He felt a strange movement inside the helmet just after warm-ups, during an American football practice at Maumelle High School, Arkansas, on Thursday, August 6. The student immediately alerted the defensive coordinator, and when they finally checked the helmet, they found a cottonmouth snake about 60 centimeters long hidden beneath the padding. It had been there for nearly an hour, while he ran, collided, and sweated without knowing it.
Removing it was not easy: Maumelle Animal Services officials had to submerge the helmet in water to force it out. Chris Davis, director of the local animal service, was blunt: a bite probably would have been fatal. The cottonmouth is Arkansas’s second most venomous snake, and it often takes shelter in dark, enclosed spaces just like that.
In the end, the player did not suffer even a scratch. The snake was released alive in a forest far from the school, and the coach has already stepped up equipment checks before every practice.