CHICAGO – Bears defensive end Mario Edwards Jr. has been suspended without pay for the first two games of the 2021 regular season for violating the NFL’s policy on performance-enhancing drugs, the league announced on Friday.
Edwards Jr. is out of contract with the Bears and will be a free agent in March. He will have to serve the suspension when he signs with a team, but is eligible to participate in pre-season games and practices.
Edwards Jr. had a career-high four sacks when he was a member of the Bears in 2020.
The NFL is also investigating a legal matter involving Edwards Jr. involved, which stemmed from an incident last year at a hotel in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Edwards Jr., 26, was given a criminal subpoena on charges of assaulting a woman, according to a spokesman for the Mecklenburg County District Attorney’s Office in North Carolina in December.
A court date has not yet been set, but the subpoena stemmed from a situation at the Hilton Charlotte City Center hotel on Oct. 17, the night before the Bears played against the Carolina Panthers.
According to police documents, agents responded to reports of a woman hitting a man with her hand and scratching his forehead. Edwards and a woman were both bruised and scratched, and both were listed as victims in the police report.
North Carolina court documents obtained by TMZ said the woman in question accused Edwards of punching her in the eye and dragging her out of his hotel room after she began recording him during an argument. The woman stated that she was pregnant at the time of the attack and required hospitalization.
Peter Schaffer, Edwards’ agent, denied that his client was involved in any wrongdoing.