Fansided

Minnesota Vikings dumped their mascot because he wanted too much money

ByJosh Hill|
Oct 13, 2013; Minneapolis, MN, USA; Minnesota Vikings mascot Ragnar enters the field prior to the game against the Carolina Panthers at Mall of America Field at H.H.H. Metrodome. The Panthers defeated the Vikings 35-10. Mandatory Credit: Brace Hemmelgarn-USA TODAY Sports
Oct 13, 2013; Minneapolis, MN, USA; Minnesota Vikings mascot Ragnar enters the field prior to the game against the Carolina Panthers at Mall of America Field at H.H.H. Metrodome. The Panthers defeated the Vikings 35-10. Mandatory Credit: Brace Hemmelgarn-USA TODAY Sports

The Minnesota Vikings are without a mascot as they’ve parted ways with the actor who played the role for over two decades. 

For the last two decades, the Minnesota Vikings have been a team that has almost been good enough to make it to a Super Bowl but has always managed to find a way to piss off the football gods just enough to not get there. It happened in 1998, it happened in 2009 and it will probably happen again the next time they show any sort of talent.

Minnesota has always hung around in the NFL and they’ve always managed to stick out in one way or another. Perhaps the most consistent way they’ve stood out is with their mascot, Ragnar. But those days have come to an end, as the team has parted ways with one of the most iconic members of the franchise’s last twenty years.

According to Darren Wolfson from KSTP in Minneapolis, the Vikings and Ragnar failed to come to terms on a contract and the mascot has essentially been fired. Since his contract was up, he wasn’t technically fired but that’s basically what has happened here.

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Fired or not, the bottom line is one of the most iconic parts about the Vikings lore over the last two decades of football will no longer be part of the team. It may not seem like a huge deal to some, but a piece of Vikings history has died today and that just really sucks in too many ways to count. You can’t have a Vikings game in Minnesota without Ragnar riding his motorcycle around the field or pumping up the crowd in only a way that mascot could.

With the Vikings moving to back to the old metrodome site in a new stadium, Ragnar’s absence will truly signal the end of an era for the franchise.

There’s a chance that Ragnar might come back either with the same guy playing the character or a new guy in the role, but for the time being his loss is being mounted by not just Vikings fans but football fans all over sad to see another remnant of an NFL era gone by wither away and die.

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