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Is Denver Nuggets super-mascot Rocky a Republican? Signs point to “yes.” On Monday, @ColoGOP tweeted a photo of Rocky at an event for the Grand Old Party. Only problem: Ken Solomon, the man inside the Rocky suit, didn’t get an okay from his bosses about the gig — and afterward, they weren’t happy. Photos and details below.
See also: Rocky the Denver Nuggets Mascot Gets His Paws on the New York Times
Here’s a look at the full tweet, screen-captured before it vanished from the @ColoGOP account:
The deletion likely speaks to the power and/or unhappiness of the Nuggets, whose marketing manager, Graham Wincott, told the Denver Post, which broke the story, that Rocky’s appearance was “an unsanctioned, unpaid appearance that we had no knowledge of.” He added, “As a sports team, we want to be apolitical. Two things we never touch on are politics and religion.”
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This caveat hasn’t stopped Nuggets owner Stan Kroenke from expressing his own Republican values, as Yahoo! Sports‘ Eric Freeman points out. And Freeman also questions a statement by Colorado Republican Party chair Ryan Call that “even Rocky has First Amendment rights.” In Freeman’s words, “Rocky does not have First Amendment rights because he is a creation of the Denver Nuggets, not a citizen of the United States.”
Even if he was real as opposed to fictional, Rocky wouldn’t be human, either. And we haven’t seen any voter registration drives targeting the mountain lion exhibit at the Denver Zoo.
Whatever the case, South Stands Denver’s John Reidy responded to the controversy by tweeting a photo of Rocky accidentally hanging himself last year….
…while ESPN Denver’s Nate Kreckman made a crack of his own:
Be that as it may, we strongly advise Republican and Democratic operatives alike not to try wooing Colorado Rockies mascot Dinger — unless they’d secretly like their candidates to lose.
Send your story tips to the author, Michael Roberts.
