Ex-Chicago Bear charged: A former defensive tackle for the Chicago Bears and Notre Dame player was charged with failing to file federal income taxes.
Chris Zorich, former Chicago Bear defensive tackle and a member of the 1988 Notre Dame team that won a national championship, was charged with failing to file federal income taxes over the past four years.
The 43-year-old former All-American is looking at four misdemeanor counts for not filing federal income taxes between 2006 and 2009, reported The Associated Press. He made around $1 million in that time span.
Zorich’s attorney, Matthias Lydon, told AP that his client plans to plead guilty and is cooperating with the Internal Revenue Service. “He’s been looking forward to the day he could start putting this behind him,” he said.
He could face a maximum four years in prison and a $100,000 fine.
The income Zorich failed to pay taxes on included deferred compensation from the Bears, money from Notre Dame, and money paid to him by his charity, according to AP.
When Zorich’s football career ended, his charity took on a lower-profile, reported ABC-7 in Chicago.
“It’s very hard to do when an athlete stops playing and he wasn’t one of the superstars that had the massive contracts, so he didn’t really have that to fall back on either,” said Marc Ganis with Sportscorp, according to the network.
