During the trivia session about the Super Bowl, I encountered an interesting question “Why do Eagles fans wear dog masks?” Since I had not been following any of the previous matches, this took me by surprise. On further research, I found a Washington Post about the masks. It turns out that the masks were a reference to the Eagles’ position as an underdog in the competition. This was so widespread; that the original retailer ran out of German Shepard masks, 230 of them, overnight. This is an example of ‘sports totems’, symbols that act as markers of identity. This could be from something as symbol as painting your face in the colours of your team, to something specified like the dog masks.

While the dog masks were used to express a certain thought, these identifiers can sometimes be arbitrary. The article also discussed a few other ‘sports totems’. One example of this is the rally monkey, a symbol for the Los Angeles Angels that originated during a home game against the Giants. In 2000, the board operators played a clip of the monkey from Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, to great success. When the Angels were down in the ninth innings, they played the clip again with the words “Rally Monkey” superimposed on the clip. The game ended with a win for the Angels, making the rally monkey an enduring symbol for the team.

Other examples include the ‘Rat Trick’, where Florida Panthers fans throw plastic rats onto the ice before a hockey match. This tradition originated in 1996, and has been repeated a few times after. Another example is the Boston Red Sox theme song, “Sweet Caroline”. Overall, it was interesting to find out about sports traditions. It will be interesting to see whether the Eagles fans continue to wear dog masks for the next football season; can they be called underdogs anymore?