Gritty Upstaged Unveils New Philadelphia Mascot

How can you unveil a mascot a little over a month after the world's greatest mascot mascot launch? How do you do when you are a small team in the same city? Well, you invite all the mascots in the city and have a party with the mascots, of course.

At the end of September, the Philadelphia Flyers introduced us to Gritty. It has become an instant success. (Just for your information, Deadspin was on the Gritty-mania ground floor.) Gritty is now by far the most famous Flyers of over 50 years of franchise history, and it's perhaps one of the most famous Philadelphians in the world. (He would be the second famous Philadelphian fictional, after Rocky Balboa.)

But today, the NFL Philadelphia Wings, a lacrosse team that returns to Philadelphia next month for the third time after a four-year stint, introduced the latest member of its team: Wingston, a furry yellow dragon who turns around like Goldie. Waffle.

But also, Gritty was there. And Phillie Phanatic and Swoop and Franklin and St. Joe's Hawk and Hooter the Owl and Will D. Cat and Mario the Magnificent – another dragon, for Drexel – and Nettie, a monkey resembling a tennis ball – Billie Jean King . (Nettie is one of the best mascots in the sport.) The Wings event was held at Friends Select School in the downtown area. The school hawk was there too. But, mainly, people were interested in Gritty.

Gritty Gritty Gritty. Without offending Wingston, that's what people wanted to see. There was a guy dressed as an agent of Men in black who was acting as a manager for all the mascots, and he literally had to move Gritty away from the adoring fans. Even Phillie Phanatic, King of Philly's mascots, has not attracted as much attention as Gritty today.

Lindsey Masciangelo, vice president of business operations for the Wings, said she subscribed to the most successful theory about the success of the mascots.

"It's a bit like what people are asking when a Philly team wins, what other teams feel," Masciangelo said. "I think that with passion in Philadelphia, you can feed on that. We are on this train with Gritty. We know how passionate mascots are here … so we thought people would kiss it. "

Of course, it is useful that the Flyers and Wings have the same owners. Gritty and Wingston are corporate cousins. So how did the Wings create this new guy?

"We wanted a character that people could see in the community and wanted to hug and love him, but he's also an impressive and athletic lacrosse player on the field," said Masciangelo. "And it has the wings that make sense from the dragon's point of view and we thought it really fit our brand."

The Wings was about the same configuration as the Franklin, Phang and Gritty unveils: they pulled out a group of schoolchildren knowing that they would have screamed after all that was waiting for them. And it worked! I now know one thing about Friends Select students and they like Wingston.

And Gritty. And all the mascots, really. But mainly Gritty. Were there even other mascots out there today? The kids love Gritty. Gritty is above the law. Gritty is everything. Gritty will consume the universe. Gritty is entropy. Gritty is our past, present and future. Gravelly. Gravelly. Gravelly. Gravelly. Gravelly. Gravelly. Gravelly. Gravelly. Gravelly. Gravelly. Gravelly. Gravelly. Gravelly. Gravelly.

Gravelly. Gravelly. Gravelly.

Gravelly.