Kansas City Chiefs undrafted free agent RB Carson Steele finished his college career with 648 carries for 3,294 yards and 26 touchdowns, but the most interesting thing about him didn't happen between the hash marks.
Steele grew up in Indiana, where once upon a time he was bestowed with an exotic pet — an alligator named Crocky-J whom he's raised since childhood.
"He's getting big now, he's about 4 or 5 feet probably," Steele told ESPN's Scott Van Pelt in 2022. "I've had him since I was little kid. We actually took him to school once for like show and tell for pets and stuff like that. All the kids had like cats and dogs and stuff they were bringing in, and I brought in Crocky-J."
Some rumors were floating around amongst Steele's new UCLA teammates last summer that Crocky-J had bit Steele's thumb off. He set the record straight on those rumors back in August.
It's easy to understand why those rumors got started, though. He told Los Angeles Times reporter Ben Bolch about an incident with Crocky-J and one of his friends when he was just a youngster.
“I don’t even know if my mom and dad know this one,” Steele said, “but when I was younger, I was trying to show him to my friends and something happened, one of my friends moved or something and I turned and looked the other way and he got me a little bit. That was the one time.”
Blood was drawn in that incident. Now, he's learned to handle the pet alligator with a bit more care and caution. When Steele transferred to UCLA, he didn't bring Crocky-J from Indiana because California requires a special license to own an alligator as a pet.
His decision to sign with the Chiefs as an undrafted free agent might not just be about an opportunity to play for the two-time Super Bowl champions. Missouri is one of just 12 states where owning a pet alligator without a license is legal, so long as Crocky-J remains under eight feet long. I'm not sure how one would go about transporting a five-foot-long and 95-pound alligator across state lines, but I'm sure he'll figure it out.
So, yeah, the Chiefs might be wise to keep Patrick Mahomes and every other teammate away from Steele's house when he ends up on the final roster. Otherwise, his teammates might end up missing an appendage or two.
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