No one can say exactly what Philadelphia Flyers’ mascot Gritty is despite many theories and origins explored by our own Jeff Seide. One thing we do know about him is he’s popular amongst the players and fans. It took Flyers fans a while to warm up to Gritty, as many criticized his appearance and his slips on the ice at the start of the 2018-19 season. One month later, though, fans came around, as he gained 200,000 followers by Nov. 2018, was recognized by the Philadelphia City Council, and was voted the number one mascot in the league by the NHL Players Association and fans in March 2019. Whatever he is, we know he’s a hit with the fans.
Mistaken Identity
By process of elimination, we know one thing Gritty isn’t: he’s not Cookie Monster from Sesame Street. But don’t tell Grant that. Grant’s mom Gabby (@shegabstoomuch) posted a cute and hilarious video of her son picking up Philadelphia Magazine’s 2019 “Best of Philly” issue that featured Gritty on the cover. The only problem is Grant thought Gritty was the lovable cookie-eating blue monster from the popular children’s educational program.
“Wow. Who is that?” Grant’s mom asks.
“Cookie Monster!” Grant answers.
“It looks like Cookie Monster. That’s Gritty,” she corrects.
@shegabstoomuch
The video gained social media fame with over 209,500 views and almost 4,000 likes. Even Gritty responded to the video on Twitter. The Philadelphia Flyers spoke for most of their fans when they tweeted, “We’ll let this one slide.” Even though Gritty isn’t from Sesame Street, fans should not rule out a guest appearance on the show. After all, he was one of Jimmy Fallon’s guest on “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon” and he’s been invited to the set of Saturday Night Live by Keenan Thompson. Maybe he could help The Count with numbers or Murray with letters or just eat a batch of cookies with Cookie Monster.
Gritty’s “In The Game”
While fans hold their breath on a possible Sesame Street appearance, they won’t have to wait long to see Gritty in a video game. Gritty was introduced last season after EA Sports NHL 19 came out, so he wasn’t able to make into that game. However, developers wasted little time putting the Flyers’ mascot into the franchise’s next installment, which releases Sept. 13 for PS4 and Xbox One, even putting him in their “What’s New in NHL 20” trailer, but he’s not the only new addition to the game. Fans can see Gritty in the game if they play as the Flyers at home and score a goal or they may even see him hanging around one end of the ice. Who knows, maybe you’ll even see him pull a drum out of nowhere and start banging it after a goal.
That particular celebration caught Gritty’s eyes and he commented about it on Twitter asking for an explanation on how a drum just appears in his hands. It’s video game physics, Gritty, nothing ever makes sense but things just appear at the right time. Fans criticized how Gritty’s eyes don’t look as googly in the game as they do in real life. Some also suggested he participate in shenanigans, such as Mites on Ice or lowering himself from the rafters to the seats. It’s very doubtful something like that will happen since most mascots are limited to banging a drum or celebrating with fans after a goal in the game.
Still, just appearing in a video game is another big step for the Flyers mascot and the eyes can always be worked on. If you want to know what your favorite player’s overall rating and attributes are, be sure to check out Hockey Writers’ Steve Marowski as he counts down the top 50 players in the game as well as player reactions. Don’t worry, Gritty, you’ll always be a 99 overall to us.