Philadelphia Flyers: Why We Love Gritty

He is ugly. He is short tempered and a little scary looking. So why do Philadelphia Flyers fans love Gritty?

Monday night’s Philadelphia Flyers game versus the Colorado Avalanche was Gritty tee shirt night. I spent the better part of the day coercing one of my friends into going to the game with me and my son. It was a tough sell, but I did indeed attend Gritty night at the Wells Fargo Center, scoring not only awesome seats directly behind the penalty bench, but a highly coveted Gritty t-shirt.

When the news broke that the Flyers were unveiling a mascot, I was not impressed. And when I heard the name, I rolled my eyes. When I saw the first picture, I was horrified, sure that Gritty would be a nightmare machine for the little ones that love to attend Flyers games.

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Fast forward a month, and I am squarely in Gritty’s corner. When he was a few rows behind us at Monday’s game, I snapped pictures furiously and begged my son to give Gritty a hug. While even tickets right behind the penalty box weren’t enough of a bribe to get that picture, my son is a fan as well.

So what happened? Why are the Hunters, and Flyers fans everywhere, in love with this crazy, overgrown orange Muppet?

I could wax poetic about Gritty really being a sweetheart. I could say that we loved the Good Morning America feature, that we all stayed up late and watched him on Jimmy Fallon. I could say that Gritty making peace with Gary Bettman on our behalf endeared him to Flyers fans. That we felt for the poor guy, falling on the ice on his first try on skates.

I could say all that, and perhaps those moments all played a part in this love affair, but there was one defining moment when we looked deep into those googly eyes and were gone, gone forever. Flyers fans fell in love, en masse,  when Gritty trolled the Penguins and their mascot on Twitter. There are few things that unify Flyers fans as quickly as our dislike of the Pittsburgh Penguins, and in that moment, it was clear that this crazy orange fur monster was one of us.

So feel free to call him an ugly Sesame Street reject, make fun of him all you want. He is one of us, and Flyers fans take care of their own.