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03/03 17:38 CST Florida coach Jon Sumrall's photoshoot with a 7-foot alligator
includes some tense moments
Florida coach Jon Sumrall's photoshoot with a 7-foot alligator includes some
tense moments
By MARK LONG
AP Sports Writer
GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) --- Florida coach Jon Sumrall has a new appreciation for
the gator chomp.
Sumrall got hissed at and snapped at while posing for promotional pictures with
a live alligator last week. It was enough to prompt Sumrall to backpedal like
his college playing days at Kentucky.
"I'm pretty certain I'd look like Chubbs from Happy Gilmore if the alligator
had gotten close to my hand," Sumrall joked Tuesday following his first spring
practice at Florida. "Yeah, that was cool, man."
A little nerve-racking, too.
"In my mind, I had this visual image of we're going to have like a little baby
alligator, like a 1-foot alligator you might see on a riverboat cruise in
Louisiana, mouth's taped," he said. "I walk up and there's this 7-foot
alligator.
"I'm like, ?Hang on. What am I doing here?' They're like, ?We're going to take
some pictures. You can get this close.' I'm like, ?Look, during COVID I wasn't
allowed to get this close to people. I don't know about an alligator.'"
The alligator was named Helena and was from a nearby gator farm. She may have
been relatively friendly, but she was far from trained. She walked in and out
of shots while Sumrall flipped a football --- and eventually turned on the
former Troy and Tulane head coach.
"As soon as I started to get kind of comfortable ... I'm like, ?All right, this
thing isn't going to do anything crazy, I don't think.' I get 4 or 5 feet away
and it starts to kind of hiss a little and it snaps," he said. "I'm like, ?What
the hell is going on? I'm out of here.'"
He didn't actually bail. Helena simmered down, and they got the photos done.
But it was an experience Sumrall won't soon forget.
"I'm not necessarily looking for when that's coming up on my schedule again,"
he said. "But it was a fun experience."
___
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