{"id":748525,"date":"2026-02-13T05:18:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T05:18:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/748525\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T05:18:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T05:18:14","slug":"president-trump-pardons-klecko-newton-lewis-henry-cannon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/748525\/","title":{"rendered":"President Trump pardons Klecko, Newton, Lewis, Henry, Cannon"},"content":{"rendered":"

Feb 12, 2026, 11:12 PM ET<\/p>\n

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Thursday pardoned former NFL players Joe Klecko, Nate Newton, Jamal Lewis, Travis Henry and the late Billy Cannon on Thursday.<\/p>\n

The pardons were announced by White House “pardon czar” Alice Marie Johnson.<\/p>\n

“As football reminds us, excellence is built on grit, grace, and the courage to rise again. So is our nation,” Johnson wrote on social media<\/a> as she thanked Trump for his “continued commitment to second chances.”<\/p>\n

Johnson said Dallas Cowboys<\/a> owner Jerry Jones “personally” shared the news with Newton, who won three Super Bowls with the team.<\/p>\n

Editor’s Picks<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n

1 Related<\/p>\n

The White House did not return a request for comment Thursday night on why Trump pardoned the players.<\/p>\n

Klecko, a former star for the New York Jets<\/a>, pleaded guilty to perjury in 1993 after lying to a federal grand jury that was investigating insurance fraud. A defensive lineman, Klecko was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2023. He was a two-time Associated Press All-Pro and a four-time Pro Bowler.<\/p>\n

Newton, an offensive lineman, pleaded guilty to a federal drug trafficking charge in 2002 after authorities discovered $10,000 in his pickup truck as well as 175 pounds of marijuana in an accompanying car driven by another man. Newton was a two-time All-Pro and a six-time Pro Bowler.<\/p>\n

Lewis, formerly of the Baltimore Ravens<\/a> and the Cleveland Browns<\/a>, pleaded guilty in a drug case in which he used a cell phone to try to set up a drug deal not long after he was the fifth pick in the 2000 NFL draft. The running back was named an All-Pro once, a Pro Bowler once and the 2003 AP Offensive Player of the Year.<\/p>\n

Henry pleaded guilty to conspiracy to traffic cocaine in 2009 for financing a drug ring that moved the drug between Colorado and Montana. He was a running back for three teams and made the Pro Bowl once.<\/p>\n

And Cannon, who played with the Houston Oilers, Oakland Raiders and Kansas City Chiefs<\/a>, admitted to counterfeiting in the mid-1980s after a series of bad investments and debts left him broke.<\/p>\n

Cannon was a two-time All-Pro and a two-time Pro Bowler. He also won the 1959 Heisman Trophy while starring for LSU. He died in 2018.<\/p>\n

An avid sports fan, Trump pardoned former New York Mets<\/a> great Darryl Strawberry of tax evasion and drug charges in November.<\/p>\n

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Feb 12, 2026, 11:12 PM ET WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Thursday pardoned former NFL players Joe…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":513349,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[77],"tags":[7,6,84],"class_list":{"0":"post-748525","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl-playoffs","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-nfl","10":"tag-nfl-playoffs"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116061636298712983","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/748525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=748525"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/748525\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/513349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=748525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=748525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=748525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}