PETA wants Joe Namath’s Mink Coat!

NFL legend, 1969 MVP and pitchman for the Medicare hotline and other exciting infomercials, is now in the headlines thanks to the good animal protectors at PETA.

The story is that Namath has been wearing a variety of furs on the sideline, including this specific mink coat since the 60s, basically making the coat famous or part of sports history, so naturally, the fashionable athlete is putting it up for auction all these laters because it's a talking piece that has seen some action that us mere mortals couldn't fathom. Oh to be a pro athletes coat, I can only imagine the things it has seen.

The coat is currently at $9,250 but we can assume that will go up the more people talk about it, and they are talking about it.

Naturally, the people at PETA have "Fur" as a google news trigger, so they hopped on the opportunity to make the story about them.

They want him to give the coat to the fur donation program, which sends furs to people in need at refugee camps and homeless shelters as well as to wildlife rehabilitation centers to be used as bedding for orphaned animals.

The issue is that Namath is not the one auctioning the fur, it is a private collector but here's what PETA had to say anyway:

“While nothing can bring back the minks who were killed for Joe Namath’s coat, it could still give some much-needed warmth to those in desperate need”

“PETA is encouraging the NFL legend to score a touchdown for kindness by donating these minks’ remains instead of trying to squeeze a few more dollars out of them.”

I don't know what they are trying to accomplish since the minks that were killed to make this coat in the 70s are long dead, the furrier who made the coat is likely long dead, the trapper who captured the mink likely dead too, and really the mink would probably be honored that they ended up in such an iconic piece of pop culture/sports history, not to mention how well they were kept all these years. A noble sacrifice for a lasting legacy, that's all a mink could really want out of its life.

Here's a nice Namath Tribute video found looking for pictures of him in the coat!