The Philadelphia Flyers season didn’t necessarily go as expected. The team is still rebuilding, yet a somewhat better than expected 2023-2024 campaign made fans think the Flyers were set for a step forward to remain competitive. Yet the Flyers took a step back in the standings this season which led to the dismissal of head coach John Tortorella shortly before the season’s end.
There were some good parts of the Flyers season. Top prospect (and franchise savior, in the eyes of most fans) Matvei Michkov mad his much anticipated debut from Russia. Of course there were the always entertaining antics of their mascot Gritty.
With the season ending in disappointing fashion, Philly’s favorite grit-izen made sure to make the last home game count. Earlier this month Gritty crowdsourced suggestions for his in game antics through his social media channels. He made sure to end with “I might not never offer this again, so don’t mess it up”. While Gritty and the Flyers didn’t explain the reason for their digital suggestion box, Gritty brought some of them to life at the Flyers during the Flyers April 15th game against the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Some of the suggestions were what you’d expect, such as one fan saying Gritty should grace the cover of the NHL video game. If he did it would give him something in common with the Hughes brothers and Auston Matthews.
Since the Flyers last home game fell on every America’s least favorite holiday of “Tax Day”, one fan asked Gritty to find out how much he owes the IRS. Gritty was nice enough to do those taxes for free, unlike most of our accountants. Speaking of job related things one fan asked Gritty for a job, which he turned down because she didn’t meet the requirements of knowing Microsoft Paint.
Next Gritty took another fan’s somewhat benign suggestion to start a book club. We were surprised Gritty could read, but not surprised by his choice of reading material. Other fans wanted more availability of the Gritty plush toys sold at Flyers games. Remember, they’re so popular the Flyers opened a specific “build your own Gritty” merchandise stand at Wells Fargo Center.
One fan requested Gritty bring back “planking”, the social media sensation from circa 2013, which he recreated at various places in the arena. Lastly, and perhaps most popular, was fans requesting the NHL’s favorite mascot create an OnlyFans account. Gritty seemed to oblige (we think) by posting a picture of him with a QR code. No, we didn’t click on it. Honestly we’re too scared to. We love Gritty, but scan that at your own risk. For all we know it might be a link to Flyers season tickets.
Some of the rejected ideas proposed to Gritty via Twitter included “play every other sport”, meeting a fans cat dressed just like him, and our personally favorite, asking Gritty to fight the “racing presidents” from Washington Nationals games.
Hats off to the Flyers marketing staff for a fun fan engagement idea for what was a meaningless game for the Flyers. It wasn’t a meaningless game for their opponents, the Columbus Blue Jackets, who were still chasing a playoff spot and would beat Philadelphia 3-0.