Brendan Rodgers has hit out at Derby County’s mascot Rammie the Ram branding him as just “an idiot trying to make a name for himself”.

Rammie stupidly ran 20-yards and insinuated that midfielder Brian Howard was feigning an injury in the first-half of Royals’ 2-1 defeat to the Rams, when in fact he had a broken jaw and concussion after an accidental clash of heads.

Yesterday afternoon Howard went under the knife to fix the damage, with metal plates and a series of screws and wires used to re-align and repair his jaw.

And an unimpressed Rodgers told the Reading Post: “It was an act of stupidity and hopefully the guy has learnt his lesson and won’t do anything like that again.

“Of course there are some moments in games when you can have a bit of fun and the mascot’s do get involved and that’s what’s great about football.

“But the injury was no laughing matter and the guy was just an idiot and obviously trying to make a name for himself.”

A County spokesman said yesterday that two letters of apology had been sent from Rammie first thing on Monday morning to both Howard and Reading Football Club.

And Rodgers himself said that the incident wasn’t typical of such a respected and popular club.

The 36-year-old added: “I thought the mascot was disgraceful, but I know that’s not indicative of the ethos of Derby County, Nigel Clough or any of his staff.

“Nigel apologised on behalf of the guy after the game and sent his and the team’s wishes to Brian.

“I’m sure if the mascot was in Brian’s situation and writhing around on the floor like that he wouldn’t want 30,000 people being encouraged to laugh at him and make it into a joke."

Site navigation

• Home
• News
• Business
• Sport
• Entertainment
• Lifestyle
• Jobs
• Property
• Motoring

• A A A A
• RSS Feed