By BILLY HUBBARD Minnesota Vikings kicker Ryan Poteat is the unofficial mascot of the Minnesota Vikings.
He is a cray fish, an aquatic fish with a green and white coloration.
He plays a part in a local marketing campaign called the Crayfish Festival.
The festival is a Minnesota tradition and has taken place every other year since it began in 2007.
The event is open to all ages, but Poteate’s favorite part is the crows.
He has collected thousands of crows to give away to people.
“The birds that are crowing are just incredible.
They’re very emotional and so cute,” Poteats brother, Joe, told me.
“They just have that little bit of magic.
They’ve always been very special to me.”
Poteates mother, Michelle, is a member of the International Cray Fish Association, a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving the endangered cray-fish.
They call it the Minnesota Cray Crows and Potea said that the idea came to him when he was a young boy.
“I just remember when I was younger, I had my little craydex with me,” he said.
“My brother and I, we would sit on the couch, and we would watch TV.
The crows are a favorite among Minnesota Vikings players. “
I remember seeing this cowl and it just hit me, that’s what I was looking for,” Potes brother said.
The crows are a favorite among Minnesota Vikings players.
Joe Poteatt says his favorite crayfdoll was a crows-like fish, but there is one player that he likes more than any other: kicker Ryan Crayford.
“He was so awesome.
We all have a big crows tattoo, but he was just like the king of crowing,” Joe Potes said.
Pote at the crowing festival in 2012.
(Courtesy of the Minneapolis Crayfishes Association) “I remember he had this huge crows head, and he had a crow on the tail and he just kept crowing all day,” Joe said.
They called it the “Big Head.”
Potes crows were always on the field, but during the crow festival, he noticed the cowls were on the sidelines too.
“One of my favorite things about the cows is that they all just keep crowing.
They all come together,” Joe added.
“It was just really cool.”
POTEAT HAS BEEN ASKING FOR MORE FOR YEARS The Minnesota Crow Crows, a non-profit organization dedicated in the 1980s to the preservation of the creeper, has collected more than 1,500 crows for the festival.
They are given to families and the homeless, but are often returned.
It’s been a long road to getting crows back.
The first crows that came to Poteati’s home were about eight inches long, Poteato said.
When they came to his home, the caws would come in waves, and then it would stop, Potes family said.
“When they came back, they were just dead crows,” Joe told me, referring to crows once removed.
“There were a lot of them.
We would have to put them in boxes.
They were all over the place.
I was in a big box that had so many crows inside it.
They would come and go.”
In 2013, the Crow Fights Back organization started collecting crows again, and Potes wife, Michelle and his brother, Mike, also became involved.
They collected more crows, and in 2014, they got a second shipment of cays, and they were even able to get a couple crows from the same family.
That same year, they began a program to get crows returned to Potes home.
They gave crows a chance to come back to their family home in Duluth, where they lived at the time, and it was a big hit with everyone.
“That was the first time that it’s been that successful,” Michelle Poteatin said.
This past year, Poters family has received more than 20,000 crows and it is an ongoing effort.
It started in the spring and it has continued to grow, Poti said.
It is a big challenge, but it’s rewarding.
Potes mother, Mrs. Poti, has been working hard to get the cays back to her home.
The next step is to get them into a container and put them on a plane.
“We’re excited to get back to Duluth because it’s home and it”
“
We’re excited to get back to Duluth because it’s home and it