The National Hockey League’s (NHL) opening day was Oct. 7 this season. As you may know, the NHL sucks the last ounce of consumerism out of sports fans by making their season span six months of 82 games per team. In the middle of this, I want to shed some light on the mysterious, marvelous, or enigmatic Philadelphia Flyers mascot: Gritty. The orange bearded creature is deeply loved by the Philly region, which is surprising given his grimacing physical attributes.
Gritty was “born,” so to speak, on Sept. 24, 2018, when, according to his official biography, the construction at the Wells Fargo Center, the Flyers’ arena, disturbed his secret hideout. Within the months following his debut, Gritty became an internet sensation and made appearances on several talk shows. He dominated meme culture and unexpectedly became a symbol not just for Philly hockey fans, but for an entire city that prides itself upon being deeply misunderstood, partially chaotic, intensely loyal, and constantly itself.
If you have never seen Gritty in person, imagine a deranged muppet that had recently been bathed in orange soda and then taken out of hibernation. To paint the most vivid picture of the experience one has when seeing him in the flesh: he is quite tall (seven feet), bright orange with an unkempt beard that looks like it hasn’t been brushed since Nixon was in office, and quite filled out (maybe Gritty needs to lay off the Philly cheesesteaks). To add insult to injury, he has two large googley-eyes that operate independent of each other, producing a cross-eyed effect at times. He also has some really unique antics, like spraying people with silly string, streaking, kissing cheerleaders, “pieing” people, playing basketball, dancing amazingly, playing drinking games, trying to skate and falling, and many other hilariously ridiculous activities one can do at a hockey game. Oh, and I forgot to mention that he has a green bellybutton piercing.
So you might now be wondering what sets Gritty apart from other unhinged, chaotic mascots? Well, firstly he is likely the most unhinged and chaotic mascot in the NHL. Also, he embodies the GRITTY spirit of Philadelphia as a city and sports hub: he is unkempt and contrasts with notions of a “friendly” mascot and is emblematic of the “us against the world” spirit of the Flyers and most other Philly sports franchises. Gritty is the mascot manifestation of booing Santa Claus, of reacting to rude Wawa workers, and of insisting your city is the best even when the rest of the country insists that it is not; he is the ultimate symbol of unwavering pride.
Over the years, Gritty has transcended hockey, even sports, altogether. He has become more of a political symbol, a memeified avatar of resistance and absurdity, a fixture in parades, protests, talk shows, and cultural commentary. Few NHL mascots, even just American sports mascots, have been embraced by both hockey purists and people who have never watched a single Flyers game. Fewer have become shorthand for a city’s collective personality and culturally uniting denominator. In the end, Gritty is more than a mascot, he is a cultural artifact, a nod to the “City of Brotherly Love,” a furry orange mirror held up to Philly’s beautifully unvarnished soul. He is absolutely absurd, revered, aesthetically confusing and somewhat gross, and fearless. And for Flyers, even for Philadelphians, that is exactly the point.
