{"id":477965,"date":"2026-02-13T19:32:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T19:32:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/477965\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T19:32:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T19:32:11","slug":"trump-pardons-5-former-nfl-players-including-a-former-cleveland-browns-running-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/477965\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump pardons 5 former NFL players, including a former Cleveland Browns running back"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>President Donald Trump pardoned five former NFL players, including a former Cleveland Browns star, for various crimes ranging from perjury to drug trafficking, according to the <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/donald-trump-pardons-football-b6497288ae05c2cc2a3598918fe4679b\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Associated Press;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Associated Press<\/a> (AP).<\/p>\n<p>[DOWNLOAD: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.whio.com\/mobile-apps\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Free WHIO-TV News app for alerts as news breaks;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Free WHIO-TV News app for alerts as news breaks<\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>White House pardon czar Alice Marie Johnson announced on social media Thursday that Joe Klecko, Nate Newton, Jamal Lewis, Travis Henry, and the late Billy Cannon were granted pardons.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs football reminds us, excellence is built on grit, grace, and the courage to rise again. So is our nation,\u201d Johnson wrote in part in a <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/AliceMarieFree\/status\/2022117135594742131\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:social media post;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">social media post<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>TRENDING STORIES:<\/p>\n<p>Lewis, a former running back for the Browns and Baltimore Ravens, previously pleaded guilty in a drug case. The AP reported he used a cellphone to try to set up a drug deal not long after becoming a top 10 pick in the 2000 NFL Draft.<\/p>\n<p>Lewis played three seasons in Cleveland, joining the Browns in 2007 after seven seasons in Baltimore.<\/p>\n<p>He was named an All-Pro once and made it to the Pro Bowl once.<\/p>\n<p>In 2003, he was named the AP Offensive Player of the Year.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Lewis retired after the 2009 season, ending his career with 10,607 career rushing yards and 58 rushing touchdowns, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/player\/stats\/_\/id\/2136\/jamal-lewis\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:ESPN;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">ESPN<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>[SIGN UP: <a href=\"https:\/\/membercenter.whio.com\/newsletters\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:WHIO-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">WHIO-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/a>]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"President Donald Trump pardoned five former NFL players, including a former Cleveland Browns star, for various crimes ranging&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":477966,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[242893,64,63,631,242891,1238,2490,52982,242894,593,85,242896,19542],"class_list":{"0":"post-477965","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-alice-marie-johnson","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-baltimore-ravens","12":"tag-billy-cannon","13":"tag-cleveland-browns","14":"tag-donald-trump","15":"tag-jamal-lewis","16":"tag-joe-klecko","17":"tag-nfl","18":"tag-sports","19":"tag-travis-henry","20":"tag-white-house"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=477965"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477965\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/477966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=477965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=477965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=477965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}