Could it be a inside job for motivation?
Reminds me back in 1971 we were the Rams getting ready to play our biggest hated rivals....Didn't have a live Ram as our mascot but had a goat with horns that a local farmer let em borrow during football season....It had the blanket in school colors they placed over the Ram...Looked good...Like the Navy mascot....As a ploy to motivate their own cheer staff stole the goat the night before the game....They spray painted the goat in the hated rivals purple color to be delivered at a bonfire that Thursday night to be dropped off and blamed on our hated rival.....Problem was the paint and excitement killed the goat! So there was no pretend Ram
It was years before it was know who had really stole the goat...That story is still talked about until this day.
