Super Bowl Champ Gets Early Prison Release To Comfort Dying Daughter

NFL player Wendell Smallwood Jr.’s three-year prison sentence has been cut short, as the running back will be released early to spend time with his daughter.

The running back’s 8-year-old daughter, Mila, is dying from cancer, and he’ll now get to be by her side in her last days.

According to the Daily Mail, she was diagnosed earlier this year with an aggressive form of childhood cancer known as diffuse anaplastic Wilms tumor that is found in the kidney. She’s undergone unsuccessful chemotherapy between visits with her father at New Jersey’s federal Fort Dix prison and is currently in palliative care.

Doctors say she may only have days or weeks to live.

“They can’t do anything except make her comfortable now,” said Yaron Helmer, Smallwood’s attorney. “I can’t think of a stronger reason than to be with his dying daughter.”

So Gloucester County Superior Court Judge Renard Scott granted the motion to withdraw Smallwood’s state guilty plea, citing the family tragedy.

“[It’s an] unfortunate situation none of us would want to face,” Scott said, per the Delaware News Journal. “This is an illness that is untreatable. His daughter has days, possibly weeks remaining.”

32-year-old Smallwood was sentenced to 18 months in prison in September 2025 on federal fraud charges related to the COVID-19 economic relief program of over $645,000.

At the time, he also pled guilty to an unrelated charge of unlawful possession of an assault firearm when he owned an AR-15 rifle in New Jersey, where that type of gun is illegal. He was sentenced to three years in federal prison.

Judge Scott said that Smallwood buying the gun legally in Pennsylvania and bringing it to Jersey was a “poor judgment call,” but he’s not a danger to the community. So Smallwood could be released as early as August 17.

Smallwood was drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles in the fifth round of the 2016 draft and won Super Bowl LII with them before heading to Washington, Pittsburgh, and the Jacksonville Jaguars for a season each.

See social media’s reaction below.