WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump granted pardons on Thursday to five former NFL players convicted of various crimes. The pardons were announced by Trump’s appointed “pardon czar,” Alice Marie Johnson.
“Today, the President granted pardons to five former NFL players—Joe Klecko, Nate Newton, Jamal Lewis, Travis Henry, and the late great Dr. Billy Cannon,“ Johnson wrote in a social media post. ”As football reminds us, excellence is built on grit, grace, and the courage to rise again. So is our nation. Special thanks to Jerry Jones for personally sharing the news with Nate Newton. I’m holding Nate’s pardon in my hands today—what a blessed day.”
A three-time Super Bowl champion with the Dallas Cowboys, Newton was arrested in New Mexico in 2001. Police found Newton in possession of $10,000 in cash and 175 pounds of marijuana in an accompanying car driven by another man, according to the Associated Press.
Newton pleaded guilty to a federal drug trafficking charge and was sentenced to serve 30 months in prison.
A former star with the New York Jets, Klecko served three months in prison after he pleaded guilty to perjury in 1993. Klecko, who was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2023, lied to a grand jury as part of an investigation into insurance fraud.
Lewis served four months in prison in 2005 after he was charged with cocaine possession and using a cellphone to commit the crime. Lewis reached a plea bargain in the matter and the cocaine possession charge was dropped.
Henry was arrested in 2008 and later pleaded guilty to conspiracy to traffic cocaine. He was sentenced to three years in prison, but was released after serving two years.
Cannon, a former Heisman Trophy winner admitted to counterfeiting in the mid-1980s. He was sentenced to serve five years in prison, but served two-and-a-half. Cannon died in 2018.
Trump has not publicly revealed why he decided to pardon the men.