Things got weird on Tuesday’s Get Up when NFL analyst Harry Douglas, best known for his seven-year stint with the Atlanta Falcons, detailed a harrowing encounter he had with a snake that found its way into his home, going to extreme lengths to protect his children from the unwelcome reptile.
“I found a snake in my house a few years ago and I tortured that little sucker because he could have got to my kids,” said Douglas in response to a photo shared by college football writer Heather Dinich, who came across a snake while watering a house plant. “I lit him on fire, Greeny. So, if I was Heather, I would have poured gasoline on him and lit him on fire and got rid of him.”
https://twitter.com/awfulannouncing/status/1671250863292141569
You can’t blame Douglas for being skittish around snakes—it’s one of our most common phobias as human beings—though drenching it in gasoline, giving the slithery intruder a literal baptism by fire, is reckless, bordering on sociopathic behavior. While you have to admire Douglas’ commitment to keeping his kids safe, don’t be surprised if the former wide receiver finds a strongly-worded letter from PETA in his mailbox.
“That wasn’t what I expected at all,” said a flabbergasted Mike Greenberg, left speechless by the segment’s bizarre descent into animal cruelty. “See you tomorrow.”
“Don’t get Harry mad,” Alan Hahn quipped as the credits rolled, seeing his deranged colleague in a new light.
No reasonable person could possibly endorse Douglas’ fire and brimstone approach to snake elimination. Still, it made for a memorable—albeit deeply troubling—sign-off to ESPN’s flagship morning show amid one of the quieter periods on the sports calendar.
About Jesse Pantuosco
Jesse Pantuosco joined Awful Announcing as a contributing writer in May 2023. He’s also written for Audacy and NBC Sports. A graduate of Syracuse’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications with a master’s degree in creative writing from Fairfield University, Pantuosco has won three Fantasy Sports Writers Association Awards. He lives in West Hartford, Connecticut and never misses a Red Sox, Celtics or Patriots game.