 hours of community service after prosecutors said he took part in a brutal locker room assault on a black football player in a small Idaho town, the AP reports. According to the Times-News, John Howard of Keller, Texas, was originally charged with sexually assaulting his classmate after prosecutors said he kicked a coat hanger into the victim's rectum during the October 2015 incident at Dietrich High School. But in December, Howard pleaded guilty to felony injury to a child as part of a modified guilty plea, in which he acknowledged he would be found guilty in a trial but maintained his innocence. District Court Judge Randy Stoker issued his decision Friday. (More high school football stories.)