Football players are just like the rest of us, with packed schedules, high-pressure jobs, and the kind of small day-to-day nuisances that can become big deals if allowed to grow.
Why just this week, Lions safety Louis Delmas had to give up his pet alligator Mojo, which had grown to six feet long.
“That gator ate my refrigerator dry,” Delmas joked, via Justin Rogers of MLive.com.
This whole thing started when former teammate Ernie Sims gave Delmas an alligator egg. And it did what alligator eggs do — hatched and grew into an alligator.
Of course, having what amounts to a small dinosaur wandering around one’s basement presents other challenges, especially if you have a roommate.
“I told him I couldn’t stay there with the gator there, so he had to make some adjustments for the New York City kid,” new wide receiver Kevin Ogletree said.
Delmas laughed and said Ogletree wouldn’t even approach the basement if he knew the alligator was down there (which makes Ogletree the brains of this operation).
“I wish he would have come down there and put his hand in there,” Delmas said. “He’ll be all right. He’s Ogletree. He’ll catch with one hand.”
A local pet store is housing the beast at the moment, which is probably good news for everyone, especially the roommate who doesn’t want to rely on one-handed catches the rest of his career.