There's a lot of mystery surrounding the person under a mascot suit. A former college and NFL mascot has put a human face to the character by sharing his experience stepping into the "Rowdy" suit for the 2022-2023 Dallas Cowboys season and how he got there.
"Mascots aren't really known, and I really wanted to change that," Eric Aaberg, a former mascot for the Dallas Cowboys, told Fox News Digital in a Zoom interview.
He now uses TikTok to talk about his time being the "face" of the Cowboys and what it was like being Rowdy as a 22-year-old while also balancing life as a college student.
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Aaberg's road to Rowdy happened by a bit of luck and taking a chance on something new. While he was attending the University of Texas at Dallas, he was approached to join the cheer team and later asked to be the school's mascot, Temoc.
"Being a mascot was not on my bucket list for college," Aaberg said.
He was reluctant to accept the role at first but ended up taking on the opportunity and continued to be the mascot for five years.
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Becoming Temoc ultimately led to Aaberg getting the chance to try out for Rowdy, the mascot for the Dallas Cowboys. The Cowboys reached out to UT Dallas, expressing their interest in Aaberg being their mascot.
"The tryout process was literally one interview," Aaberg said, noting that it helped that he already had experience working as a mascot and also with creating social media content.
After being hired and attending one event, on top of some additional training, Aaberg became Rowdy, a character that has a much larger presence than just hyping up the crowd at games and posing for photos with fans.
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"I think the common misconception is people think the mascots are only at games, but actually, the mascots and cheerleaders are at tons of corporate events, I want to say over 300 throughout the year," Aaberg told Fox News Digital. "Sometimes that's seven times a week, sometimes that's five times a week, sometimes that's 10 times a week."
At the time when he got the job, he was still a college student. Though there were multiple people who were mascot performers for the team, the schedule was still a packed one.
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The typical call time for game days was 6 a.m., according to Aaberg, with other responsibilities including driving around the "Rowdy van," which carries the mascot costume, and going to upwards of four-hour corporate events.
"At the end of the day, being a mascot is just another form of marketing. You are literally the walking face of the brand," Aaberg said, who often made social media content featuring Rowdy during his time with the team.
For those who want to become a mascot for their college team or even a professional sports team, Aaberg attributes qualities like being passionate, energetic and dedicated to success in the job.
"You have to be passionate about school spirit, being passionate about really wanting to put a smile on people's faces, making these Tiktok trends, having that reason to put on the suit," Aaberg said.
