Actor who plays new Sixers’ mascot Franklin hates Sixers, Philadelphia sports in past tweets

Earlier this month, the Sixers unveiled a new mascot in the form of an enormous blue dog named Franklin, and the man inside that dog once expressed a strong dislike for not only the Sixers, but Philly sports in general.

Some quick Internet sleuth work by Twitter user @brianbrown25 broke the story last week after the manager of the @SixersFranklin account accidentally tweeted out a personal post from Instagram on Friday:

As Crossing Broad points out, the link included in that Tweet went to the Instagram page of Darnell Enrique, who is the man behind (err, inside) Franklin.

Digging deep into Enrique's timeline, Brown found that the Sixers' mascot isn't much of a fan to begin with. And while Enrique's tweets are now protected, @brianbrown25 managed to get some screen grabs to post on Twitter before it was too late.

Consider, for example, his love for the Knicks and Giants:

Or Enrique's hatred of almost all things Philly sports, fans included:

All that said, it's clear that Enrique's tweets come from more than four years ago in most cases, meaning that the guy's mind could have changed since those diatribes hit the web. Evidence to the end, of course, also comes from Enrique's Instagram account, which shows him happily practicing dunks for his role as the Sixers' Franklin. Combine that with the fact that, you know, the guy did take the job, and it's probably not likely he still feels the same.

In that sense, it would make sense to let Enrique slide here, or at least give him the benefit of the doubt. Because, really, that he was raised a Knicks fan plays little into his ability to entertain crowds at Sixers games. But, as @brianbrown25 pointed out this morning, there's not much of a chance that Philly fans will feel the same way any time soon:

Which is to say: Let's keep this in perspective. All this is, after all, just the opinion of a man in a blue dog suit just trying to make it through the day.

[Crossing Broad]