The Minnesota Vikings’ popular mascot Ragnar was not present at the team’s home opener against the Detroit Lions on Sunday, and that is because he and the team are in a contract dispute. Seriously.
Joe Juranitch has been dressing as mascot Ragnar at Vikings games since 1994 and missed Sunday’s game.
“It doesn’t feel right sitting at home. This is not by my choice…I don’t make those decisions..At this point it was made for me,” Juranitch wrote on Facebook.
“I miss all my fans and your support …let’s all stay positive as we move forward.”
Juranitch rallied for fan support over social media and blamed things on the Vikings by saying it is not his “choice.” An online petition to reinstate him had over 6,800 signatures at the time of this writing.
The Vikings weren’t about to take the bad publicity quietly and let Juranitch bad mouth them. They issued the following statement.
“This offseason, Joe Juranitch’s (Ragnar) contract with the Vikings expired. Since then the team has had multiple conversations with Joe but has not been able to reach an agreement on his role with the team moving forward,” the team said in a statement to KARE.
“The Vikings greatly appreciate what Ragnar has meant to the organization and to the fans over the last two decades. We intend to honor his 21 seasons on the field during a 2015 Vikings home game and we will welcome him to future ceremonial events. We will always consider Ragnar an important part of Vikings history.”
Oh, and for good measure, they leaked Jurantich’s contract demands.
Sources say Ragnar was asking for $20K per game from Vikings over next 10 yrs. That's $1.6M for 8 reg season home games.
— Jon Krawczynski (@APkrawczynski) September 22, 2015
Yeah, if he was asking for $20,000 per game, fans can probably understand why he is not at games. That comes out to $160,000 per season, which is probably a lot more than most of the team’s fans earn in a year.
If Jurantich is looking for a new gig, someone should let him know the Clippers are hiring.
