Freddie Mitchell hasn't had the greatest post-football career, but today things hit a new low. Fast Freddie faces federal tax fraud charges in connection with a scheme to get false tax returns from professional athletes.

The scheme was cooked up by two tax preparers who hired Mitchell to recruit former athletes. The idea was that the athletes would hire this firm to do their taxes and then the firm, without the athletes' knowledge, would file false returns and keep the refunds for themselves.

The alleged target was an athlete identified only as "A.G."

Frankly, I've always thought of Freddie as a kind of a cartoon character. Overly self absorbed, not incredibly smart, but ultimately harmless. This changes that though. If this is true, Freddie is a bad guy. A really bad guy that steals, manipulates and violates the trust of people he is supposed to be colleagues with. It's troubling to say the least.

If only mean old Donovan McNabb hadn't black-balled him from the league...