page_title: Freddie Mitchell
section_title: Personal
hierarchical_section_title: Freddie Mitchell / Personal
caption_attribution_description: English: Freddie Mitchell during one of his Ready For Life appearances, pictured with the charity's Executive Director.
context_page_description: Freddie Lee Mitchell II is a former American football wide receiver who played for the Philadelphia Eagles of the National Football League for four seasons. He was chosen as a consensus All-American in 2000 while playing college football for the University of California, Los Angeles. The Philadelphia Eagles selected him in the first round of the 2001 NFL Draft, and he spent four seasons as a member of the Eagles, culminating in an appearance in Super Bowl XXXIX following the 2004 NFL season.
  A four-sport athlete at Kathleen High School, Mitchell committed to UCLA to play football for the Bruins. In his collegiate debut in 1998, he had four receptions for 108 yards, including a 79-yard touchdown from Cade McNown, as well as a 34-yard touchdown pass to Brian Poli-Dixon. Mitchell broke his femur the following week against Houston and missed most of the season. Limited by a knee cartilage injury throughout the 1999 season, he finished with 38 receptions for 533 yards. As a junior in 2000, Mitchell was a Fred Biletnikoff Award finalist and earned first-team All-Pacific-10 Conference honors at the conclusion of the season.
context_section_description: Mitchell's first cousin is former running back Rod Smart, who played on the Eagles with Mitchell in 2001. Mitchell enjoys country music. Mitchell had several nicknames during his tenure in Philadelphia. These included "Fast Freddie," the "Sultan of Slot," "First Down Freddie," "FredEx" (claiming he "always delivers"), the "People's Champ," and "Hollywood." While with the Eagles, Mitchell was a resident of Moorestown, New Jersey.
  Mitchell appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno while on UCLA's campus, deliberately answering questions incorrectly. He appeared on A Dating Story, a reality television show, in May 2002. In the episode, Mitchell took Tiffany Schmid, a model in the Philadelphia area, to Great Adventure Amusement Park for their date. Mitchell, as well as several other NFL players, received threatening hate mail in 2003, apparently due to his appearance on the reality show with Schmid as a mixed-race couple at the time. In January 2011, Mitchell appeared on Bravo's The Millionaire Matchmaker, a dating show in which Patti Stanger sets millionaires up to find love. Mitchell's fiancée left him after Super Bowl XXXIX in February 2005 after they had been together for two years.
  In 2008, Mitchell returned to Lakeland and bought a local barbecue restaurant called "Brothers' Bar-B-Que." In February 2009, Mitchell was under investigation when a package containing 7 pounds (3.2 kg) of marijuana was delivered to his business. Mitchell was briefly detained, but was not charged. The restaurant was closed briefly in June for violations, but reopened shortly thereafter. On September 3, 2009, the restaurant was closed and Mitchell was named in a suit for failure to make payments on the business. Mitchell officially lost the restaurant in September 2009 after a court ruling. In December 2009, Mitchell was pulled over for speeding in suburban Philadelphia. Due to an outstanding warrant for failure to pay child support, he was arrested on charges of being a fugitive from justice, and was later released on $250,000 bail.
  Mitchell turned himself in to authorities on March 12, 2012, after being indicted on federal tax fraud charges. He was arraigned on March 22 on the charges, and a warrant for his arrest in Indiana for failure to pay child support led to his incarceration in Orange County, Florida. In May 2012, Mitchell filed a lawsuit against a married couple, who were defendants in his previous charges, citing fraud, breach of contract, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Mitchell pleaded guilty on March 8, 2013, to one count of conspiring to file a false tax claim with the federal government. At a hearing on October 24, 2013, in Orlando, Florida, he claimed that his crime stemmed from concussions he suffered during his career in the NFL, adding that he had headaches, insomnia, and memory loss. That memory loss was cited as a possible reason for his failing to pay child support in that case as well. His attorneys asked the judge in the case that Mitchell only be sentenced to community service and probation. On October 29, 2013, he was sentenced to serve 37 months in prison. He began his sentence on December 6, 2013.
  On May 4, 2012, Mitchell participated in a charity golfing event to benefit the Palm Beach State College Foundation. He rang the ceremonial Liberty Bell in Philadelphia before the start of a National Basketball Association game between the Philadelphia 76ers and Toronto Raptors on December 22, 2018.
caption: Mitchell during one of his Ready For Life charitable appearances
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