Skip to content
Eagles
Link copied to clipboard

Ex-Eagle Mychal Kendricks signs with Seahawks following guilty plea for insider trading

The linebacker was released by the Eagles in May and cut by the Browns after he was charged.

Mychal Kendricks stepped up for the Eagles' depleted linebacking corps during the team's run to the Super Bowl.
Mychal Kendricks stepped up for the Eagles' depleted linebacking corps during the team's run to the Super Bowl.Read moreYONG KIM / Staff Photographer

Mychal Kendricks' guilty plea won't be keeping him off the field for very long.

Just a week admitting to a federal judge in a Philadelphia courtroom that he swapped cash, game tickets and access to parties in exchange for inside information on stock tips, the ex-Eagle appears to have found a new team. The Seattle Seahawks announced Friday they were signing the linebacker to add to the position's depth on their roster.

ESPN reported Thursday night that Kendricks' deal would be for one year and that he could play as early as Monday night's game vs. the Bears in Chicago.

Kendricks, 27, pleaded guilty to insider trading on Sept. 6. He could see up to 25 years of prison time, although his guilty plea likely means he'll receive far less — if any at all — according to lawyers.

According to prosecutors, Kendricks was fed confidential financial information by Damilare Sonoiki, a 27-year-old former Goldman Sachs analyst whom Kendricks met in late 2013. Kendricks paid Sonoiki more than $10,000 in kickbacks and gifted him Eagles tickets in exchange for knowledge on which companies' stock prices were about to soar.

The scheme, which lasted from 2013 through 2015, netted Kendricks close to $1.2 million. During his six seasons as a linebacker with the Eagles, Kendricks was paid more than $20 million according to Spotrac.

Sonoiki, who attended Harvard, left the financial sector in 2015 and became a TV writer, working on ABC's Black-ish and Fox's The Simpsons.

Kendricks was chosen by the Eagles in the second round in 2012 NFL draft and released by the team in May after he refused to take a huge pay cut. He signed with the Browns on a one-year deal but was cut on Aug. 29 after charges were filed against him on the same day.

ESPN is reporting Kendricks will be sentenced on Jan. 24.

>> READ MORE: The puzzling career of Mychal Kendricks gains another odd chapter

>> READ MORE: Insider trading charges against Mychal Kendricks: The alleged deals