Gregg Bell
The News Tribune
The NFL has suspended Seahawks linebacker Mychal Kendricks for eight games for admitting to insider trading.
The league announced Tuesday after multiple hearings on the matter Kendricks can return to the team on week 12 and can resume playing week 14. Seattle hosts the Minnesota Vikings that week, on December 10.
Commissioner Roger Goodell had suspended Kendricks indefinitely on Oct. 2.
The Seahawks knew when they signed last season’s Super Bowl starter for Philadelphia in September for the rest of this season that the league was likely to suspend him. They should feel fortunate he’s been able to play three games for them early this season replacing Pro Bowl veteran K.J. Wright at weakside linebacker, after Wright’s knee surgery in August, and that they are going to get Kendricks back for at least the final four games of this regular season.
Now that Wright has come back from his surgery and made his season debut last weekend in the win at Detroit, the Seahawks don’t have as urgent a need for Kendricks.
After each of the three consecutive games he played in September, Kendricks said he was thankful for the opportunity to still be playing.
“It’s been pretty emotional, being that I’m in a certain situation,” Kendricks, 28, said after his Seahawks debut at Chicago Sept. 17. “And just having this opportunity to play, it means so much more to me….
“I know that I have an opportunity to play, and I feel pretty blessed to have that opportunity. And I really want to make the most of it.”
The Cleveland Browns cut Kendricks in late August after he admitted to the charges brought in Pennsylvania, from his years playing for Philadelphia after the Eagles drafted him out of the University of California in 2012. The U.S. attorney for the eastern district of Pennsylvania found Kendricks and a bank analyst conspired in a scheme from the summer of 2014 to spring of 2015. The alleged plot gave Kendricks non-public securities information on investment-bank mergers that were on the horizon.
The Browns cut him in August. That was hours after the U.S. attorney for the eastern district of Pennsylvania charged Kendricks and a bank analyst conspired in a scheme from the summer of 2014 to spring of 2015. The alleged plot gave Kendricks non-public securities information on investment-bank mergers that were on the horizon.
Kendricks was charged with conspiracy to commit securities fraud, securities fraud, and aiding and abetting. The maximum sentence for his charges is 25 years with potential fines exceeding $5 million, though as a first-time offender Kendricks is believed by legal experts to be facing 2 1/2 to 3 years in prison. Sentencing is scheduled for January, after the current NFL regular season ends.
Many legal experts believe his admission of participating in insider trading is a sign he is seeking a plea deal to avoid that sentencing.
