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President Donald Trump pardoned five former NFL players on Thursday night.
White House pardon czar Alice Marie Johnson announced the pardons in a post on social media. Joe Klecko, Nate Newton, Jamal Lewis, Travis Henry and the late Billy Cannon were granted clemency.
“As football reminds us, excellence is built on grit, grace, and the courage to rise again. So is our nation,” Johnson wrote in a post on X.
She added that Dallas Cowboys team owner Jerry Jones shared the news “personally” with Newton, who was a three-time Super Bowl winner with the Cowboys.
Klecko, a former New York Jets star and Pro Football Hall of Famer, pleaded guilty to perjury when he lied to a federal grand jury that was investigating insurance fraud.
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Newton, who was a six-time Pro Bowler and two-time All-Pro selection, pleaded guilty to a federal drug-trafficking charge after law enforcement discovered $10,000 in his pickup truck as well as 175 pounds of marijuana in a vehicle in an accompanying car driven by another man.
Lewis, who won a Super Bowl with the Baltimore Ravens, pleaded guilty in a drug case in which he used a cellphone to try to set up a drug deal soon after his former team selected him with the No. 5 overall pick of the 2000 draft. He was the Offensive Player of the Year in 2003.
Henry, who was a Pro Bowl running back that played for three teams in his seven-year NFL career, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to traffic cocaine for financing a drug ring that moved between Colorado and Montana.
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Cannon, a star with the Houston Oilers and Oakland Raiders, admitted to counterfeiting in the mid-1980s. He was the 1959 Heisman Trophy winner while at LSU. His pardon came posthumously as he died in 2018.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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