This is from Tom Dougherty at Eyewitness News:

Wendell Smallwood Jr., a former NFL running back who won a Super Bowl with the Philadelphia Eagles, has been charged with defrauding federal COVID-19 relief programs, court documents show.

Smallwood was charged with three felonies — wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and conspiracy to defraud the Internal Revenue Service — and faces up to 50 years in prison.  

According to court documents filed in the District of Delaware, federal prosecutors allege Smallwood defrauded government agencies by submitting false information to get tens of thousands of dollars in payments to businesses he ran.

Oh man. That’s a doozy.

The court documents say false and fraudulent filings resulted in Smallwood receiving “kickback payments ranging from approximately $4,000 to $12,000” by means of cash payments or cashier’s checks made payable to his businesses. It also says he received more than $100,000 from the IRS, which processed false returns “as if they were legitimate.”

Here’s the defendant information sheet with the full charges listed:

It notes in the court documents that Smallwood “intends to enter a plea of guilty,” though that’s not yet official. He’s got an initial appearance and plea hearing scheduled for December 20th in Wilmington.


Smallwood was a standout tailback at WVU and the Big 12’s 2015 rushing leader. The Eagles drafted him in the 5th round back in 2016 and Smallwood went on to run for 174 yards and a touchdown during the 2017 Super Bowl season. He was mostly inactive once the Birds added Jay Ajayi, but Smallwood was key in weeks three and four, going for more than 100 yards on 22 carries and scoring a key touchdown in the road win over the Chargers.