It's disgraceful. During some football game, our mascot, Goldy the Gopher, mocked a player on the opposing team who thought it was appropriate to ostentatiously kneel down and publicly pray.
Now Goldy wasn't the disgrace (I have a new-found respect for our goofy guy in a costume), nor was the young lady who came out and gave him a fist-bump afterwards. Hooray for them! The guy making a show of his piety…yeah, he's a disgrace, but he's not on the UM team. No, the real disgrace is our craven PR flacks.
Minnesota spokesman Dan Wolter says the stunt was "plainly a mistake" and the mascot didn't intend to offend anyone or trivialize religion.
I call shenanigans. He was too trying to trivialize a religious ritual (although, admittedly, he wasn't trivializing it quite as much as the clueless goon who thinks the almighty ruler of the universe will help him win a game), and we like him for it. I think it ought to be a Minnesota tradition to point and laugh loudly at any player who thinks he gets holy credit with a deity for catching a ball.
Greg claims it was me, but I know which of the two of us lives a lot closer to Minneapolis than the other.
You know, I'm just the guy who would run onto the field in subsequent games and make fun of the prayin' — just to take the heat off Goldy, you know. I wonder if the opposing teams will demand extra security in the future?