Chris Erskine: Mr. Mohawk makes quite an impression
The young fans came out in force Friday night, and downtown Vancouver became as rowdy as a school bus. By Saturday, the crowd was older. Wiser? Well, you decide.
Take Phil Andruss, aka “Mr. Mohawk,” a 280-pound sports fan with red-tinted hair spikes rising eight feet into the air and Olympic rings carved into the side of his head. He was creating quite a stir Saturday afternoon outside the tourist offices on Cordova Street, posing for photos and giving high-fives to rain-soaked visitors passing by.
“It has turned into a great conversation starter,” says the Seattle resident, who started getting into costumes like this several years ago, starting with the Seahawks. “A buddy of mine has a barber shop. He’s a white guy with a black barber shop. He can shave anything into your hair.”
One of his passions is hockey, and Mr. Mohawk has been to three Kings games in L.A. over the years.
But on this day, he’s like a 2010 version of Uncle Sam. And he doesn’t take much guff.
“Yeah, some guys say stuff but mostly when they realize how big I am, they just shut up,” he says.
God bless America for that.
--Chris Erskine
Can you please start writing/discussing how bad NBC's olympics coverage is? Why did we have to watch the opening ceremonies on tape delay in Los Angeles? We are in the same time zone! And Matt Lauer and Costas were pathetic. We had to sit through an hour of athletes walking out and they would tell us about maybe one or two athletes. When India comes out and they have 6 total athletes I think there is enough time to run down who they are and what they compete in. They had no information. I know for a fact that they employ a researched to compile information on all the athletes (a 4 year job!) so lets use it! And why, on a saturday, do we have to watch any event on tape delay? I hate NBC's coverage of these games and I expect this blog to start taking a critical eye to it.
Posted by: Andrew | February 13, 2010 at 04:51 PM
If you want to be bombarded with commercials and advertisements then watch the coverage,it is the main reason why i do not patronise corporate coverage of any sporting event,pro or amatuer.
Posted by: davidozone | February 13, 2010 at 08:16 PM
“Yeah, some guys say stuff but mostly when they realize how big I am, they just shut up.
What a douchbag. This guy would his lunch money taken from him in LA.
Posted by: cmw | February 14, 2010 at 12:33 PM