Gainesville home of former NFL running back Clinton Portis again up for auction

Former NFL running back and Gainesville High School standout Clinton Portis appears to have exhausted all legal options to stave off the auction of his northeast Gainesville home following a 2022 foreclosure ruling.

Alachua County property records list Portis and his mother, Rhonnel Hearn, as the owners of the more than 8,000-square-foot purple mansion at 3510 NE 156^th Ave., off County Road 225 near Gainesville Raceway.

The property is scheduled to be auctioned off June 4 at 11 a.m. The expected sale comes after two bankruptcy filings last year — by Portis on June 15 and by Hearn on Oct. 26 — forced the auction each time to be rescheduled.

No such option will be available this time after an Alachua County judge in March ruled that no automatic stay would be granted in the event the property owners or any others who may claim interest file for bankruptcy protection.

Court records show the October bankruptcy filing was canceled on April 23.

The foreclosure proceedings began in September 2019 due to roughly $1.6 million in unpaid principal, interest, insurance and taxes. The court ruled in favor of plaintiff Bank of New York Mellon on April 27, 2022.

Portis' struggles also include a federal tax lien of about $246,000, the bulk of which — about $219,000 — is from tax years 2014 through 2016, and assessed in August 2019.

Portis first filed for bankruptcy in 2015 with many of his listed debts the same as the June 2023 filing. The 2015 filing also included a $500,000 debt to his mother and $412,000 in child support payments. He reported at the time a monthly income of $7,500 and average monthly expenses of $12,800.

Portis' problems continued in 2019, as he was among a handful of former NFL players accused of health care fraud. He was charged with stealing nearly $100,000 by filing false reimbursement claims for medical equipment through the NFL's Gene Upshaw NFL Player Health Reimbursement Account Plan, a fund used to help retired players pay for medical expenses.

Portis' first trial in the case ended in a hung jury. He then agreed to plead guilty as part of a deal with prosecutors and was sentenced in January 2022 to six months in federal prison and six months house arrest. He could have been sentenced to up to 10 years in prison had he been convicted at trial.

He has maintained his innocence despite his guilty plea.

“I did the time for a crime I didn’t commit,” he said in December 2022 on “The Pivot Podcast,” which is hosted by former NFL players Channing Crowder, Fred Taylor and Ryan Clark.

Portis was a star player for Gainesville High School before playing with the University of Miami, where he played on the undefeated 2001 national championship team — widely considered as one of the best teams in college football history. He was drafted by the NFL's Denver Broncos in the second round the next year. The Broncos traded Portis after the 2003 season to the Washington Redskins — now the Washington Commanders — where he would eventually finish his career. ESPN reported in 2004 that Portis signed an eight-year deal with Washington worth up to $50.6 million, making him the NFL's highest paid running back at the time. Portis last played in 2010 but officially retired in August 2012.

This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: NFL star Clinton Portis Gainesville home to be auctioned in June