It’s not snakes on a plane, it’s snake in a helmet: An Arkansas high school football player who felt something weird going on with his head, suspecting sweat or hair, had acquired a traveling companion. Team senior Darrick Strzelecki was bothered by an ongoing irritation with every play’s hit. He’s lucky another creature wasn’t overly irritated enough to bite.
When the high school senior took a practice break, he discovered the problem. There may be some bad locker room pranks but, despite the football player’s first thought of a practical joke, this wasn’t one of them. The running back thought it was rubber – and it is guessed to have come from the locker room -- but it was no rubber replica: The 10-inch to foot-long snake was very real, and jerked to prove it.
Someone killed it.
No word on species of the snake who prefers warm, cozy places like a dank locker room and sweaty helmet. The Gravette area school’s head football coach is apparently not a fan of serpents, poisonous or not. While the assistant coach reportedly says the snake appeared to be a non-venomous variety, the high school's head coach says: "All snakes are deadly in my book."
As for the football player, a snake in the helmet proved to be worth more than bad dreams: It apparently took minutes and massive courage to put that helmet back on for the remainder of team practice. The high school senior says: "When you have it [a live snake] crawling on your head, it freaks you out. It creeped me out. Even through the rest of [football] practice, it felt like the snake was still crawling on me."
He’s been dubbed "Snake Boy" by hissing teammates. It’s only high school. And it's a hell of a lot better than “Dead Boy”.