The weirdest sports mascots, past and present

International sports competitions such as the Olympics seem to delight in creating weird mascots. In the summer of 1996, Izzy served as the mascot for the Atlanta Summer Olympics. Per Max Blau of Atlanta Magazine, a committee worked to create Izzy. Those meetings must have been fascinating. 

We understand the idea behind Steely McBeam, the mascot of the Pittsburgh Steelers. He is supposed to represent the blue-collar workers of the region. We're guessing Pittsburgh fans couldn't produce a look for a "Yinzer," so we got McBeam instead. 

We blame Major League Soccer for this one. The legend goes that the LA Galaxy were named because the city is filled with so many Hollywood "stars." Thus, we got Cozmo. Be careful criticizing this mascot, though, because Cozmo will come at you on Twitter. 

Once the Tampa Bay Devil Rays decided to ditch that name, the club should have started  from scratch. Instead,it merely shortened the nickname to Rays, which left fans with Raymond Ray, a dog-like creature that sounds similar to a World Wrestling Federation jobber from the 1980s. 

The Kansas City Chiefs are the first franchise spotlighted in this piece that had to carefully select a mascot for understandable reasons. Perhaps a horse would have been better than K.C. Wolf, even if the Denver Broncos would have had something to say about the Chiefs going down that route. 

Remember when you first learned about the alleged meaning behind the song "Puff, the Magic Dragon?" Stuff the Magic Dragon brings those feelings back to fans on a nightly basis. The Orlando Magic can say whatever they want about how "Stuff" is a reference to rejecting, or stuffing, a shot. This is still one weird mascot. 

The terms Arsenal and Gunners bring to mind visions of toughness, grit and taking the field of battle. Gunnersaurus reminds us all that Barney the dinosaur may have done society more harm than good in the long run. Back in 2015, Vice Sports spoke with the man who created Gunnersaurus as a boy. We'll let him explain himself. 

Per Carol Motsinger of Cincinnati.com, the Xavier University Blue Blob arose in 1985. That means the school has had 30 years to right this wrong. You're known as the Musketeers, Xavier. Do better. 

Most curious about the Cincinnati Reds giving fans Gapper is that the club could just go with Mr. Redlegs, a tremendous mascot with arguably the best mustache in the game. Even the Reds don't define what Gapper is supposed to be. Apparently, Ohio baseball loves weird mascots. 

You've probably heard this one before, but Mavs Man looks like what you'd expect to find at the end of a Mega Man level. We imagine the mascot for the Dallas Mavericks attempts to dunk oversized basketballs on poor Mega Man's head as a finishing move. 

As ESPN Senior Writer Arash Markazi wrote, the man who played Ragnar, an unofficial mascot for the Minnesota Vikings, priced himself out of that gig in 2015. The club replaced Ragnar with Viktor the Viking, who, we assume, is on a more cap-friendly contract. 

Desaturate the rabbit outfit from "A Christmas Story," give it sunglasses and put a Philadelphia 76ers jersey on it. You have Hip-Hop, a mascot Rich Hofmann of Philly.com referred to as "never-beloved." 

In fairness to the Garden State, Sly Fox and Mini Sly Fox are not why the New Jersey Nets relocated to Brooklyn. The Brooklyn franchise learned its lesson when it retired the horrendous BrooklyKnight character. Some teams just shouldn't have mascots. 

Toronto Blue Jays fans will remember BJ Birdy for the time he got himself sent to the showers early. As Chris Jaffe of FanGraphs explained, Birdy earned an ejection from a game in 1993 after he attempted to influence an umpire's decision. We respect the dedication to the cause. 

It's the eyes, eyes that appear to have witnessed unimaginable horrors, that land the San Antonio Spurs mascot on the list. According to the team's official website, The Coyote won 2014 NBA Mascot of the Year honors. Voter intimidation tactics may have been involved. 

"Hey Cleveland, can we copy your homework?" "Sure, Atlanta Braves, just change it up a bit so it's not obvious." 

Per CBS Denver, every NFL franchise had its own version of the Huddles mascot back in 1986. Take one look at them, and you'll quickly understand why the league abandoned the idea. 

In June 2015, the Telegraph's JJ Bull called Partick Thistle's new mascot "utterly terrifying." Kingsley looks like the evil sun character that would chase Mario and Luigi in "Super Mario Bros. 3," but with legs. Anybody have a turtle shell we can borrow? 

The Oklahoma City Thunder taking that name resulted in the Golden State Warriors losing their mascot, Thunder. No disrespect to the individual who played the character (a Bay Area hero in his own right), but all within the NBA community, other than those in the Seattle area, are better off for it. 

The Dallas Cowboys are supposedly "America's Team" and a franchise with a pretty cool name. Why, then, does the team's mascot look like he is more prepared to sell me a discounted hamburger at a chain restaurant than dominate a game of football? At least he has a sweet hat. 

The Seattle SuperSonics really dropped the ball by using Squatch rather than a speedy character as their mascot. Sure, Squatch did some cool dunks back in his day, but could he run around loops while collecting rings without falling victim to gravity? We didn't think so. 

Back in 2014, Sean Newell of Deadspin told us that Youppi, the name of the mascot used by both the Montreal Expos and Montreal Canadiens, means "yippee" in French. That's sweet and all, but we still don't know what Youppi is supposed to be or why he is particularly Canadien now that the Expos are a thing of the past. 

Of course, the Burger King was not originally meant to be a sports mascot. That changed once the he was inserted into NFL Films-esque commercials. The King was even part of Floyd Mayweather's entourage ahead of the fight between "Money" Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao. 

Whether or not you think the Cleveland Indians copied the Phillie Phanatic when creating Slider is a matter of opinion. We hesitate making fun of the mascot since he suffered an injury while attempting to entertain fans during the 1995 American League Championship Series. Credit Slider for getting back on the horse, or wall, in this instance. 

The Summer Games were back at it in 2012 when London presented Wenlock and Mandeville, the city's Olympic and Paralympic mascots. Apparently, a pair of walking Big Ben figurines weren't terrifying enough in the eyes of organizers. These mascots are reasons for a city to pass on hosting any Olympics. 

Fans know, deep down, that teams are businesses and that sports are largely about money and profits. They don't need those facts thrown in their faces. That's what the NHL did when it introduced HockeyBird in partnership with the makers of the Angry Birds games. Hard pass, NHL. 

The New Orleans Pelicans would probably say that the King Cake Baby mascot has ties to the city's famous Mardi Gras celebrations. Some ideas are good on paper but not in execution. This is somebody's nightmare come to life. 

Brownie the Elf has nothing to do with Paul Brown, the Dawg Pound or winning games since 1999. Knowing all that we know now, those in charge of bringing pro football back to Cleveland after Art Modell moved his franchise to Baltimore should have embraced a fresh beginning. 

The Tottenham Hotspur logo is a cockerel standing on a football. Tottenham's mascot is Chirpy, which has gone through some horrible redesigns throughout its history. Don't worry. Nobody else gets it either. 

It's understood there are many local fans who adore the Phillie Phanatic. Some people prefer using provolone instead of Whiz for their cheesesteaks. That doesn't make it right.