The Mascot All the Other Mascots Look Up To

There weren’t many people working full-time as NFL mascots in 1989, when Dan Meers became the Kansas City Chiefs’ KC Wolf. In the almost 30 years since, he’s seen the mascot community grow into a small corps of hyperactive 20-somethings who churn out appearances at hospitals, schools, and nursing homes across the country. They tend to retire in their 30s. At 50 years old, Meers still fits in as many as 500 engagements a year, and isn’t looking to stop anytime soon.

Since he started as KC Wolf, Meers has built what Trey Mock, the mascot for the Indianapolis Colts, called “the best mentorship program in the business.” Meers once picked a fifth-grader, Andrew Johnson, to try on his costume at an event in Kansas City. Johnson . Now, Meers cultivates a small crew of backup mascots—to fill in