By Caitlin Brezinski

National TV show puts Raiders’ mascot in the spotlight

Nov 25, 2014 | 4:22 PM

The controversy stemming from Raiders’ mascot, Boston Raider, has caught the attention of ‘This Hour Has 22 Minutes.’

“It was all over the news,” said Abdul Butt, the correspondent for the segment.  “It was everywhere, everyone was talking about it.”

Butt said the crew discussed the topic during a meeting and thought it was something that stood out.  They decided almost right away it was something worth travelling to Prince Albert to film.  

“Just the fact that everyone was making it a huge deal, saying it was very controversial,” he said. “So we went to go check it out for ourselves.”

On Friday, a film crew from the TV show came to Prince Albert to record a segment about the mascot.  Butt said their goal was to cover it as a news story and talk to local people about their reactions towards it. 

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“Whether or not it was something that they thought … was the same feeling that they were getting as opposed to what people were reacting to on social media,” he said. 

He said they also wanted to talk to people that appeared in articles that were against the mascot, but they refused to talk. 

“We interviewed a couple people during the day, went to the game but the mascot never showed up,” Butt explained. 

Butt said they decided to take a twist on the story after they realized the mascot wasn’t there.

“It was fun to do because it was something that we were going in there thinking one way just because of all the news stories,” he said. 

Butt said once they got into Prince Albert and talked to people, they found the controversy may have been taken out of proportion.   

“I think it was unfortunate that a lot of people made a big deal about it because I feel like everyone in Prince Albert or just fans of the Raiders actually just really love the mascot,” he said. 

Butt said there is a little bit of a news story built into the segment, but it also focuses on Boston Raiders’ fall from the public eye. 

“It ends on showing the sadness of how the Boston Raiders’ fame was his ultimate demise,” he said.  “He finally became famous and that’s what actually brought him down because now he’s not there anymore.”

The episode of ‘This Hour Has 22 Minutes’ will air on CBC at 8:30 p.m. local time on Tuesday night.

news@panow.com

On Twitter: @princealbertnow