Dodgers pitcher Edwin Díaz has been linked to an illegal cockfighting ring in Puerto Rico, according to a report from USA Today.
The outlet detailed multiple social media advertisements from a cockfighting club in Díaz’s native Puerto Rico that featured Diaz’s image, including several wearing a Dodgers jersey, in a report Thursday.
The story also cited a March 10 news article from the island’s largest newspaper, El Nuevo Día, that “includes a photo showing Diaz standing in the pit of a cockfighting arena,” evidently during an off-day amid this spring’s World Baseball Classic.
While cockfighting is a centuries-old tradition in Puerto Rico, it was banned there when the United States federal government outlawed the practice in all of its territories in 2019.
Puerto Rican politicians initially tried to defy the ban by adopting carve-outs in their own local laws, PBS reported in 2019. Local clubs, such as the one tied to Díaz, also filed lawsuits trying to get the federal restriction struck down, as noted in the USA Today story, though such challenges ultimately failed.
