A Brief History Of Mascots Behaving Badly

As you've probably heard by now, Mr. Met flipped someone off. The Mets apologized, the guy in the Mr. Met costume was fired, ​people wondered how a mascot with four fingers (and thus no middle finger) could actually give someone the middle finger — and so it goes. 

But Mr. Met isn't the first mascot to act up. We've rounded up some of our favorite examples of mascots going off script. 

Mascot Arrives At Game Completely Wasted

If you're going to have a drink before you slip on your mascot outfit and head into the arena, make sure it's just one so you don't end up like this blotto lion mascot for soccer club FK Austria Wien:

Mascot Annihilates Kid

The Denver Nuggets won't just knock down a kid, he'll taunt that kid: 

Mascots vs kids games are ripe for costumed misconduct — the year before the taunting Nuggets mascot, the Indianapolis Colts mascot got a little rough with the little tykes — before throwing in a crotch thrust for good measure:

Mascot Annihilates Adult

Note to adult fans, especially those of other teams: do not try to cheat a kid during a bubble race when the Utah Jazz mascot is watching, because he will mess you up: 

Mascot Annihilated By Easter Bunny

The tables have turned!

Mascot Arrested For Throwing Snowballs

After starting a snowball fight during a game against Pittsburgh, Cincinnati's Bearcat reportedly pushed a police officer who was tasked with getting the mascot down from his perch. He was promptly arrested:

Mascots Attack A Driver In Russia 

It's been years since this video appeared on the internet and we still don't know if it's real or not (we don't really care either way):