Even though the NFL has indefinitely suspended Mychal Kendricks for insider trading, it doesn’t mean that the Seattle Seahawks linebacker is out indefinitely.
Kendricks, the NFLPA and lawyers still are battling to prove that the NFL does not have the right to suspend him “indefinitely,” league sources tell ESPN.
An indefinite suspension is the most excessive penalty handed out under the NFL’s personal conduct policy, and it is odd that the league allowed Kendricks to play three weeks before issuing its ruling this past week.
Kendricks is trying to have a specific number of games assigned to his suspension — four or five or however many it is — that would allow him to return this season and play until he receives his sentence this winter, according to sources.
To that end, Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll has spoken to commissioner Roger Goodell on behalf of his suspended linebacker, who is thought to be the first NFL player ever suspended for a white-collar crime.
Kendricks has traveled to NFL offices twice within the last month to meet with league officials and state his case, yet Goodell has not met with him. Goodell even told the Seahawks when they called to defend Kendricks that he didn’t have all the information on the situation, yet the linebacker has been handed the most severe penalty under the personal conduct policy.
Kendricks pleaded guilty to insider trading, will be sentenced in January, but also paid back any money that he made and publicly apologized when he was charged in August, saying “I wholeheartedly regret my actions.”
Kendricks recorded 15 tackles and a pair of sacks over his three games with the Sewahawks, who signed him to a one-year deal worth $743,529 — the prorated amount of a $790,000 minimum salary. Kendricks, who did not receive a signing bonus, had been filling in for the injured K.J. Wright at weakside linebacker.
ESPN’s Brady Henderson contributed to this report.