In what might be termed a dark horse bid for attention, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is calling for the NFL to change its l...
In what might be termed a dark horse bid for attention, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is calling for the NFL to change its language regarding one particular penalty.
The NFL’s annual meeting will be held from March 27 through March 30.
Through a letter it says it sent to NFL Competition Committee Chairman Rich McKay, PETA is asking the league to ban the term “horse-collar tackle.”
In a news release on Wednesday, the animal rights group claimed that the term “makes light of using tight harnesses to exploit horses for labor.”
“Words matter, and the term ‘horse-collar tackle’ trivializes an old-style contraption that exploits horses for labor,” PETA President Ingrid Newkirk said in the letter.
“You could score a touchdown for horses by instead converting it to the ‘Goodell Grab’ or ‘back-collar tackle,’ as neither of these terms normalizes animal abuse,” she wrote.
PETA said it “wants the name of the penalty replaced with the ‘Goodell Grab’ — referring to the reported $128 million money grab the commissioner received in compensation over the past two years.”
The NFL rule book describes a horse-collar infraction this way:
“No player shall grab the inside collar of the back or the side of the shoulder pads or jersey, or grab the jersey at the name plate or above, and pull the runner toward the ground.
“This does not apply to a runner who is in the tackle box or to a quarterback who is in the pocket.”
PETA also suggested that the penalty could be renamed the “Roy Williams tackle” in honor of the former Dallas Cowboys safety whose use of the tackling tactic led to four players being injured, prompting the NFL to ban the tackle in 2005.
The group’s suggestion drew a horse laugh from many on Twitter.
PETA said the change was in line with what it claimed was its “well-received” call for baseball to rename the bullpen the “arm barn.”
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