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We know mascots are a manifestation of a team’s pride and culture. Most are created for the aesthetic of the franchise and bring a pleasurable experience to more casual sports fans from all over.
This is true for most sports teams, although sometimes, the mascot just doesn’t properly fit the picture. There are plenty of mascots for different franchise teams that never really stuck with the fans, so let’s dive into a few of the most hated mascots in all sports.
One of the few mascots with opposable thumbs, the Pittsburgh Steelers’ Steely McBeam is supposed to represent the hard-working blue-collar industry workers within the Pittsburgh area. We see what they were trying to do with this mascot, but it’s just downright boring. Representing a simple average working human, the Steelers mascot never really received the love it searched for, although he did receive a DUI back in January 2008 for drunk driving at BAC level more than double the limit.
In an attempt to replicate the notorious “Puff the Magic Dragon” aesthetic, the NBA’s Orlando Magic would create one of the most tragic mascots of all time. Similar to the look of the Phillies’ Phanatic and Canadiens’ Youppi!, the mascot’s name was created as a play on a word pun where “Stuff” means to smother a shot in basketball on defense. While both Puff and Stuff are created by the same company, it feels like there’s a total lack of effort with this franchise mascot’s creation.
When it comes down to why Cozmo of the LA Galaxy is hated so much, it’s largely due to several lackluster reasons. For one, LA Galaxy was a great MLS franchise located in the Hollywood area. Maybe the franchise owners thought that since Hollywood was full of the most prominent celebrities and athletes, then the name “Cozmo” would just stick. He is a weird black creature with yellow eyebrows and hair, giving no indication to what he represents. All we know is that he went on an expedition in space back in 2001 in hopes of searching for the perfect galaxy.
While Rumble the Bison comes from humble origins, having been struck by lightning after saving his herd from a storm, we feel he still never really got the love he deserved. Unfortunately for Rumble, a lot of home team fans don’t like the way he looks. Also, the last time we checked, nobody thinks of a bison when they hear the word “thunder”, so the confusion surrounding why the OKC mascot is a bison makes perfect sense.
The mascot of the Tampa Bay Rays known as Raymond is considered one of the least liked mascots out of any sports team franchise. Mainly due to his unappealing design as a fuzzy walrus, the Rays’ mascot seems to get no love at all, with only 6,000 followers on X (formerly known as Twitter). The person who stands in the Raymond suit has been fired twice, indicating that the Rays’ owners didn’t like him much either.
Liam has been a major sports fan and soccer player for over a decade, with a particular focus on major top-level soccer leagues, including the EPL, La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga and MLS. He has written numerous promotional articles for various top sportsbooks and continues to publish historical and factual sports articles covering the NFL, MLS, NHL, MLB, EPL and more.