The Knucklehead of the Day award

Today's winner is Tampa Bay Running back Lionel Theron Gates. He gets the award for the following.

TAMPA - Investigators say a Tampa Bay Buccaneers player broke into a pregnant woman's home, hit her in the face and pushed her into a wall in a dispute over whether he is the baby's father.

Lionel Theron Gates, 25, who was on the Bucs' practice squad last season and remains under contract, was arrested at 12:30 a.m. Friday on charges of burglary of an occupied dwelling, battery on a pregnant woman and criminal mischief, jail records show.

He was released Friday night from the Hillsborough County jail on $34,500 bail, with the restrictions that he have no contact with the victim and can no longer reside in the same apartment complex where she lives.

At 11 p.m. Thursday, Gates kicked in the front door of Peggie Lavender's apartment just north of Gunn Highway near the Veterans Expressway, deputies say.

He broke a big-screen television, another television, an interior door, a bedroom door and made a hole in the bedroom wall, deputies say.

The specifics of the argument were not made public.

Lavender, 28, was not hospitalized, said sheriff's spokeswoman Debbie Carter.

Gates, a 2005 seventh-round draft choice for the Buffalo Bills, was on the Bucs' practice squad last season but did not appear in games. He was re-signed to a one-year contract after last season and is expected to enter training camp as one of several players vying for one of three running back spots.

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The Bucs took no immediate action regarding Gates.

Only animals assault a pregnant woman. The Buccaneers should release this piece of scum, but first I make Lionel Theron Gates today's Knucklehead of the Day.

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