Former NFL running back Wendell Smallwood Jr. has been granted an early release from prison so he can spend time with his dying daughter in her final days.
A Gloucester County Superior Court judge approved a motion to withdraw Smallwood’s guilty plea, opening the door for him to be with his eight-year-old daughter, Mila, according to The News Journal. The report said Mila was diagnosed with diffuse anaplastic Wilms tumor in 2026, an aggressive and rare childhood kidney cancer.
Mila is now in palliative care and has been given just days or weeks to live after chemotherapy did not work, per the report.
Smallwood’s legal situation had already been in motion. He was sentenced last September to 18 months in prison for a COVID-related fraud scheme after pleading guilty in December 2024 to felony wire fraud, conspiracy and tax fraud tied to economic relief programs. He also pleaded guilty to second-degree unlawful possession of an assault firearm for possessing an AR-15 rifle in New Jersey and received a three-year prison sentence.
The path to withdrawing that plea changed in July, when the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that New Jersey’s ban on assault weapons was unconstitutional. That ruling gave Smallwood the legal basis to seek the withdrawal, and an emergency hearing on Aug. 7 determined that his daughter’s illness was a notable reason to grant the request.
Smallwood, 32, made his name at West Virginia before the Eagles selected him No. 153 overall in the fifth round of the 2016 NFL draft. He went on to rush for 850 yards and five touchdowns over three seasons from 2016 to 2018 in Philadelphia and was part of the Super Bowl LII championship team.
After that, Smallwood bounced around the league during the 2019, 2020 and 2021 seasons, moving from the Commanders to the Steelers to the Jaguars and back to the Commanders. He appeared in one game for Pittsburgh in 2020 and spent most of that season on the practice squad.
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