Читать книгу Dance Like Everybody’s Watching!: The Weird and Wonderful World of Sporting Mascots - Nick Miller - Страница 8

NAME GRITTY

TEAM PHILADELPHIA FLYERS

SPORT ICE HOCKEY

YEARS ACTIVE 2018–PRESENT

STYLE From THE WRONG SIDE OF THE TRACKS TO SESAME STREET

FAMOUS FOR THREATENING TO MURDER ANOTHER MASCOT IN ITS SLEEP

The Philadelphia Flyers had gone 42 years without a mascot, until they decided in 2018 that they could no longer be left out of the game and thus introduced a waking nightmare into the consciousness of America.

If The Muppets ever changed direction and told the story of a quiet loner who lived in a remote cabin and ate wolves while they were still alive, they would cast Gritty in the lead role. A bug-eyed orange monster with a beard, Gritty would look very at home with a rifle over his shoulder and the entrails of a rival flecked around his fur.

The thing is, though, it seems to be working. A Flyers suit once noted that Gritty would match the ‘blue-collar nature of the Philadelphia fanbase’, and after the whole of America recoiled in horror at whatever this thing was, the good people of Philly closed ranks behind their boy. He was one of theirs now. And when the Pittsburgh Penguins mascot (a penguin, as it happens) tweeted a gentle jibe in his direction, Gritty replied, ‘Sleep with one eye open, bird.’ If nothing else, the good people of Philadelphia appreciate a mascot who will murder another to defend their honour.

Len Redkoles/NHLI via Getty Images