A number of former NFL gamers have been pardoned by President Donald Trump, Alice Marie Johnson, the president’s pardon czar, introduced.
“Immediately, the President granted pardons to 5 former NFL gamers—Joe Klecko, Nate Newton, Jamal Lewis, Travis Henry, and the late nice Dr. Billy Cannon,” Johnson, who was pardoned by Trump in 2018, wrote in a social media submit. “As soccer reminds us, excellence is constructed on grit, grace, and the braveness to rise once more. So is our nation…Grateful to @POTUS for his continued dedication to second probabilities. Mercy adjustments lives.”
Nate Newton, a former Dallas Cowboy, was sentenced to 30 months in federal jail in 2002 after pleading responsible to drug trafficking costs. Newton, 64, acquired the information of his pardon from Dallas Cowboys proprietor Jerry Jones.
“He mentioned, ‘You’ve been pardoned from the President.’ I simply sat there for about 30 seconds to a minute. I used to be surprised. However I informed him, ‘You inform the President, thanks very a lot,’” recalled the six-time Professional Bowler and two-time All-Professional choice.
Newton mentioned of the information, “At one level, you lose belief when individuals do egregious or unhealthy issues – you lose belief in them. And solely time can get you that belief again. It’s been quite a lot of years since these issues that I’ve completed in opposition to society and people. I’ve been actually blessed. It’s a fantastic factor.”
Jamal Lewis, 46, who performed for the Cleveland Browns (2007-2009) and Baltimore Ravens (2000-2006), served 4 months in federal jail in 2005 after reaching a plea with prosecutors for conspiring to own with the intent to distribute cocaine and utilizing a cellphone to arrange a drug deal.
Travis Henry, a former operating again for the Buffalo Payments, Tennessee Titans, and Denver Broncos, was sentenced in 2009 to a few years in federal jail for financing a cocaine trafficking operation. After serving two years, he was reinstated by the NFL.
President Trump has issued many pardons since returning to the White Home, together with baseball legend Darryl Strawberry, rapper NBA YoungBoy, and Chicago gang chief Larry Hoover.
As famous in “Trump’s Clemency Hole,” issued by U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., recipients of Trump’s greater than 1,700 pardons in 2025 had been 85% white, and a majority had been rich and well-connected. What’s extra, nearly all of pardons issued by Trump (greater than 1,500) had been for convicted pro-Trump rioters concerned within the lethal Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol constructing.
“An individual’s wealth or connections mustn’t decide whether or not they obtain clemency. The nation’s prisons are largely stuffed with individuals who come from poverty and low-income backgrounds however nonetheless nonetheless deserve equal alternative,” reads the report. “Whereas hundreds of thousands of individuals endure below mass incarceration—together with Black, brown, low-income, LGBTQ+, and disabled of us—the Trump Administration has a chance to alter course and use clemency to advance justice. We’re calling on them to do exactly that.”
