Everyone is talking about Gritty

At this point, you have probably already heard about what Gritty allegedly did to a child. If, for some reason, you are unclear about what I’m referring to, here is the original article from The Inquirer. This is really the meat and potatoes of the claim:

Gritty punched Brandon in the back, Greenwell claims.

In Greenwell’s telling, Brandon playfully patted the mascot on the head after the photo was taken. As Brandon walked away, Gritty got out of his chair, “took a running start,” and “punched my son as hard as he could,” Greenwell said Wednesday.

Now, listen, there is absolutely nothing funny about a child being assaulted. Even at 13 years old, that is a child. Yes, we made jokes. I personally made jokes. I shared jokes. All of those revolved around Gritty as a violent miscreant and the strange behavior of the parent in question. Harming a child is not funny and never will be.

There is a lot of humor in Gritty being named as the assailant, as opposed to the human inside the Gritty costume.

I am not here to litigate what happened and what didn’t happen. Whether the alleged event happened as portrayed will be determined by law enforcement.

About a month after the alleged punch, as Comcast Spectacor and Greenwell couldn’t come to an agreement, Greenwell reported the incident to Philadelphia police. The matter is being investigated by South Detectives Division. A police spokesperson on Tuesday described the case as an alleged “physical assault” that occurred “during a photo shoot with 13 year old white male and Flyers mascot Gritty.”

“The investigation is active and on-going,” police said.

They tried to settle without involving lawyers or police to no avail. As for the Flyers, they released this statement to NBC Sports Philly:

We took Mr. Greenwell’s allegations seriously and conducted a thorough investigation that found nothing to support this claim.

So, naturally, this is all anyone is talking about. At the core of the complaint is a very serious allegation. However, as more details emerge, it is becoming more difficult to believe the police will find more evidence of the alleged incident than the Flyers did. Only time will tell. We will keep you updated as news is released.