Atlanta Falcons veteran linebacker Sean Weatherspoon, who played with the Arizona Cardinals last season, generated a buzz on Twitter after tweeting about his fiancée, Christine, finding an old game check that hadn't been cashed.
My gal just found a game check, I guess moving does have its perks ha
— Sean Weatherspoon (@SeanWSpoon56) March 29, 2016
The couple were in the process of moving out of the Phoenix-area apartment they were renting when they found the check. She took a picture of it and sent it to Weatherspoon.
"I was on my way home from working out when I received a picture of the check, dated Sept. 18,'' Weatherspoon explained in a text message. "My fiancée found it in a stack of mail, I believe. I vaguely remember getting the hard copy after the Week 1 game. I'm not sure why it wasn't directly deposited like all my other checks. I'm currently trying to contact [the Cardinals] now. LOL.''
Weatherspoon, who signed a one-year, $1.5 million contract with the Falcons ($150,000 guaranteed), made $3.85 million with the Cardinals last season. His base salary was around $2.35 million, meaning the weekly game check was around $138,235.
Weatherspoon and his fiancée have a 1-year-old daughter and are expecting a boy on July 2.
Weatherspoon is not the first to miss cashing a paycheck. The Cleveland Indians once had to talk to Manny Ramirez after they discovered he had not cashed five consecutive paychecks.
But the most famous story in this realm comes courtesy of Rickey Henderson, who framed a $1 million bonus from the Oakland A's in the early 1980s. Henderson didn't frame a copy. He framed the actual check. He only cashed it when the A's realized that they had a $1 million more than they should have when they were balancing their books. Henderson confirmed the story to "Mike and Mike" in 2009.
ESPN's Darren Rovell contributed to this story.