Former Pro Bowl running back Michael Bennett, who played 10 seasons in the NFL, claims that “financial desperation” led him to commit fraud. That fraud will put him in prison.
The Sun-Sentinel reports that Bennett was sentenced to a year and three months in federal prison on Friday after he pleaded guilty to wire fraud. Bennett’s crime involved using inaccurate statements to obtain a loan.
Bennett was a first-round draft pick of the Vikings in 2001 and a Pro Bowler in 2002, and although he was mostly a backup for the second half of his career, he collected NFL paychecks until 2010 and made millions of dollars in his career. It’s unclear why he was in a state of financial desperation.
UPDATE: Bennett’s attorney told PFT in a statement, “Mr. Bennett took full responsibility for his mistake and is now ready to put this incident behind him and get his life back on track.”