Philadelphia Eagles: 24 hours later, Mychael Kendricks is out of a job

In less than 24 hours, ex-Philadelphia Eagles linebacker Mychael Kendricks went from Hard Knocks hot takes to unemployed thanks to insider trading charges.

When I went to bed last night, my mind was racing with all the possibilities of how to cover former Philadelphia Eagles linebacker Mychal Kendricks‘ inflammatory scouting report on episode five of HBO’s Hard Knocks.

Once a fan favorite for his boundless energy and contagious passion, Kendricks’ sudden transformation from a valuable cog in a super bowl-winning defense into a jealous ex came as a bit of a surprise, especially after he was granted his release from the team to find a better opportunity for more playing time.

Little did I know that this article would quickly become unnecessary.

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No, when news broke that Kendricks had been accused of and intended to plead guilty to federal charges of insider trading, I was at a loss for words.

Initially assuming that insider trading was a tongue-in-cheek way of calling Kendricks out for telling the Eagles’ secrets to his new team, I quickly discovered these charges are very real, and could potentially result in federal jail time.

For those who haven’t read the excellent initial NBC10 story on the ordeal, to summarize, Kendricks has been indicted on charges of using Insider information to make a reported $1.2 million through his ‘business manager’ Damilare Sonoiki. In exchange for the information, Kendricks reportedly paid Sonoiki in excess of $10,000, and Eagles season tickets.

And this was no simple mistake.

As news continued to break throughout the day, we discovered more and more about the lengths at which the duo went to disguise their actions, using code words to remain undetected, and communicating mostly over FaceTime.

As the story continues to progress, Kendricks issued a statement apologizing for his involvement in the behavior and admitting that he was at fault.

What would come of Kendricks? With no disciplinary policy in place for financial crimes, could the NFL have attempted to strong-arm the seventh year vet from Cal out of playing until ordeal had been resolved? Would the Cleveland Browns stand behind their recently signed linebacker, or simply cut bait to save face while being very publicly featured on an HBO documentary?

We didn’t have to wait long to find out, as almost 24 hours on the dot after HBO aired Kendricks’ much hyped diss of the Eagles before the two teams’ Week 3 preseason showdown, the Browns have officially released Kendricks from his contract, potentially ending his career as a professional football player.

Now granted, we don’t know how long this ordeal will persist, and how much jail time Kendricks will have to serve depending on his sentence, but at some point, we, as the sports media, need to take a step back and really let this whole ordeal sink in.

While a million-plus dollars may be a lot for you or I, Kendricks was less than a year away from signing a four-year extension worth $29 million when this deal went down. Sure, Kendricks could have suffered a career-ending injury and never earned that deal, but he was still in the middle of rookie deal worth $4.4 million, and as a high second round pick who’d flashed serious potential in his first few seasons in the league, he had to have known that a big money payday was on the horizon within the next year.

That’s why he hired an agent.

Was that extra $1.2 million really worth losing his job, his integrity, and his freedom?

Needless to say, next weeks Hard Knocks will once again be much watch TV.