Vegan NFL Champ Urges Super Bowl Fans to Go Meatless

National Football League (NFL) champion Roland Lamar Williams recently penned an open letter in his support of the Meatless Monday campaign. Williams—who played on the winning St. Louis Rams during Super Bowl XXXIV in 2000 against the Tennessee Titans—revealed he is thrilled to watch this year’s game, and urged fellow fans to redirect their excitement toward their own health and environment post-game. “On Monday after the big game,” Williams writes, “be a team player by participating in Meatless Monday, a global movement to find innovative ways to make meatless and vegetarian dishes part of our everyday culture, customs, and cuisine.” The NFL champ has been vegan for two years and recently introduced his three young sons to Meatless Mondays. Several months ago, he also partnered with chef Danny Boome to implement a meatless menu on Mondays for his charity, youth mentoring organization Champion Academy. Meatless Monday was launched 16 years ago with the mission to incrementally reduce meat consumption by bringing awareness to the health and environmental benefits of eschewing meat. Luckily, according to research conducted by DirecTV, vegan snacks are gaining traction as the most popular game day food.