Maple Grove Fourth Graders Take on Mascots at Vikings Halftime Show
A crew of fourth-grade Maple Grove football players got their own viral moment on Sunday. They took part in the Vikings’ annual mascot game at halftime.
The nine-minute contest was packed with memorable moments, kicked off by a video of the 12 fourth graders walking into U.S. Bank Stadium. They each had their own stylish flair, fitted with sunglasses gifted to them by the Vikings.
“What’s the mindset going into this game against Viktor and his friends?” asked the Vikings’ Tatum Everett.
“Blue should’ve just stayed home in Indy. All the way,” said Cole, one of the fourth graders. Blue, the Indianapolis Colts’ mascot, jumped on scene and gave him a shove.
Those were fighting words to ignite the annual mascot game– a once-in-a-lifetime experience for this group from the Maple Youth Football Association. The Maple Grove kids got the opportunity thanks to their head coach, Tim Henry, who noticed a few years back that area kids took part in this halftime spectacle.
He got the team’s name on the list. This year, their turn finally came.
“A month ago, I got an email out of the blue. It was Joe Rush from the Vikings, who’s their youth coordinator. He was like ‘Hey, would you guys like to be in the halftime show for the mascots vs the kids?’ And I said– ‘Absolutely!'” Henry said.
Game-Time Decision
The team of mascots poses with the Maple Grove fourth-grade team and their coaches. (Photo courtesy of Maple Grove Youth Football Association)
Henry put a team together, and from there, the game was on. The kids only got a short amount of time to play on the field, so they just got in one practice ahead of the game. He said they had to prepare four plays — with no timeouts.
The mascot team is made up of a number of in and out-state mascots, including Goldy the Gopher, Viktor the Viking and Herky the Hawk.
“We would just call out play one, play two, play three or play four,” Henry explained. “They knew what play to run, and we had to maximize our time out on the field.”
Cole’s pregame smack talk came back to bite his teammates, who all went after Blue in the last part of the game, even pulling off his jersey. After that, Viktor kept scrambling to cover him up on camera.
In the end, it was all in good fun. Henry said the kids had a great time and got plenty of perks.
“They did a fantastic job just making the kids feel like they were NFL superstars. They just had smiles on their faces, so it was a phenomenal intro,” Henry said.
The game ended in a tie. It also ended with optimism: someday, those kids could head back to the Bank to play again.
