The maker of Jack Daniel’s whiskey has dropped its long-running sponsorship of Alaska’s Iditarod sled race Joe Mixon Bengals Jersey , the company said Wednesday.

The move by Louisville, Kentucky-based Brown-Forman followed a tough year for organizers of the 1,000-mile (1,610 kilometer) Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race who have faced financial hardships, the loss of other sponsors and its first-ever dog doping scandal.

Jack Daniel’s decided to go a different direction by shifting most of its marketing efforts to a partnership with the National Basketball Association, company spokesman Svend Jansen said in a statement.

He said a campaign against the Iditarod by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals had nothing to do with the decision, which will affect the 2019 race in March.

”As a sponsor of The Iditarod for 15 years we have been particularly impressed with the utmost care in which the animals are treated by the race veterinarians, the dog sled teams and everyone associated with this event,” Jansen wrote in a follow-up email to The Associated Press.

Iditarod spokesman Chas St. George said organizers were notified by Jack Daniel’s that the company made the move to focus on sponsorships in other areas.

”We are confident that we will continue to grow the race with new sponsorship opportunities,” St. George said in an email.

PETA said Jack Daniel’s did the right thing. Spokeswoman Tricia Lebkuecher said the organization believes it had an impact on the decision following public protests and after thousands of PETA members and supporters flooded the company with emails urging the company to end its ties with the race.

PETA said it first contacted Jack Daniel’s following the deaths of five dogs connected with the 2017 race. One dog died in this year’s race as well, with the cause of death blamed on aspiration pneumonia.

”This is a victory for all the dogs who’ve been forced to run this cruel race,” Lebkuecher said in a phone interview.

PETA says its tally of dog deaths totals more than 150 in the Iditarod’s history. That number is disputed by race officials, who say there are no records of dog deaths during the early years of the race Donte Jackson Youth Jersey , and an accurate count is not available.

In June, the board for the race implemented a major change regarding dog deaths. Organizers will now remove mushers from the race if one of their dogs dies while on the trail. If a dog’s death is caused ”solely by unforeseeable forces,” then a musher may be allowed to stay in the race, according to the change.

Iditarod officials also responded after one if its veteran mushers, Hugh Neff, was banned from competing in the 2019 Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race over dog care issues.

Registration for the upcoming Iditarod start Saturday. Organizers say they have the right to ”reject any entrant that does not conform with or demonstrate humane animal care practices.”

The Iditarod also has been suffering financially and lost Wells Fargo bank as a major sponsor last year. Organizers have blamed animal rights activists for pressuring sponsors.

Last year’s race also was marked by fallout from the Iditarod’s first-ever dog doping scandal. Race officials announced that the team of four-time champion Dallas Seavey tested positive for an opioid painkiller after his second-place finish in 2017 but said they could not prove he gave tramadol to his dogs.

Officials didn’t punish Seavey but changed race rules to make mushers responsible for any positive drug test. Seavey, who won four titles between 2012 and 2016, denied giving drugs to his dogs and sat out this year’s race in protest.

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Julie Ertz has a world championship and Player of the Year honors in her sport. So she’s already got an edge on husband Zach – that is, if they were competitive.

She says the athletic couple doesn’t really try to one-up each other all that much.

”Maybe in board games,” she says with a laugh.

Julie and Zach are currently the sporting world’s ”It” couple. Julie is a midfielder for the World Cup-winning U.S. national soccer team, while her husband Zach is a tight end for the Super Bowl-bound Philadelphia Eagles. The joke is that they both play football, just different kinds.

Just as Zach was in Canada for the 2015 World Cup final cheering on Julie, she’ll be rooting for him on Sunday in Minneapolis. In fact Buccaneers Vita Vea Jersey , she’s already there, acting as a correspondent for the U.S. team’s Twitter feed .

The couple was married last March after a romance that started when Julie, then Julie Johnston, was an emerging soccer star at Santa Clara and Zach was playing at Stanford.

Julie’s career took off in 2015, well before Zach reached the NFL’s biggest stage, when she was selected by national team coach Jill Ellis for the World Cup roster. At 23, she was the second-youngest player on the squad for soccer’s premier tournament.

”You train as if whenever you’re called upon you’re ready,” she said. ”I think that was a huge mentality that was important for me. I know I really wanted to make the team, but I knew that I had a long way to go. So I tried every day to take it day by day and really learn anything I could at practice, and do every extra thing that I thought I needed to do.”

Johnston played on a backline that included Meghan Klingenberg, Becky Sauerbrunn and Ali Krieger. The defense was anchored by Hope Solo, who was spectacular in goal. The group went 540 minutes during the tournament without conceding a goal on the way to a 5-2 final victory over Japan.

With her trademark baby-blue headband, Johnston quickly proved she was one of the sport’s fastest-rising stars. Today Adidas Tuukka Rask Jersey , she’s introspective about her world championship.

”I could give you 1,000 moments that were special, but looking back it was the journey, and everything that I learned about myself and what I didn’t think I could do,” she said. ”I learned a lot, and it really pushed my love for the sport even more than I already loved it.”

She shifted to a defensive midfielder position with the national team last year and did well. At the Tournament of Nations she came in as a substitute and scored the winner of a 4-3 victory in the 89th minute.

She played at that position the rest of the season, scoring six goals, including two against New Zealand. In December she was selected the national team’s Player of the Year, earning more than half of all the votes.

But probably the happiest thing she did last year was marry Zach. The two tied the knot in March in California.

Zach, 27, is in his fifth season with the Eagles. He broke out this season with 824 receiving yards, behind only New England’s Rob Gronkowski (1,084) and Kansas City’s Travis Kelce (1 Alex McGough Jersey Seahawks ,038) among the ends. His eight touchdowns were double his previous career high, and he had eight catches for 93 yards in the NFC championship game.

The two were apart when the Eagles clinched their spot in the Super Bowl with a 38-7 victory over the Minnesota Vikings. Julie was in San Diego for a national team match against Denmark. She was among the players who scored in the 5-1 victory.

Afterward, when she was told Zach was going to the Super Bowl, she burst into tears .

”Zach knew I was there obviously in spirit and I was praying for him and I was excited for him and cheering him from miles away,” she said. ”It’s a part of our job and we sacrifice a lot, and time’s the biggest thing. But to find out that they are going to the Super Bowl was amazing, exciting, emotional. It’s really cool to see your loved one’s hard work pay off.”

That’s part of the mutual respect their marriage is built on.

”She understands how hard I worked and how hard this team worked to get to this point. We’re each other’s No. 1 fan. Our relationship wasn’t built on the athletic success. We truly love each other and that’s the most important thing,” Zach said.

To that end, Julie said it’s Zach’s turn in the spotlight.

”This is his time,” she said. ”I’m here. I’m a fan! I’m going to be in the stands, cheering with everyone else.”

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