DALLAS — While NFL teammates and friends knew Sam Hurd as a hardworking wide receiver and married father, authorities say he was fashioning a separate identity as a wannabe drug kingpin with a focus on “high-end deals” and a need for large amounts of cocaine and marijuana.

Two years later, Hurd will enter a federal courtroom with his future in tatters as he faces possibly spending the rest of his life in prison.

Hurd is scheduled to be sentenced Wednesday after pleading guilty in April to one count of trying to buy and distribute large amounts of cocaine and marijuana. The charge carries a minimum 10-year sentence, but prosecutors may push for a sentence up to life.

His December 2011 arrest outside a suburban Chicago steakhouse came after he tried to buy a kilogram of cocaine in what turned out to be a sting. According to a federal complaint, Hurd told an undercover agent that he wanted 5 to 10 kilograms of cocaine and 1,000 pounds of marijuana per week to distribute in the Chicago area. He claimed he was already distributing 4 kilograms a week. A kilogram is about 2.2 pounds.

At the time, Hurd was a wide receiver with stints for the Bears and Dallas Cowboys who had played most of his five seasons on special teams. He was in the first year of a three-year contract worth more than $5 million.

The Bears soon cut him. Hurd was released on bond and returned to Texas, where he grew up, but soon fell into trouble again, according to court documents. He allegedly tried to buy more cocaine and marijuana through a cousin, Jesse Tyrone Chavful, and failed two drug tests. That led a magistrate judge in August 2012 to revoke his bond and order him returned to jail.

In April, when the tall, lanky Hurd stood before a judge in an orange jumpsuit and pleaded guilty, he asked to address the court.

“I’m sorry for everything I’ve done,” he told the judge.