Washington Commanders: Making The Mascot

Client

Washington CommandersThe NFL in America's capital

Film

Making The MascotA 3:53 documentary on how Major Tuddy was made

Released

Friday, 27 January 2023On the Commanders' channels

Shot

November 2022 to January 2023FedExField and BAM! Mascots, Toronto

Final poll

Hog 74%, Dog 26%The fans' vote, September 2022

Versions

Clean and subtitledFor sound-off viewing

Making The Mascot is the story of how Major Tuddy was made: from a fan vote and a superfan in a pig hard hat to a costume workshop in Toronto and his first run onto the field at FedExField.

Our ninth collaboration with the Washington Commanders is the longer follow-up to the trailer that introduced Major Tuddy. Shot documentary style over a few months, RIOT directed the Commanders’ own content team on what to capture: players past and present, the fans, the people who built him, and Tuddy on the field for his reveal, celebrating touchdowns with the team.

Washington Commanders•Documentary•3:53•2023

By popular demand

The hog had been the fans’ unofficial mascot for years before there was ever a suit. The team listened first, through data and social listening, then put it to a vote. In the first round, in August 2022, hog took 48 percent against dog, historical figure and superhero. In the final poll that September, it beat the dog 74 to 26. We turned the results into animated charts for the film, beside the voting graphics that ran on the boards at FedExField.

The superfan in the pig hard hat

Chris Bryant, known in the end zone as Hogfarmer Chris, is a Marine veteran and the co-founder and president of the HogFarmers, a charity for families facing pediatric cancer. The team’s crew filmed him at FedExField on a gameday, to our shot list: straight on, centered in a row of empty seats. What he wanted was a hog with a little brute in him and a little cartoon too, for the kids. A mascot, he says, is for the kids.

Made by hand in Toronto

The suit was built by BAM! Mascots in Toronto. Rael Enteen went up with a camera operator to film it, from the first drawings and swatches to the craftspeople at work. Fur is cut through the weave, never across the pile. The eyes get the most care of all, because the eyes make or break a character. Mitch Maxine, BAM!’s co-founder, explains the rest: a costume has to look right and still do its job, every single gameday.

Where the Hogs come from

Tuddy’s story starts with the Hogs. The film plays them on an old television, NFL Films footage of the line that put its noses to the dirt for three Super Bowl wins, and lets the man who named them tell it: Joe Bugel, Washington’s offensive line coach, who called them hogs one hot day at training camp in 1982. It stuck.

Then Major Tuddy had a duty to fulfil. He owes his whole reason for being to the Hogs, so he made sure he met the men who inspired him: on the field at FedExField, face to face with a Hog still in his old jacket; at the door, under posters that read There’s a new hog in town; and in the photo that puts the old Hogs and the new hog side by side.

Bringing a costume to life

From the drawings, the design became a 3D print of the head, then a suit, then a performer inside it. Joey Colby-Begovich, the team’s VP of Guest Experience, describes who that performer has to become. Tuddy is an offensive lineman, so he can be serious and tough. He is also a hog, who likes to roll in the mud and plays the odd prank. Every detail of his uniform reaches back into Washington’s history, and Michaela Dowling, from the team’s brand and innovation strategy, wants him brand new and rooted in the past at once, for older fans, newer fans, younger fans and everyone in between.

Gameday

Then it was real. Tuddy ran out at FedExField on New Year’s Day, and the team’s crew kept filming to the last home game of the season. When the team asked for more shots of Tuddy with kids, there were none left to add: every one was already in the film.

Before the making of

It started with Introducing Major Tuddy, the trailer that played at FedExField before his reveal. For more on why Washington’s fans wear pig snouts, read our journal entry, For the fans, by the fans.

ServicesDocumentary Filmmaking·Creative Direction·Editing·Motion Graphics·Color Grading·Sound Design