diff --git a/net/sched/em_text.c b/net/sched/em_text.c
index 763253257411af1db91b3e25a78af8e687523342..ea8f566e720c7bd9ed508647c080c5c554edba2b 100644
--- a/net/sched/em_text.c
+++ b/net/sched/em_text.c
@@ -103,7 +103,8 @@ static int em_text_change(struct tcf_proto *tp, void *data, int len,
 
 static void em_text_destroy(struct tcf_proto *tp, struct tcf_ematch *m)
 {
-	textsearch_destroy(EM_TEXT_PRIV(m)->config);
+	if (EM_TEXT_PRIV(m) && EM_TEXT_PRIV(m)->config)
+		textsearch_destroy(EM_TEXT_PRIV(m)->config);
 }
 
 static int em_text_dump(struct sk_buff *skb, struct tcf_ematch *m)