Stanford’s palm tree mascot is its most horrifying yet

The Stanford tree is one of college football’s most unique mascots: It’s crazy and ugly and the person in charge of mascotting redesigns it each time. It’s wonderful.

Except the current edition of the Stanford tree. The current edition of the Stanford tree -- a palm tree, as opposed to the more traditional evergreen -- gives us nightmares.

Kirby Lee, USA Today Sports

That tongue! That tongue! Mascots shouldn’t have tongues! Mascots shouldn’t have enormous tonguey tongues that are coming to lick our faces off!

Let’s compare to past trees to hone in on what makes this terrifying:

The new mascot has:

1. Exposed legs and arms

2. An open mouth with a huge wobbly tongue

3. Eyes that don’t look like eyes.

We still love you and your tree Stanford, but tone down the nightmare fuel!