In the 2000s, most of the newspaper headlines were focused on former NFL quarterback Michael Vick’s dogfighting conviction. Two decades later, the DOJ found an even bigger player in that league.

In March last year, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma unsealed a grand jury indictment focused on violations of the dogfighting prohibitions of the federal Animal Welfare Act. The man in question was the former New York Giants running back LeShon Johnson, who played in the NFL from 1994 to 1999. But since the beginning of this century, he has found himself dealing with the wrong crowd, and the DOJ finally has a punishment prepared for him.

Johnson was sentenced on Thursday for his involvement in a large-scale dogfighting ring in Oklahoma, the Office of Public Affairs for the DOJ noted in a press release Thursday. He faced six felony counts: three counts of possessing a dog for use in an animal fighting venture, two counts of selling a dog for use in an animal fighting venture, and one count of sale, transport and delivery of a dog for use in an animal fighting venture. And the penalty handed to him shows the scale of the charges.

He has been ordered to pay a $30,000 fine and will serve five years (60 months) in prison, followed by three years of supervised release. Associate Attorney General, who saw this case unfold, did not hide his hate after the sentencing.

“LeShon Johnson will face justice for building another particularly egregious and violent dog fighting scheme,” said Associate Attorney General Stanley E. Woodward Jr. in the release. “As Johnson was well aware, dog fighting is a felony in all 50 states. To anyone attempting to build violent and illicit business schemes: you can run, but you can’t hide from the Department of Justice.”  

Johnson could’ve received a maximum of five years’ imprisonment for each charge. However, his attorney, Billy Coyle IV, had already set his defense.

LeShon Johnson’s defense that reduced his overall punishment

On Thursday, Coyle told ESPN that Johnson is a “medically compromised human being” who is suffering from Parkinson’s disease and severe dementia, and also claimed that he suffered “multiple concussions and traumatic brain injuries from his football career.” The court documents also revealed that Johnson has had a caretaker for the past two years. But Johnson was not using any of these as an excuse.

“The main point was just to show the court that he’d been out on bond for pretrial release for over two years,” Coyle said. “He’s got no infractions whatsoever. He doesn’t drink. He doesn’t smoke. I don’t think the necessity of sending him to prison or jail was necessary.”

Coyle had originally asked for probation for his client in a pre-sentence memorandum. He argued that Johnson had “zero criminal history points,” which basically doesn’t take old cases into account. Coyle is now asking Johnson to appeal the long sentence he has been handed. But the prosecutors argued in response that Johnson “exercised leadership authority” over at least one other person as part of its sentencing request and that the death and injury to hundreds of dogs would disqualify him from a reduced sentence — something FBI Director Kash Patel agreed with.

“The FBI will not tolerate criminals that harm innocent animals for their twisted form of entertainment,” said Patel last March. “The FBI views animal cruelty investigations as a precursor to larger, organized crime efforts, similar to trafficking and homicides. This is yet another push in the FBI’s crackdown of violent offenders harming our most innocent.”

According to the Department of Justice, Johnson surrendered 190 dogs to the federal authorities, considered to be the largest number of dogs surrendered in a federal dogfighting case by an individual. The dogs, mainly Pitbulls, were recorded to have “resulted in death and serious bodily injury.” The current case against Johnson has been ongoing since October 2024.

A quick timeline of Johnson’s dogfighting case

• October 2024: Federal authorities seized the 190 dogs from Johnson as authorized under the Animal Welfare Act.
• March 2025: Johnson made his first appearance in court on indictment for possessing 190 pit bull-type dogs for use in an animal fighting venture and for selling, transporting, and delivering a dog for use in an animal fighting venture. 
• August 2025: After a multi-day trial, a federal jury in Oklahoma convicted Leshon Eugene Johnson, of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, late in August 2025 on six felony counts of violating the federal Animal Welfare Act’s prohibitions against possessing, selling, transporting, and delivering animals to be used in fighting ventures.
  The sentencing date was set for another time.
• September 2026: Johnson has finally faced the consequences of his actions as the DOJ handed him the maximum prison sentence possible for the said crimes.

What we know so far about Johnson’s dogfighting history

The FBI partnered with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Oklahoma and the Justice Department’s Energy and Natural Resources Division to hold Johnson responsible after going through the documents and further investigation, while the U.S. Marshals Service carried out the largest operation for dogfighting to arrest Johnson. But this isn’t the first time he has committed a crime.

Earlier, he pleaded guilty in 2004 to Oklahoma dogfighting offenses, previously ran “Krazyside Kennels, ” and, since 2007, has been running another major operation since 2007, breeding and selling dogs. Johnson referred to his new operation as “Mal Kant Kennels.”

Selected by the Green Bay Packers in the third round of the 1994 NFL Draft, Johnson played for the Packers, Arizona Cardinals, and New York Giants. He played his final year with the Giants, featuring in 16 games for them. He recorded 1,389 yards from scrimmage for seven touchdowns and 43 receptions in his five-year NFL career before retiring in the XFL. While it is a heinous crime, Johnson isn’t the only player in NFL history to have been arrested in connection with such an offense.

Another NFL player has previously pleaded guilty to a dogfighting crime

Back in August 2007, Former NFL star quarterback Michael Vick pleaded guilty to funding the dogfighting operation called “Bad Newz Kennels,” which housed approximately 54 dogs, most of them being Pitbulls.

Reports said they staged dog fights and forcibly bred dogs. He had two charges against him, both Class 6 felonies: to promote “dogfighting for amusement, sport, or financial gain or to possess, own, train, transport, or sell any dog intended for animal fighting, and to “engage in the torture, ill-treatment, beating, maiming, mutilation, or killing of animals.”

Vick also lied about not killing dogs, but later admitted to killing two dogs, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Gill, saying that he “carried a dog over to Quanis Phillips, who tied a rope around its neck,” and “dropped the dog.”

Vick was then sentenced to 23 months in prison by U.S. District Judge Henry E. Hudson and also received three years of supervised probation not to buy or sell dogs. He was also ordered to pay $928,073 as restitution for the 53 dogs seized from his property.

As the 2001 NFL Draft’s No. 1 overall pick, Vick wasn’t just an ordinary NFL player; he was one of the biggest stars of the 2000s, earning four Pro Bowl selections in his career, including the 2010 Bert Bell Award. His career, though, was put on hold for two years in 2007 and 2008; the Philadelphia Eagles signed him back to the league in 2009, and he continued to play until 2015 before retiring in 2017.

These two cases further urge the need for animal abuse awareness and set examples for others of what a heinous crime the dogfighting business is.