Thousands of mascots across the country torture innocent souls daily and no one bats an eye, but an AHL mascot kills one first-responder and everybody loses their minds.
That was the hard lesson learned by the Adirondack Flames this week, when they officially canned their brand-new mascot, Scorch, after just five days on the job. The team unveiled Scorch to the public last Thursday and, in an attempt to give the character a relevant backstory, had him overpower and, presumably, kill a firefighter during an ill-advised introductory skit. Whoops.
The team later apologized and admitted the skit was in “poor taste,” but it appears that wasn’t enough to save Scorch. On Tuesday, the team announced that it would be replacing the disgraced mascot:
“We’re extinguishing Scorch,” Brian Petrovek, president of the Adirondack Flames, said in an interview on Tuesday. “The misjudgment we made was such that we came to that decision.” (via)
So, I guess you could say Scorch has been…/sunglasses…fired.
This is the latest development in what has been a tumultuous start to the Flames’ inaugural season in Glen Falls. They also had one of their players attempt to inflict brain damage on an opponent this past weekend.
Hopefully some good can come out of this, such as the team holding another hilarious round of mascot auditions.
