“Weather Jocks” play in the pros, have passion for weather
Before Kansas City Royals starting pitcher Danny Duffy took the mound at Target Field on Opening Day Monday, he probably checked the Doppler on his smartphone.
“Some people would wake up and watch cartoons in the morning,” Duffy says. “I’d watch The Weather Channel. I was kind of a nerd.”
That's what Duffy tells Rustin Dodd of the Kansas City Star. A self-described weather "nerd" with a 90-mile per hour fastball? Duffy seems to love weather almost as much as he does pitching for the Royals. He also seems well-versed in the latest climate science.
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Duffy is just one of several pro athletes who love weather.
Kevin Durant and Mike Trout are also know to be among the weather-obsessed and super humanly physically gifted. Durant actually worked with Nike to develop his own line of weather shoes with Doppler radar images on them.
Nike Air "Weatherman" anyone?
Hall of Fame NBA superstar Michael Jordan always wanted to be a weatherman.
I went to college. I got my degree in coastal geography. Everybody wants to know: What’s coastal geography? Well, it’s an introduction to meteorology. I always wanted to be the weatherman.
Don’t laugh. It’s funny, but that’s what I really wanted to do.
So if I wasn’t playing basketball or baseball, I was gonna tell you what the weather’s going to be like tomorrow.
My morning with Walter Payton
I've had my own brush with pro athletes who loved the weather nearly as much as the sport they excelled at.
When I was working at WGN-TV in Chicago in the mid 90's, Chicago Bears Hall of Fame running back Walter Payton was on our WGN Morning News one morning for an interview. I asked him if he would like to do the weathercast with me. He smiled a sheepish smile and said yes. Walter told me how much he loved weather, and always wanted to do the weather on TV.
It was amazing to see an NFL superstar who rushed for 16,726 yards himself be even more amazed by doing a 3-minute weathercast on TV. The man they called "sweetness" was truly a very quiet and sweet man that day. And he was happy to be living out one of his life's dreams.