When I saw Gritty I had basically the same reaction that the world had. I was also in the press box for Gritty on Gritty's opening night and the first time he appeared on the biog video screen he was boo’d crazily as he went up to an unsuspecting woman and surprised her with a kiss...EVERYTHING felt wrong in that scenario in 2018. A friend texted me "#NOGRITTY #METOO."
Then he hit the ice in between periods, slipped accidentally and pretended to shoot at the t-shirt people with a gun....again he was boo'd mercilessly...
What a disaster....right?
Someone is going to get fired for this...
This felt like an epic fail for the Flyers. He was a mascot too scary to be "for the kids" and too weird and just, well just wrong, to be a mascot for adults.
Social media response was 99% negative.
I didn't know what to think about all of this, and since this really wasn't hockey related I just decided to stay out of it.
To me he was "Pouchy" from the Simpsons...A character introduced into Itchy and Scratchy to try and freshen things up, but just was ridiculous. Market research run amuck. In the press box people were giving him MAYBE till Christmas...
That was all just 5 Days ago...
The next day Gritty proved an adage that I formerly had only partially subscribed to:
"any publicity is good publicity"
Steven Colbert, Trevor Noah....countless other NATIONAL TV shows did stories about Gritty and how terrible he was....He danced with Jimmy Fallon for crying out loud!!
All at once he became the most famous and infamous mascot in sports, with people laughing at how wrong this all felt...
But this is Philadelphia.. We are allowed to hate on our own, but if people from other places start to do the same....then "**** You."
And just like that he became "A Philadelphia Legend." Remember the Eagles won a Super Bowl with the basic motto "We are Philly, Everyone hates us."
So the second the world lashed out at Gritty and laughed at Philly.....the Flyers' fail, became the Flyers' genius.
Three nights later, Thursday night in the arena that wanted him hung on Monday, he was gleefully met with raucous applause..He dumped popcorn on Rangers fans (in what was obviously a staged gag) and people went BONKERS. Everyone was trying to see him and meet him on the concourse....
So now everyone in Philly seems to love him....Granted, he is still scary as hell to little kids, but you know what I read someone online say? "Yeh well kids need to grow a pair then..."
This is such a crazy sociological experiment I can't help but think that some brilliant Psych/PhD Candidates at Penn are all over this. There will be papers in collegiate publications.
What's next?
Does he have lasting power? It's hard to imagine he won't, but these are strange times...Gritty-mania will of course die down, but he is going to last way past Christmas and you can be sure at the All-Star game in San Jose when the Mascots play their annual hockey game against each other he will fill the arena a little more....He will be the one mascot that EVERYONE will want to see...
The mascot that maybe only works because Philadelphians ALWAYS have each others backs...even if you look like a mashup of cookie monster, the abominable from Rudolph, and Jake Voracek....
Someone is going to get promoted for this...
What do you think?