Skip to content
Eagles
Link copied to clipboard

Ex-Eagles LB Mychal Kendricks blasts NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport before signing with the Browns

"You will never have my respect."

Ex-Eagles linebacker Mychal Smith didn't have anything kind to say to the NFL Network's Ian Rapoport after he reported Smith would be signing with the Cleveland Browns.
Ex-Eagles linebacker Mychal Smith didn't have anything kind to say to the NFL Network's Ian Rapoport after he reported Smith would be signing with the Cleveland Browns. Read moreStaff File Photo / NFL Network

Apparently, former Eagles linebacker Mychal Kendricks is not a big fan of Ian Rapoport.

The NFL Network's football insider reported on Twitter Sunday that the 27-year-old Kendricks, cut by the Eagles on May 22, would be signing a one-year deal with the Cleveland Browns.

Kendricks, who still refers to himself as a "Linebacker for the Philadelphia Eagles" and an "#AngryBird" in his Twitter bio, broke his month-long silence on the social media platform to go after Rapoport, writing, "You will never have my respect."

Kendricks vehemently and profanely denied Rapoport's report to the St. Paul Pioneer Press' Minnesota Vikings reporter, Chris Tomasson, who covers Kendrick's brother, linebacker Eric Kendricks. Mychal Kendricks had visited the Vikings last Monday, and they were reportedly in the mix to land the Super Bowl champion.

"No, it's not accurate,'' Kendricks said. "I don't know who the [expletive] said that. That [expletive] is [expletive]. Whoever said that [expletive] is [expletive]. That's all I have to say, man. I'm not really talking to anybody else about it. It's [expletive]. I don't like people like that. I don't respect people like that. And that's all I have to say. Thank you.''

Kendricks also denied the deal in a text message to NBC Sports Philadelphia's Derrick Gunn. Kendricks wrote, "Fake news bruh, we are in negotiations with a number of teams period."

But several hours later, Yahoo Sports NFL insider Jordan Schultz confirmed that Kendricks had indeed signed with the Browns, a one-year deal worth as much as $3.5 million. The report was quickly confirmed by several NFL reporters across the league, including Tomasson, who wrote that Kendricks hung up on him when asked about the report.

Kendricks, who was taken in the second round of the 2012 NFL draft, spent his entire six-year career with the Eagles before the team cut him in May. The move came just hours before newly signed linebacker Paul Worrilow went down with a torn ACL, which will likely keep him sidelined for the entire season.

Kendricks told ESPN analyst and former Eagles linebacker Emmanuel Acho that the team asked him to take a $4.5 million pay cut from the $6 million he was set to make in 2018. According to my colleague Jeff McLane, the Eagles attempted to trade him during the 2017 offseason, something he requested, but were unsuccessful.