We're pretty sure that WBZ sports journalist Steve Burton is saying "See ya later, gator!" in a whole new light these days.
Last week, Burton hosted his "Sports Final" segment by bringing on wild animals (no, we're not sure why either). And while he handled other scary beasts, including a tarantula, scorpion and boa constrictor just fine, the alligator he was offered by Rainforest Reptile Shows handlers Joaney Gallagher and Michael Ralbovsky clearly had other ideas.
The gator encounter went went viral almost immediately after, with millions of views, comments, likes and retweets. In the video, Burton's holding the gator just fine, but things escalate quickly when he moves to hand it back. The gator starts thrashing and as he's urged to keep hold of the animal he keeps repeating, "I am! I am! I am!"
Ralbovsky told the Huffington Post that the gator was tired of being a TV star. "That clip doesn’t show the whole thing," he said. "It was a segment lasting five or 10 minutes and the gator didn’t want to be held anymore."
Meanwhile, as Burton noted later on in the program, "One thing's for sure. I'm never, ever going to live that alligator moment down."
Hey, we give him lots of credit for not busting out a lot of swear words. We're sure we would have!
Follow Randee Dawn on Twitter.