Former NFL quarterback and Fox Sports broadcaster Mark Sanchez has reached a tentative agreement to settle the civil lawsuit stemming from a violent late-night incident with a 69-year-old truck driver in Indianapolis nearly a year ago. According to a filing in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana, Sanchez and the driver, Perry Tole, have reached an agreement in principle that will end the civil suit.
As a result of the agreement, the court vacated future dates for discovery, conferences and trial, and denied all pending motions as moot. Tole's attorneys are expected to file a motion to dismiss the case by January 8, with the court noting that additional time to complete the execution of the settlement documents may be granted if requested in writing.
The incident took place on October 5 of last year, when Sanchez was in Indianapolis to call a Colts game for Fox Sports. According to accounts of the altercation, Sanchez, who was believed to have been intoxicated, confronted Tole inside the cab of his delivery truck outside Sanchez's hotel in the early hours of the morning. Tole, who said he believed his life was in danger, pepper-sprayed and stabbed Sanchez in what he described as self-defense. Both men were hospitalized after the incident.
The fallout was swift and severe. Fox Sports suspended Sanchez and later fired him, ending his career as an NFL broadcaster. Sanchez also faced criminal charges following the incident. After several court-date delays, he pleaded guilty last month, though the specific charges he admitted to remain unconfirmed. Among the charges he had faced were battery causing serious injury, unauthorized entry of a motor vehicle and public intoxication. A change-of-plea hearing in the criminal case is scheduled for November 9 in Marion Superior Court.
The tentative civil settlement removes one of the two legal fronts Sanchez has been fighting. While the terms were not disclosed, settlements in cases like this typically involve a financial payment in exchange for the dismissal of claims, allowing both sides to avoid the uncertainty and publicity of a trial.
For Sanchez, once a first-round draft pick who led the New York Jets to back-to-back AFC Championship games, the incident and its aftermath have been a stunning fall. His broadcasting career, which had given him a second act in football, is over, and the criminal case still looms. The settlement at least closes the civil chapter, but the November court date will determine how the criminal justice system resolves one of the stranger episodes in recent NFL alumni history.