Florida's Jon Sumrall Recalls a Chilling Encounter with a 7-Foot Alligator During a Photo Shoot
GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Florida coach Jon Sumrall has a new appreciation for the gator chomp. While posing for promotional pictures with a live alligator, Sumrall was hissed at and snapped at, prompting him to recall 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."
But it was also a little nerve-racking. "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, named Helena, 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."
This chilling encounter with a 7-foot alligator has left Sumrall with a new appreciation for the gator chomp. But it also raises the question: how safe is it to get this close to an alligator? And what should we do if we find ourselves in a similar situation? Let us know in the comments below.
