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- Ryan Wilson
- Ryan Wilson is FanHouse's Back Porch Editor
It makes sense. After frequent gambling losses and in need of more money -- even though he had a base salary of
$500,000 last season -- Chargers safety Terrence Kiel
turned to the lucrative world of hawking codeine-based cough syrup to make ends meet. Or something like that.
Officials were told in their investigation that gambling is "exactly what caused the problem, that he was in over his head because he gambles too much," San Diego Deputy District Attorney Damon Mosler said.
Now, Kiel could face five felony charges related to the "cough syrup matter."
But there's more:
Kiel also has been under investigation by Immigration and Customs Enforcement for transactions involving counterfeit Nike shoes from China. Grimes said he didn't expect charges in that case.
Jeebus. I guess I should be impressed that Kiel played as well as he did given he had so many off-field pursuits. Still, with a year remaining on his current contract, Kiel may not be long for the Chargers.
[General manager A.J.] Smith would not address whether Kiel would be a Charger beyond this month, but he said recently in response to a question about Kiel's status with the team: "We've had a lot of problems this year, and we'll clean up a little bit of our mess."
If things don't work out in San Diego, there's always Cincinnati, I guess.
