Falcons outside linebacker Barkevious Mingo, who was signed this offseason as a free agent, has been accused of a sex crime in Texas. The team announced it terminated his contract early Sunday morning.
In an statement released at 12:06 a.m., the team wrote: “After being made aware today of allegations involving Barkevious Mingo and gathering information on the matter, the Atlanta Falcons have terminated his contract.”
Pro Football Talk first reported Saturday that the offense is listed as indecency with child sexual contact.
Pro Football Talk published that “records in Tarrant County, Texas, show that Barkevious Levon Mingo of West Monroe, Louisiana, posted a $25,000 bond.”
Mingo signed a one-year contract worth $1.25 million with the Falcons on March 25. A total of $1.1 million of the deal was guaranteed.
After news of the accusation and arrest Falcons general manager Terry Fontenot told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “We have to gather information and work with the league and figure out the best way to proceed.
Later the team issued the following statement Saturday afternoon:
“Our organization became aware of the allegations involving Barkevious Mingo today and are currently gathering information on this incident. The Falcons take the allegations very seriously and will continue to monitor the situation.”
Lukas Garcia, an attorney for Mingo, issued this statement:
“The allegations out of Tarrant County against my client are completely baseless. Barkevious Mingo is innocent. At this stage, our side has very limited information. What we do know is these allegations are from over two years ago and are completely untrue. Mr. Mingo is the victim of a false claim, and we believe this is motivated by money or some other ulterior motive. We are confident when the truth comes to light, my client will be fully exonerated.”
Mingo, who signed a one-year contract with the Falcons, was selected sixth overall in 2013 draft by the Cleveland Browns. He has put together an eight-year career that has included 40 starts in 126 games.
After his third season with the Browns, he was traded to the New England Patriots just before the 2016 season began. He played against the Falcons in Super Bowl LI.
Since then, Mingo has been with a different team each year.
After his season with New England, he signed a one-year deal with the Indianapolis Colts. There, he met and formed a positive relationship with defensive coordinator Ted Monachino.
Following his time with Indianapolis, and after stints with Seattle (2018) and Houston (2019), Mingo rejoined Monachino, who this time was an outside linebackers coach, after signing a one-year deal with the Chicago Bears in 2020.
Mingo was then approached with the idea of working with Monachino for a third time after the longtime assistant took the Falcons’ outside linebackers coaching job this offseason.
Mingo has a chance to land a starting spot and contribute on special teams, if he’s not released.
During his previous eight seasons in the NFL, Mingo has totaled 255 tackles and 12.5 sacks.
“I made the calls I needed to make to make sure that everyone is aware, that didn’t see it (and aren’t) going to look on the Internet,” Fontenot said. “I told everyone the same thing. This is the allegation. This is what was said. ... We are just going to gather information on it. We have to gather all of the information and decide how (we) are going to proceed.”
Mingo and his agent Martin Fischman are cooperating with authorities.
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