A snake with legs? Union has a new mascot
What’s a long-necked, two-legged blue creature with broad shoulders, a gold mohawk and two sharp fangs?
Guesses, on first take, included a punk-rock version of the Geico gecko, an athletic salamander or maybe a lizard who can dance.
But no. At the mascot-unveiling ceremony for Major League Soccer’s Philadelphia Union on Monday, the creature was something unexpected — and maybe even unrecognizable.
“IT’S A SNAAAAKE!” the announcer yelled as the team’s new mascot burst out of a giant glowing egg at the Philadelphia Zoo. His name is Phang, the first mascot for the men’s soccer team since it was founded in 2008.
Phang emerged from the egg pumping his fists, high-fiving excited children and wiggling his limbs to the beat of techno music, immediately branding himself as the world’s most unconventional snake.
Adults, however, were skeptical, sullying the so-called snake’s breakout moment with a debate over its anatomy on social media. “Wait. The Union’s new mascot is a snake. With arms and legs. Isn’t that ... a lizard?” one person wrote on Twitter.
But the Philadelphia Union, the fifth-ranked team in the MLS’s Eastern Conference, appeared prepared for such questions. The organization soon provided a completely reasonable explanation for how a snake spawned limbs to transform into a soccer-playing reptile.
“Long story short,” the team explained concisely on Twitter, “a regular snake tied a ball to an old metal cleat, got struck by lightning, turned into an egg & was reborn with arms & legs.”
Team management decided to solicit ideas for the mascot from children this year after families repeatedly asked why the team didn’t have a spirit leader.
They received more than 3,000 drawings, with snake being a top contender.
It made sense: There is a rattlesnake on the team’s logo, an intended reference to Benjamin Franklin’s famous “Join, or Die” political cartoon featuring the spliced rattlesnake.