Why has the Eastern Michigan University football team begun flashing a raccoon chain on a ladder after forcing a defensive turnover throughout the course of this season?
It all stems from a YouTube comment, a viral tweet, merchandise and a new tradition debuted by the program this year.
Origins
“That’s not football. That’s MACtion. You wouldn’t survive one quarter in Ypsilanti,” are the infamous words of YouTube user @teaking701 on a viral comment under a YouTube video, the message being a prop of the Mid-American Conference and an indirect diss to the “Power 4” Southeastern Conference.
The comment in full reads, “Congrats on your 5-star recruits and $100M facilities, SEC fans. Meanwhile, the MAC is out here playing real football in front of 14 people and a raccoon on a Tuesday night during a blizzard. You ever seen a punter throw a touchdown to a long snapper while the scoreboard’s on fire? Didn’t think so. While y’all are busy arguing over which frat-funded dynasty is less fraudulent, Toledo’s cooking up a triple-reverse flea flicker in a game that ends 43-42 after six missed PATs and a goalpost gets stolen. That’s not football. That’s MACtion. You wouldn’t survive one quarter in Ypsilanti.”
The comment quickly turned into a viral post on X from meteorologist Jefferson Donovan for KEPR and KIMA broadcast stations in Washington. Donovan's post tagged the Sickos Committee, which brand itself as a committee of depraved college football fans in its bio on X. This eventually led to merchandise referencing the tagline “You wouldn’t survive one quarter in Ypsilanti,” in text on T-shirts written under a plastered image of a raccoon.
The MACcoon migrates to Ypsilanti
So, how did this cross the desk of Eastern Michigan Head Coach Chris Creighton and lead to the entire coaching staff repping the merchandise during fall camp?
The Sickos Committee Podcast shared some lore on how the connection was made during an episode from Aug. 12, 2025, titled "Urban Meyer's Ghost Kitchen,” with host George Smith revealing the team reached out via direct messages on social media and asked for T-shirts to be sent for the staff to wear.
“They made us T-shirts, and we wore them, and it just kinda became a thing,” Creighton said to The Eastern Echo.
Eastern Michigan football’s social media channels fully embraced the concept, with multiple Instagram, X and Facebook posts promoting the raccoons and T-shirts. However, this was only the tip of the iceberg.
“Bryce Llewellyn was the one that spearheaded [the] ‘takeaway chain’ idea — so we just combined that with the ‘MACcoon’ and then our ladder,” Creighton said on how the tradition made its way from Sickos Committee merchandise to the gridiron each Saturday.
Llewellyn, a starting defensive back for the Eagles, divulged that his idea for the MACcoon spawned from a preseason meeting when the program was looking to add some swag to the defensive side of the ball with a unique twist.
“One thing that I thought about instantly was a turnover chain, or like a turnover belt,” Llewellyn said.
“But one thing about Coach Creighton is he likes to be very unique in our approach — his thing was like, how many teams in the country have a turnover chain or turnover belt? What’s gonna make ours different; what’s gonna make ours special and mean something to us?” he added.
When Llewellyn heard about the viral YouTube comment, everything clicked.
“We were able to combine the gritty part of being in Ypsi and add the swagger to it with the chain — and then we climb the ladder and get to show off in front of the fans. It's one of the best parts of playing defense right now,” he said.
It took four games for the Eagles defense to force their first turnover of the season, but when they did, thanks to an interception from Llewellyn, the defensive unit officially debuted the MACcoon tradition: Llewellyn standing on a ladder and flashing a raccoon chain in front of the home fans.
The jewelry, ceremoniously dubbed the MACcoon chain, was a part of the “MACtion” football photo of the week on Sept. 25, 2025, featuring Eastern Michigan with defensive backs Caleb Dobbs and Dramarian McNulty spotlighted in the image, holding the precious cargo. The chain has now quickly become a rite of passage when the Eagles defense forces a turnover.
Barry Manning, a starting linebacker for the Eagles’ defense who has flashed the MACcoon twice this season, concurred with Llewellyn’s sentiments.
“It always feels good to have the MACcoon. Only have worn it twice, but am looking to make it as much as I can [the remainder of the season],” Manning said.
