In what is believed to be the first case of ex-NFL lineman-on-horse crime since Alex Karras in Blazing Saddles, touching a police horse got former NFL player and current sports talk radio host Ian Beckles arrested.
The Tampa Bay Times reports that Beckles, an offensive lineman for the Buccaneers and Eagles in the 1990s who now hosts a Tampa radio show, was arrested and charged with disorderly intoxication after ignoring a police officer’s orders to leave police horses alone.
According to the police report, Beckles walked into the street in downtown St. Petersburg when an officer asked him to move to the sidewalk. The report says that the officer could smell alcohol on Beckles’ breath, and that Beckles responded to the request to move to the sidewalk by saying, “OK, tough guy,” and slapping the officer on the back.
Police say Beckles then began to heckle officers patrolling the area and started walking toward an officer on horseback. The officer told him to stay away, so he moved on to another horse, and another officer told Beckles, “Don’t touch the horse.”
Beckles then touched the horse. Police arrested him and booked him into the Pinellas County Jail, where he was released on $100 bail less than three hours later.