Eric Berry is a Pro Bowl safety and one of the most fearless players in the NFL. But bring a horse around him, and he’s immediately just as afraid as any other.
“Anything in the horse family — zebras, cows, anything that’s close to resembling that,” Berry said on Wednesday, according to Fox Sports. “I just don’t deal with them.”
Berry suffers from a rare complex known as equinophobia, which is better known as the fear of horses. And to make matters worse, Berry’s place of work isn’t very sensitive to his fears.
The Chiefs parade a horse known as Warpaint around the field before games and after every score, which fortunately for Berry hasn’t been very often this season. The tradition goes back to the early years of the Kansas City franchise and is embraced by Chiefs fans as a symbol of their pride and success. But Berry hasn’t been too pleased by the team’s beloved mascot.
The issue first came about when a video began floating around last week about the Chiefs’ safety’s unusual problem during the Chiefs loss to Oakland. But the fear isn’t some new reaction he picked up because of Warpaint, rather it’s a fear that he’s had all his life as he admitted.
Berry recalled the root of his fears on Wednesday, explaining that it stems from a childhood trip to a farm where he was chased around by a pony.
“Now that I think about it, I didn’t even know that it was chasing me … I probably just over-reacted. But still — I don’t deal with them,” Berry said. “You just don’t know what a horse is thinking. Can you look at a horse and tell what a horse is thinking? Like, it could possibly kick you, run you over, bite you.”
The unpredictability can be viewed as a legitimate issue, but couldn’t you also say the same thing about a dog, a cat or I don’t know maybe a goldfish even? I wonder if Berry’s ever had a pet. And if he has, how has he reacted to its playful advances?
Either way, it does seem that the Chiefs could be a bit more sensitive to his feelings about the animal and at least keep it as far away from him as possible. Who knows? Maybe that has something to do with Kansas City boasting one of the worst defenses in football.
But that’s merely a thought that’s been gnawing at me for a while and seemed to gallop through my head at the right time.
Alright enough terrible puns, check out Berry’s hilarious highlight tape below.
Photo via Facebook/Eric Berry
