The Chargers Introduced A New Mascot: A Dog… Which Is Shameful. BRING BACK BOLTMAN!

Earlier this week on HBO’s Hard Knocks, 6th overall pick, QB Justin Herbert, was surprised at training camp by the team’s new mascot, a dog.

A dog? The Los Angeles Chargers new mascot is a dog.

Don’t get me wrong here, I love dogs. All dogs (except corgis). I’m a dog guy. I’m MISTER Dog Guy. I’m just saying that the new mascot makes ZERO sense. This would totally make sense if it were the Browns or…. well, that’s it.

You’re probably thinking they named the dog something basic like Max or Spike or Buddy or Philip (too soon?) or Charlie, right? I’m here to tell you that they named their dog “Bolt”

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Yes, Bolt is extremely cute and most likely a ‘good boy.’ BUT many non-Chargers fans may not realize this, but the team has had an ‘unofficial’ mascot for over 2 decades. That man is BOLTMAN. Boltman is a local legend (or at least was local – again, too soon?) at Chargers games and has been a staple of the team, just unofficially.

Boltman is played by Dan Jauregui and he had been around Chargers games for 22 years. Unfortunately, when the team moved from San Diego to Los Angeles, Boltman felt that he had to move on as well. Jauregui decided to put his beloved costume on eBay, which included all the rights and intellectual property. Despite receiving a $71,600 bid (my jaw dropped to the floor too), Jauregui claims that he would be taking a loss at that amount and did not sell the costume.

This leaves Chargers owner, Dean Spanos, in a particularly interesting spot. Instead of attempting to buy the costume from Jauregui for the low, low, low cost of $100,000, he went out and bought a puppy. I haven’t been puppy shopping recently but I’d have to guess he didn’t spend more than $1,000 on Bolt (he’s a mixed breed, folks).

Mr. Spanos, puppies are cute but do they have the ability to electrify a crowd AND pump people up? I rest my case. Let this serve as a message to BRING BACK BOLTMAN! Boltman is waiting…