Pat Patriot ranked as one of the worst mascots in the NFL

A short time after the Boston Patriots were born in 1959, Phil Bissell, a cartoonist for the Worscester Telegram-Evening Gazette, came up with a mascot: Pat Patriot, a representation of the New England region’s colonial and revolutionary past. Over the next three-plus decades, he was featured prominently and even though the team updated him to fit the so-called “Flying Elvis” design in the mid 1990s, he still plays a role to this day.

Pat Patriot, donning the No. 1 jersey, is nowadays serving as the Patriots’ mascot. He even has his own biography on the team’s website:

JERSEY NUMBER: 1

BIRTHDATE: July 4, 1776

HEIGHT: Head and shoulders above the competition

WEIGHT: 100% muscle

POSITION: First out of the tunnel

COLLEGE: A top school in the Patriot League

HOMETOWN: Foxborough, Mass.

MAJOR: American History

HOBBIES: Playing 60 minutes a day, traveling New England

SIGNATURE MOVE: My smile - you’ll never see me without it!

WORDS TO LIVE BY: ”Do your job.”

The organization clearly put plenty of thought in creating this fictional character, but not everyone seems pleased with its existence. Take Rhiannon Walker of The Athletic, who recently ranked the NFL’s 28 mascots (four teams — Green Bay, Washington, both New Yorks — have opted against using them). The Patriots’ did not fare very well. In fact, only the Las Vegas Raiders’ Raider Rusher finished behind Pat Patriot.

The explanation for his 27th-place ranking is pretty straight forward:

Pat looks like the kind of mascot that would haunt me in my sleep, and I already have enough battles with sleep paralysis, so no thanks.

This is not the first time Pat Patriot was characterized primarily through his creepiness. Back in 2015, he was named the second creepiest mascot in football by Uproxx behind only the then-San Diego Chargers’ Boltman.