TMZ Sports:

Former NFL star Freddie Mitchell — who went by the nickname Fred-X during his time with the Philadelphia Eagles — has just been sentenced to 37 MONTHS in prison for tax crimes, TMZSports has learned.

The 34-year-old had previously pled guilty to being part of a tax fraud scheme in which he cheated the federal government out of millions of dollars.

Mitchell was facing up to 10 years in prison — but he struck a deal with prosecutors and got off with only 37 months. He’s been ordered to surrender by December 6.

We told you about this case a year ago, when Frederal Express, FredEX, The People’s Champ, was indicted on tax fraud. I described it thusly:

Mitchell would recruit the athletes – specifically one mentioned in the indictment with the initials “A.G.” (QUICK- SOME ATHLETES WITH “A.G.” as their initials– ANTONIO GATES, A.J. GREEN? WHOM?!) – and accept $100,000 in downpayment based on a false claim that his company would obtain millions of dollars in what it knew to be false tax refunds based on false documents it falsified to trick clients into allowing the company to have false claims awarded falsely.

Mitchell initially denied the claims, saying that he merely referred athletes to his co-conspirators in the case and that he himself wasn’t part of the tax fraud scheme. Unfortunately for him, however, his Chameleon Enterprises LLC was the umbrella organization under which the scheme operated. It’s all very confusing. Anyway, he’s going to jail.