Former NFL running back LeShon Johnson was sentenced to five years in federal prison on Thursday for six dogfighting-related charges, federal prosecutors said.
According to a news release from the U.S. Department of Justice, Johnson, 55, of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, was also sentenced to three years of supervised release and was fined $30,000.
Johnson, who played for three NFL teams between 1994 and 1999, was convicted in August 2025 of six felonies, ESPN reported. The Oklahoma native had been charged with 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, according to the cable sports news outlet.
Johnson surrendered 190 dogs to the government in 2023, KWTV reported. According to the news release, that was the largest number of dogs seized from one person in a federal dogfighting case.
Testimony during the trial showed that Johnson -- who pleaded guilty in 2004 to dogfighting charges in Oklahoma -- had been running a major operation since at least 2007 that bred and sold fighting dogs for profit, ESPN reported.
Johnson, who previously ran “Krazyside Kennels” referred to his new operation as “Mal Kant Kennels,” federal prosecutors said. The jury heard evidence that Johnson bred and trafficked hundreds of dogs for fighting around the country.
During Johnson’s trial, prosecutors said that the former player advertised many of his dogs as “champions” and “grand champions,” meaning they had won three or five fights, respectively.
Johnson would also sell letters of the puppies “from favorable fighting bloodlines” and would charge “stud fees” for other dog owners to breed with one of his male dogs, prosecutors said.
Proceeds from the sales totaled hundreds of thousands of dollars, prosecutors said.
“LeShon Johnson will face justice for building another particularly egregious and violent dog fighting scheme,” Associate Attorney General Stanley E. Woodward Jr. said in a statement. “As Johnson was well aware, dogfighting 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, who played collegiately at Northern Illinois, was a third-round pick of the Green Bay Packers in the 1994 NFL draft. He played for the Packers (1994-95), Arizona Cardinals (1995-97) and New York Giants (1999).
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