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It’s been close to 20 years since Michael Vick saw his career derailed when he was arrested in connection with a dog-fighting ring he had a hand in overseeing. Now, another former NFL player has been hit with similar charges in the wake of a historic raid that led to the rescue of close to 200 canines.
I’m going to assume most people reading this aren’t intimately familiar with LeShon Johnson, who was a standout running back at Northern Illinois in the early 1990s (he led the nation in rushing yards in 1993 and was eventually inducted into the school’s Hall of Fame) before the Packers selected him in the third round of the NFL Draft in 1994.
Johnson spent five seasons in the league while also playing for the Cardinals and the Giants (he overcame a lymphoma diagnosis prior to his brief stint in New York), and he attempted to keep his football dreams alive by taking his talents to the XFL during its first and only season in 2001 before hanging up his cleats.
The Oklahoma native who balanced football with bull riding when he was growing up eventually returned to the state where he was born and raised, and in 2004, he was charged after a 17-month investigation into what the state officials who conducted it described as the “largest illegal dogfighting operation they’ve ever uncovered.”
Johnson was one of 30 people who were arrested in the wake of the sting operation, but the most serious charges against him were ultimately dropped.
However, things have come full circle based on the press release the Department of Justice released on Tuesday after Johnson was once again arrested for similar reasons in the wake of a raid involving what “is believed to be the largest number of dogs ever seized from a single person in a federal dog fighting case.”
The accompanying indictment asserts Johnson ran a dog-fighting operation dubbed “Mal Kant Kennels” while selectively breeding “champion” dogs who were forced to compete and attempting to profit by marketing their “bloodline” to other people around the country engaged in the firmly outlawed bloodsport.
The filing says Johnson was targeted in a raid executed in October of 2024 that led to “190 pit bull-type dogs” being seized due to violations of the Animal Welfare Act, which is the largest number of canines ever taken from someone accused of orchestrating a dog-fighting scheme.
Johnson was charged with the illegal possession of the dogs in addition to “selling, transporting, and delivering a dog for use in an animal fighting venture”; he faces up to five years in prison for each count as well as a $250,000 fine if he’s found guilty.