Apparently bowl games are not immune from the poor economy. How else does one explain the Military Bowl’s new mascot, Sgt. Stripes — basically a photo commemorative Military Bowl football with cartoon eyes Photoshopped on? Photshopped!

According to the Military Bowl release, Sgt. Stripes will have his own Twitter account and “pop up at landmarks throughout the region and pose with local celebrities as a way to engage fans in the game.” Sgt. Stripes has already posted four Twitter updates and a picture from the Comcast SportsNet studio in Washington.

Of course, Sgt. Stripes will also have his own spot on the bowl’s Facebook page.

I get that the mascot is not supposed to be high tech and it’s supposed to be funny (I chuckled) and that the simplicity of it is, in fact, the beauty of it. But for a bowl sponsored by Northrop Grumman, I expected a mascot with some muscle. Like, perhaps a fighter jet with the Military Bowl logo on it or an aircraft carrier. Heck, I would have settled for a WMD with the Military Bowl logo. Just something that screamed military.

Instead, we got cartoon eyes.

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Graham Watson is on Facebook and Twitter: Follow her @Yahoo_Graham.

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