A recent article about the Hornets Mafia’s performance during the 2024 football season brought some uproar from the Mafia itself. The article by Noor Malo consisted of opinions that many Mafia members disagreed with.

“The first three names that were put into it were me [Dominik Rallo], Pellegrino Pescatore, and Sam Rallo,” Dominik Rallo, a member of the Mafia, said. “Pellegrino is not in the Mafia at all, so the facts were totally wrong.”

Malo’s critique of the chants Mafia invented were also met with dissent from members.

“We had plenty of chants,” Sam Rallo said. “It’s our job to hype up the players, not just the student section. If you want to be more involved, you have to involve yourself.” 

Devin Casey, another member, believes that Mafia should get more credit for the work they put into their skits and videos

“We’re really busy,” Casey said, “Some of us do outside sports so…the skits were usually done really late at night. We would go straight from our sports practices to film a video at midnight instead of doing our homework.”

Danny Hashim, the only football player interviewed in Malo’s article, felt that “[players] really cannot hear the student section at all” from the field. 

Mafia member and football player Matthew Jaffrey had a different opinion.

 “Mafia is out there doing their best and I did hear them cheering from the field,” Jaffrey said. “We [the players] don’t pay a lot of attention to the crowd because we’re out on the field–but looking up and seeing everyone there, cheering and using props, it’s nice.” 

Ryder McMurray, also a member of Mafia and the football team, wanted to cut the student section some slack. 

“We were losing by around 40 points at the homecoming game, so it wasn’t enjoyable for the fans,” McMurray said. “It was hard for the student section to have a good time because of how bad we were playing, not because of the Mafia.” 

Every member of Hornet’s Mafia was somewhat angry at the criticism in this article.

“Instead of backlash, regular advice would’ve been more helpful.” Ryder McMurray, another member, said. They also felt that these concerns could have been voiced to them during the season rather than after. 

“The article was a total shock,” Dominik Rallo said, “because we didn’t feel like we did anything wrong.”