A former gameday employee of the New York Rangers is suing the team and its parent company, MSG Sports, for workplace discrimination, stemming from alleged misconduct by a superfan who regularly appears on the Madison Square Garden video screen during home games.<\/p>\n
The lawsuit was filed on Monday in the Supreme Court of the State of New York by Miranda Tyson, a former member of the Blue Crew, a hype team of MSG employees that appears at Rangers home games and promotional events. The suit, a copy of which was obtained by The Athletic, alleges that Tyson and \u201cother non-male members of the Blue Crew were subjected to a pattern of persistent and unwelcome physical contact\u201d during segments involving \u201cDancing Larry.\u201d<\/p>\n
Though the suit refers only to his nickname, Dancing Larry is Larry Goodman \u2014 a New Jersey resident who has been a mainstay at Rangers games since 1996. Goodman is not named as a defendant in the lawsuit.<\/p>\n
In the middle of the third period of every Rangers home game, in an attempt to pump up the crowd, the Blue Crew flanks Goodman in the stands while he ritually dances to the same song, \u201cStrike It Up\u201d by Black Box. The suit alleges that Tyson faced physical contact from Goodman that was \u201cfrequent and severe\u201d and included \u201cfirmly touching and grabbing their heads, necks, shoulders, backs, arms, and hands.\u201d<\/p>\n
The suit, first reported by The Independent, adds that other Blue Crew members alleged more egregious conduct, \u201cincluding Larry spitting into people\u2019s mouths.\u201d<\/p>\n
Goodman has continued to perform throughout the 2025-26 season, including at both games last weekend.<\/p>\n
Goodman did not reply to an online message sent Tuesday evening. He posted on his Instagram story early Wednesday morning: \u201cRANGERS-Sabres tonight at the GARDEN!!! Lets do this!\u201d<\/p>\n
Bhavleen Sabharwal, Tyson\u2019s lawyer, did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t comment on employee or legal matters,\u201d an MSG Sports spokesperson said in a statement to The Athletic.<\/p>\n
MSG Sports hired Tyson to the Blue Crew in 2021. Tyson felt reluctant to report Goodman\u2019s conduct, especially as a rookie, for fear of risking their job, the suit says. In March 2024, though, they decided to act by emailing their direct supervisor.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I first joined the team in 2021, I heard from the vets that there was an ongoing problem with working with Larry: his insistence on touching us,\u201d the email said, per the lawsuit. It continues, \u201cLarry has, in my time here, with me alone, firmly touched (and in some cases grabbed) my head, neck, shoulder, back, arms, and hands.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tyson also told management that \u201cevery time we return from \u2018Dancing Larry,\u2019 more than one person assigned to it laments an unwanted interaction.\u201d They also said they were not requesting to be removed from the Dancing Larry segment.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat would not solve the problem \u2014 that would simply put another victim of persistent, unwelcome physical conduct that interferes with their ability to do their job in my place,\u201d they wrote in the email. \u201cI am saying that MSG has a responsibility to step in and address this textbook sexual harassment from one of its most recognizable personalities.\u201d<\/p>\n
Goodman was temporarily pulled from his Dancing Larry segment at Rangers home games, per the suit, but returned after a human resources investigation late in the 2023-24 NHL season. Human resources told Tyson the alleged harassment \u201cshould not happen again\u201d and instructed them to report it if it did, the suit said.<\/p>\n
After a February 2025 game, Tyson alleged Goodman placed the \u201cfull palm on the small of (their) back\u201d in a report to their supervisor. The Dancing Larry segment continued, the lawsuit says, but Tyson was excluded from participating.<\/p>\n
Tyson was not scheduled again for the Dancing Larry segment that season, the lawsuit says. That August, Tyson\u2019s supervisor emailed to say that they were not selected to return for the 2025-26 season, inviting them to try out again the next year.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe timing and pretextual nature of this decision are undeniable,\u201d the suit reads. \u201cAfter nearly four years of consistently positive reviews, stellar performance, and recent praise for taking on leadership roles during the Knicks playoff events, Defendants\u2019 sudden decision not to rehire Mx. Tyson \u2014 just five months after they complained about sexual harassment and then reported the blatant retaliation that followed \u2014 is transparently pretextual.\u201d<\/p>\n
The suit seeks both compensatory and punitive damages.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A former gameday employee of the New York Rangers is suing the team and its parent company, MSG…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":594161,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,3617,575,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-594160","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-new-york-rangers","11":"tag-nhl","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=594160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594160\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/594161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=594160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=594160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=594160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}