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DAILY REVIEW (Hayward, California) 27 November 04 Raider recalls 'death match' - In college, Cooper was in a tight squeeze with his pet anaconda (Bill Soliday)
When you're a college student, owning snakes can be cool. If you're a football player who considers himself a tough customer, even better.
Until the snake tries to kill you.
That's what Raiders' linebacker/safety Jarrod Cooper says happened to him four years ago at Kansas State.
When a traveling reptile show went through the area and Cooper got a look at a brightly colored yellow anaconda, it just had to be -- a story of a boy and his snake.
So he sought out a breeder, paid $200 for the 10-foot snake and named his new friend "Bites." It wasn't a particularly apt name for a constrictor, but it fit the anaconda's personality. Bites was not a particularly amiable reptile.
A better name for Bites would have been "Julius Squeezer." Constrictors being what they are, they know how to do one thing. Squeeze.
Which Bites did, as Cooper will not soon forget.
"I went home from practice one day to change the water," Cooper said. "I had left him in the bathtub and was going to put him back in his tank. When I reached into the tub to drain the water, he jumped out and bit the collar of my shirt."
Next thing Cooper knew, Bites was wrapped around his neck and giving his windpipe what for.
"I thought I was going to die," Cooper said.
He ran to the kitchen, found a knife and decided the only thing to do was to saw Bites into bite-sized pieces before the air gave out.
"Fortunately, my hand was between my neck and him, but it kept getting tighter and tighter," Cooper said.
He might have aimed for the head area, only wrapped up in a reptilian choke hold as he was, he had trouble locating Bites' head.
"I had no idea (where the head was)," said Cooper, who continued to saw. "I was just trying to cut something. I cut about halfway through him. He was bleeding all over the place. And he was mad."
Imagine that. Eventually the snake let go but had proven himself wholly untrustworthy. So, the coup de grace called for extreme action.
"I just beat it with a frying pan and killed it," Cooper said.
Is that any way to treat a friend?
"Well, he was never a friend," Cooper said. "This thing was mean. I only handled him two or three times and only with gloves on. He was a rough little snake."
After the reptilian homicide, Cooper went to practice. He said he was nervous about returning to the house, so he took some teammates, who got a real visual treat when the door swung open.
"The snake had squirmed all over the place, there was blood on the floor, and it looked pretty gory," Cooper said.
Ah, but he had been such an attractive beast.
"The colors, they're really pretty," he said of his snake habit that had him at one time owning a half dozen. "I keep them as art."
He is swearing off snakes, though.
"Just fish now," he said.
Piranha, no doubt.
"I had some, but I got rid of those because they're dirty," he said. "I don't like dirty tanks, especially in the main room of your house. So I had to get them out."
Raider recalls 'death match' - In college, Cooper was in a tight squeeze with his pet anaconda

Typical irresponsible snake owner. This is the kind of person that gets snakes banned. Any responsible large snake owner would know not to handle a large aggressive snake alone and have a plan in case an "accident" happens. Pouring alcohol or Coke in it's mouth will usually stop the feeding response.

>>Typical irresponsible snake owner. This is the kind of person that gets snakes banned. Any responsible large snake owner would know not to handle a large aggressive snake alone and have a plan in case an "accident" happens. Pouring alcohol or Coke in it's mouth will usually stop the feeding response.

Really? Pouring alcohol in my mouth usually makes me eat more.
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