It's time for coffee and company, fueled by Thornton's on Sports Talk seven nine
day. Now here's Nick Coffee, Well not exactly Nick Coffee. I like
say, I'm the substitute teacher here, and that is I'm Scott Fitzgerald along
with John Alden making life fun for you on your way home. It's hot
out and John not gonna talk a little bit about what you do in the
heat out there and now you keep yourself cool. I just am excited every
time I can go home and my ac is still running. So that's my
anxiety point there, John, we had to replace ours just last year.
It was charable. Oh it's off days where we'd get the temperature in the
house would get into the mid eighties and we're like, this is this is
not doable this day and age right, right, dude, that's my anxiety.
Now. We bought a good system and I've got a great mechanic knocking
on this fake for Micah that we know that goes to our parish and he
takes care of us and says we're in good shape for a little bit,
so hopefully that holds true. We're gonna talk a little bit about dealing with
the heat. We're gonna check in. Also, lots of sporting events going
on right now. We've got Euro twenty twenty four, We've got Spain and
Italy. I think they're just about wrapping up. We'll talk about that,
We'll talk about the Travelers. We'll see how Justin Thomas is doing big,
big doings in Major League Baseball. Tonight we'll check in on that. But
one of the things I love about doing this show is I love talking to
people in sports and not necessarily the x's and o's, and as we mentioned
at the top of this show, and I'm a big fan of TikTok.
It's not a bad thing. It's okay. I ran across somebody on TikTok
who not only is a great entertainer, but also does something with I love
that is they talk about football helmets. I'm a Uni geek. I love
Uni watching football, and I had a chance to catch up with this gentleman.
Here's my conversation with them here on Sports Talk seven ninety. Well,
you know, if you listen to the show, I'm a big fan of
TikTok. It occupies my commercial breaks while I'm home on the couch and I
stumbled on this guy because he's he's got helmets, and he's got a lot
of them, and now he's my go to it is Tom Elmery joins us
now and Tom, what a great collection of helmets. And first of all,
greetings to you. Thanks for taking time to talk to us, Thanks
for having me on. It's always a pleasure to talk football helmets, and
you know I'm addicted to them. How in the world did you get started
on TikTok in your love of football helmets, because I see your followers are
increasing every day. Yeah. The funny thing is it kind of started around
the pandemic a little bit, like a lot of things did, where I
had a lot of my helmets in boxes in the basement because I had moved
to Michigan from Colorado. I'm originally from the state of Michigan, and things
were slow, and of course broadcasting was difficult. We were doing a lot
of stuff remotely on the play by play guy for Eastern Michigan, and so
I started taking the helmets out of boxes. And then you know, the
kids were doing TikTok stuff and they're like, Dad, you should make a
TikTok or something, and so I sat with a helmet and did a TikTok,
and when I woke up the next morning, there were like tens of
thousands of views, and people were jumping on and tell me about this helmet,
tell me about that helmet. And then here here we are, now
over three hundred thousand, and I'm doing things with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and
other teams, and it's a lot of fun. Oh, it looks fun.
And your helmets look really good back there, Tom, And so what
I'm gonna ask you first, when you look back to what got you first
into helmets? What was the first helmet that caught your eye? Well,
it was funny, and it was you know, I always liked Bucko Bruce
the Tampa Bay Buccaneers helmet, and I have a Leroy Silman autographed helmet,
and the first video I ever did, I was sitting with that and I
was just saying, Hey, the NFL is gonna let teams wear more than
one helmet this year. And then someone said, hey, I see a
Lion's helmet behind you. What's the story there? So I did the history
of the Lions, and then NFL teams started reaching out, like, tell
our history, and that's how it kind of grew. And then when I
got done with the NFL, I'm like, let's start with colleges. So
that's what we've been doing, rolling through universe. I say we I'm the
only guy. I'm a one man band. But started rolling through all these
universities and it's been great. I learned something new every time I do a
school, and it's fascinating the history of teams. And it's been more fun
for me than it has been anybody else because I'm learning all these things,
like, oh, that's why they're the South Carolina Gamecock, so that's why
the Clemson Tiger Paul looks that way, or it's just fascinating stuff. You
were talking with Tom Helmer. You can follo him on TikTok. He does
some fascinating helmet talk and Tom before TikTok, it seemed like there were a
lot of YouTube sites people were refurbishing helmets themselves and buying the decals. Do
you get into that at all or is this just kind of looking at the
helmets themselves. I don't get into that, and I do follow some guys
that do that, and it's amazing and I'm somewhat jealous when they take a
helmet and they build it all up and do it that way. I'm not
artistic. I'm not good at putting stickers on helmets, so I'm trying to
stay in my lane. But that stuff's pretty fascinating, and I'm more amazed
at how many people like football helmets and the stories behind him. I thought,
when I did this, I'm gonna do it for my own entertainment because
I'm bored, I'm at home. You know, maybe I'll learn something as
I go along. If somebody watches, great, if not, whatever,
But it's been kind of fascinating how many people are into it. In fact,
I was on a flight this morning and the guy next to me goes,
aren't you the helmet guy? And I go yeah, he goes,
hey, I love your videos. I'm like, unbelievable. That's what I
did. I stumbled on you and I immediately reached out to you. Now,
where can folks find you? On TikTok Tom It's called hooked on Helmets
And if you don't have TikTok, I push a lot of the videos to
YouTube, same name hooked on Helmets all one word, that's awesome. Okay,
and looking at your helmets behind you, you look, we look about
the same age I grew up. Of course. Now is he Bruce the
Bucco? Is that what we're calling him now the Tampa it's Buco Bruce Bruce
originally and Lamar Sparkman was an artist for the Tampa Tribune and he actually sketched
it all out for Tampa Bay and they made that the logo. So there's
a history there. Obviously they've change their look quite a bit with the pewter
helmets and the flag on ever there. But there's so much artistic you know,
integrity. I don't know what the word is, but and I'm trying
to find the helmet behind me. Such a collection it is, yeah,
but I mean I just like it with the sword and the mouth and the
look and the colors and everything like that. It's a beautiful look. It
was interesting when when the Buccaneers had me down, they pointed out to me,
you know, we wore our road unis the entire first year as a
franchise. They never wore the creamsickle jerseys that entire first year. They only
wore all whites with the helmet and then the Creamsickle came on, and then
for a while they tried to distance themselves from that look because that era was
such bad football for Tampa Bay. But now it's we kind of come to
this Polk classic and people love that look. Now they want to see it
rolled out at home. I don't think they'll ever roll it out at home
because the Buccaneers and their fans feel very protective of that look. They're like,
we want to wear that at home with our creamsickle. But they they
love that look now. Well, you being from Michigan, you know when
the Lions played the Buccaneers last year, and boy, that looked like an
old school eighties matchup back from the sombrero. I mean that was a nice
look, and I can certainly appreciate, you know, Tampa fans, Look,
those are some ugly years. Let's try not to come back there.
I'm looking at your helmets behind you and being an NFC North formerly NFC Central
kind of guy, that Viking's helmet looks really good with the gray face mask
and you have the It almost is like the Viking horn is bigger than what
it is on the current helmets that they have. They have changed yet almost
touches in the back. They've played with the horn a little bit, they've
played with the paint color, and of course they're rolling out a new helmet
this year that's all white. For the first time in franchise history, they're
going with a white helmet. They're also going to have a silver center stripe.
They've never had a center stripe on a Viking helmet before, and there's
no gold anywhere in the uniform. They've never done that either. So they're
calling it their Winter Warrior look. They're going to wear it against the Bears
in December in a home game. And of course the commenters on TikTok are
like, you're indoors and you're calling yourself Winter Warriors. But it's interesting how
our teams are branching out and going with different looks. We just saw the
Ravens put out a new look a day or two ago, and a lot
of people said, well, really, it looks like the Washington Huskies,
but they've gone with a different lid of purple lit. They've only had a
black helmet in the entirety of the Ravens franchise. In fact, they've only
had two helmets. They had the first one they probably still have if they
didn't get sued by the guy who originally made the logo, so they transitioned
out of that, tried to wash that away, and have had one look
since nineteen ninety nine. Tom Helmer's joining us. He is the helmet guy.
You can followhim on TikTok phonem on YouTube. He's got an amazing collection.
His videos are awesome. I stumbled on him. He tells a story
like no Weather. Got to ask you, Tom, what we have you?
Which one do you prefer? The Tampa Old School or pat the Patriot
Patriot Pats and other beautiful one. I'll tell you my three favorite NFL helmets
Houston Oilers, oh yeah, and Bucko Bruce because I just the colors,
the look, all of it's beautiful. I like to say, I'm like
Jesus, I love them all. I love all helmets because they all have
a story, they all have a great look. Cleveland Brown's whatever, you
know, The Cleveland Browns are the color they are because of Bowling Green.
Oh that's right, now, that makes sense. Yeah, they went over
there for training camp and Paul Brown saw a jersey hanging in the hallway and
this is when the Browns were trying to figure out who they're going to be
and they go, those are our colors, and wow, Cleveland Browns are
their colors because of Bowling Green University. I did not know that. That's
interesting Now I'll never look at that the same way. What do you make
of the LF logo though? Should you slap that on a helmet or just
keep it the same? I mean, you know, you're kind of like
Penn State, right, you just stay true to your look for the most
part. For Cleveland getting out of the box, they're gonna wear a white
face mask this year, so they're just they're going crazy with a white face
mask, you know. So well, you know, put the elphone on
there. It's make some changes, play with it a little bit. Let
me ask you this again, talking with Tom Helmer. He's a helmet guy
through and through. You can see him on TikTok, you can see him
on YouTube. Let me ask you this, Tom, in this day and
age, when we're all trying to make the different colors, obviously, because
it's marketable, you put out in New Jersey, folks are going to want
to buy the New Jersey. We're seeing it with City connects when it comes
to Major League Baseball. You're a Michigan guy. You look at the different
uniform commos of Michigan. Do you approve them mixing up the uniforms at home
or should they stick to the traditional look. I like the traditional look,
but I understand it. I understand why teams you're really marketing to eighteen year
old as a team, you're trying to impress the guys you want to play
there. There's the legacy, there's all that stuff. But it was interesting
because I talked to a friend who worked at Nike in Oregon, and I
talked to him about all the uniform combinations they have, and they said a
lot of alumni were furious with the way we play with the uniforms. We
said, we're not making them for the alumni, making them for the players.
And Oregon will bring four or five seniors every year on campus to the
Nike campus and they go, what do you want? What do you want
to do here? And they kind of create it and it's become Oregon's things.
So while I'd always like to see Michigan at home in the blue jerseys
and the gold pants, I get it when they wear the all blues or
different stuff, and they're trying to market but it's hard. Like Michigan,
it's hard. You can't play with that winged helmet. Really, wait,
what are you going to do to make that different? You have one of
the most classic helmets in college football. You don't want to tamper with that
too much. Talking with Tom Helmer, follow him. You can see his
helmets during every one of his videos. Tom, when I'm looking at your
helmets back there, do you again? You and I look about the same
age. Remember the buttercups right L had in the helmets As far as the
padding was concerned. Do any of your helmets have that in that or those
just all kind of have the new padding in them now? Some have,
like the the Carl Eller Vikings one, Oh wow, mansion kind of in
there like they did back in the day. You have the actual padding.
I got a Michigan helmet here that well, it's got the bar across,
it's got some of the padding in there. But it's interesting even as you
know, when I was down with the Buccaneers and they let me in the
equipment room, which is always a no no because I'll be in there all
day. But we're talking they got to run two different combinations of helmets.
They're going to have ninety guys in training camps, so they got to have
about two hundred helmets. And the way they're doing NFL helmets now, those
are two grand a pop. Wow. They're scanning heads and making these fitted
helmets. So every helmet's two grand. So two grand times two hundred,
that's your helmet budget now for an NFL team. So when you look at
these college teams that are trying to roll out different combinations, it's one thing
if you're just changing stickers on a helmet color, but when you have different
colors and running different combinations, the price tag goes up in a hurry.
Oh I bet it does again. Tom Helbert joining us, fall him on
TikTok, fall him on YouTube. He's the helmet guy. If you love
helmet, you love his website. I see the all black Falcons helmet back
there. That has to be one of my favorite Tom because one of my
favorite players all time in the NFL is Deon Sanders, and I actually flew
down to Miami the year that he played for the Braves and then flew down
and then they played the Dolphins in that game. And I love that look
by the Falcons, brought to us by of course the great Jerry Glanville.
I love that look. Landville introduced that all black. Now, you know,
when the Falcons started, originally they had some gold in the center stripe.
And that's because when they originally made their helmets and were black and red,
Georgia Tech fans were upset. They it looks too much like the Georgia
Bulldogs, and you guys are in Atlanta and we're Georgia Tech. So they
added some gold to the helmet to try and a pease the Georgia Tech fans.
So that's why the old school Atlanta Falcons and now the throwbacks they were
have that gold in there because Georgia Tech said, you can't have all Georgia
colors and be in this town. You got to put some gold in that
uniform. I did not know that. And of course the other helmets you
have up there, one of the more iconic helmets no longer worn in the
NFL to Washington and I'll say their name, the Redskins. I mean,
what an iconic look that was in the National Football League. They and I
see a Raiders' helmet. There probably the two most recognizable helmets at least.
Here's the interesting thing a lot of people don't know about the Washington Redskins helmet.
That isn't just a Native American they just drew out of thin air.
That is John two guns white Calf, who was very influential as far as
Native American culture and working with Congress in DC to make sure that Native Americans
were taken care of. So Originally, before that they had the yellow helmet
with the R on it. This one right here, this helmet was designed
by Vince Lombardi. Lombardi was the GM and a coach briefly for the Redskins.
He designed this helmet and then passed away before they ever wore it in
a game. But they had this helmet. And then there was a guy
named mister Wetzel who was of the black Feet tribe, and he flew to
DC and he said, listen, if you guys are going to be the
Redskins, we would love it if you would put an actual warrior on the
helmet. Here's our chief, John two guns white Calf, and there's a
profile picture of him, and the Redskins copied that exactly and put him on
the helmet. So there's actually quite a few Native Americans that are upset that
he's not on the helmet anymore because that represented their culture and that was a
real individual. So it's been interesting for the Washington commanders now because I don't
think they're going to stay that name, but they're working on transitioning into something
different. But it's a real person that was on that helmet for all those
years. That's what I'm saying. When you fall, Tom, you learn
stuff like this. I did not know that. Tom, just a couple
questions. I know you're busy and we'll let you go, but I could
talk to you all day about this. I see that Buffalo Bill's helmet behind
you. Do you think the Bills go back to the red helmet. The
interesting thing about the Buffalo Bills is their initial colors were blue and silver,
and the reason was because they got some hand me down uniforms from the Detroit
Lions when they started up as a franchise, So they were getting the lions
old stuff and wearing that the red helmet too. There was a rumor that
they switched to red because their quarterback at the time was colorblind and everybody in
the division had a white helmet. It turned out to not be a true
story. They did go for the red for a while, and then Josh
Allen actually came out in a red helmet at training camp last year. One
day. Everybody went nuts. But they have not gone back to the red
helmet. But there's a lot of Buffalo Bills fans that love that lid,
you know. Again, wrapping up here with Tom Helmer real quick, one
of the team. I wanted to talk about Tom, and I'm warming up
slowly to the new Dolphins logo. I think it looks like an airline tail
logo. To be honest with you, I was a big fan of the
old logo when it comes to uniforms, and I know you're a helmet guy,
but when the Dolphins put on that old school Dolphin logo and they wear
the black cleats, that is amazing to me. That is just a great
look. And maybe it's part of my but I like the black cleat look.
I like the black cleak too. It takes you back, like el
of a sudden, it's Larry's anka. You're going back to some of those
days. Maybe I actually have a larry' zanka helmet back here somewhere. The
interesting thing about the Dolphins logo is that the guy that created that logo is
the same one that created the you for the University of Miami. Same guy
did the artwork for both, and so he's pretty famous as far as yes,
floridago create two different iconic logos. So I think that's a pretty interesting
story. But yeah, the Dolphins logo, I like it. It's been
tweaked more than you think over time. And if you go down onto my
page on Hooketown helmets and look back and go through all the NFL stuff,
you'll you'll realize a lot of helmets initially were done by newspaper artists. Patriot
pat you brought up earlier. Yeah, that was a thing where the Boston
Globe goes, hey, they're gonna name themselves the Boston Patriots. We need
artwork on this for tomorrow's paper. And a cartoonist at the Boston Paper drew
Patriot pat in about a forty five minute span, and then when the Patriots
saw it in the paper, they decided that should be the logo that was
on the helmet. That's such a fresh logo. You just do you see
it and you immediately know you're either thinking Steve Grogan, maybe Jim Plunkett if
you're a little older than me. But so let me ask you last question
for you, Tom, and that is when you see teams that wear the
old school unis and then the other team doesn't do it, do you think
maybe both teams should wear those together. I would like to see that.
You know, if you're gonna have a little bit of nostalgia in the game,
let's go back to nineteen eighty or let's go back in time a little
bit and enjoy the matchups there. Like you talked about the Lions playing against
Tampa Bay. You know, the Lions used to have kind of these glittery
silver numbers back in the day with Billy simms like if you're gonna go down
and play them in the cream sickles, let's pop on the white jerseys with
the glittering numbers, the silver pants, let's get after it. Let's go
back to the old school Lion that was just blue yes inside right, Like,
let's let's enjoy a little bit of nostalgia with the game. But it's
interesting in going through the helmets too. Somebody said, what are you gonna
do when you run out of helmets? I go, I'm not right.
New helmets collagen pro all the time. The evolution is exploded. So if
anything, we're kind of in this golden era that's taking off of helmets where
it's new stuff all the time. Well, and your you have your finger
on the pulse, you know, Tom, It's just amazing to be able
to talk to you. I watch you on TikTok. You can follow along
give us their handles again on YouTube and TikTok. Hooked on helmets, that's
all you got to look for. You can find me on YouTube and TikTok,
and I probably have one hundred and fifty videos out right now. On
TikTok. You can get the entire NFL history on there. I'm updating helmets
and we're plowing through colleges as we go. Be careful because it's addictive.
I'm just telling you, Tom, that's what we want. That's right.
Appreciate you, buddy, Have a good I guess the rest of the summer
we'll be talk and I'm sure more during football season. Anytime have me on
any time, It's been a pleasure. Oh and welcome back. Boy.
It is hot. It is hot, hot, hot out there. Good
afternoon. I'm Scott Fitzgerald. It is John Alden, working heavy and hard
in the control room as we're keeping trying to keep you cool here. It
is I will say this, though it's cold in this studio. Oh really,
I'm cold, dude. They keep mine pretty temperate. Yeah, well
they locked these down so you can't play with them. And John and I
were just having a conversation off the air. Over about three years ago.
I lost about eighty ninety even some will argue close to one hundred pounds,
and after losing that weight, the heat doesn't bother me as much as it
used to it. I don't like it, but it doesn't bother me as
much as it used to. And it's been chilling here. It says seventy
one. But you know, I'm finding myself. You know, I'm rubbing
the hands together in here, and that's a good problem to have. Giving
out hot it is out there. I'm Scott Fitzgerald, filling in for the
vacationing Nick Coffee. He's gonna be out for the next couple days. We're
gonna be with you through tomorrow. Just getting a break, you can listen
in the mornings. I'm on with Tony Cruz from five to nine doing sports.
Don't don't get quite as much chance to talk in the morning, not
by choice. I think if Tony had his way, I could, he'd
probably had me jump in there every segment with him. But it's just,
you know, you're in that that in between time when you're trying to prepare
sports and trying to run a show, and you're trying to communicate with people
around the world and coordinate stuff, and don't always get the chance to chime
in with Tony there. So I'd love to talk more, but you just
you gotta do what you gotta do. Speaking up before we get to talk
about this heat, John, I just want to get you caught up on
a couple of things, some local things sports wise, our own Justin Thomas
is playing in the Travelers. He finished the day two under to minus sixty
eight in the first round. That leaves him tied for twenty seventh, so
not bad after he shot that awful eleven over last weekend. And talking basketball,
John, I don't know, not a lot of people know this storyline,
but former Miss Kentucky basketball finalists out of Sacred Heart Academy. So Kaya
Johnson. She plays for Team USA is Under eight team as Under eighteen team,
as does Bethlehem's Leah Macy. Johnson dropped ten points yesterday. Lea Macy
dropped eight points. It's all part of the America Cup in Columbia. Team
USA one and I'm not making the score up, dude one fifteen to twenty
one, fifteen to twenty As the top team from Group A, Johnson,
Edwards and tam USA are moving on to the quarterfinals. They are averaging bro
just almost one hundred and five points per game and their average margin of victory
is well over seventy three points through three games. That is, and those
are their future basketball stars. And they're coached by Terry Moren and I you,
by the way, oh yeah shot Terry Moran. A yes, So
underappreciate just a couple of local sports stories. I wanted to relay to folks
that they may not know about it, and that's what we try to do
in the mornings on HAS. I mean, it's easy to regurgitate the same
soundbites and that the nash No media does. But we got a lot of
good local stories going on here, as we heard from Jeff Melby talking about,
of course Louse City and what they did, and they're outstanding new folks
in their new talent, especially with racing Louisville and just the organic talent that's
grown in Jensen Wilson is the name I was thinking of out of e town.
So long story short, we got a lot of good local stories and
we'll talk more about those tomorrow. So John, what do you do?
Just stay cool? Bro? What do you do? Man? Are you
staying cool? Obviously you mentioned the h VAC, the ac, that kind
of stuff. That's as long as you got that lockdown, you're doing pretty
good inside the house. Yeah, obviously, if you've got a family member,
or even if you've got one of these at your own house, if
you've got a pool, this is the prime time season to get in the
pool. And I'll tell you what. This may not be the best way
to stay cool, but it's one of my favorite ways to relax this timing
year. Is a hot tub. I love a good old fashioned swim spot
slash hot tub. Give me some jets, give me, give me something,
massage in my back. I'm feeling pretty good on a summer night.
Really, that's interesting. The heat doesn't bother you being in the hot tub
and then having hair outside. There are certain temperatures maybe this week is one
of those, one of those times where I would maybe hesitate to stay in
a little bit longer. But if you've got one of those units, and
I don't have one of these, but I do have my in laws do
have one of these. If you've got one of those hot tubs where you
can turn the temperature down to make it almost just more comfortable for this time
of year, that's the way to go. In my opinion, I think
you're right. You know, it's funny every year I go through this with
my car. I'm one of those I like cars. I love cars.
I love Nascar, I love Formula One, I love Indie. But when
it comes to buying a car, I don't need, you know, a
luxury item. So I usually go in the cheap end. When I'll buy
a brand new car, but it'll be cheap. It'll have AC, it'll
have a heat, it'll have a radio, all that good stuff. But
I don't need something to keep me, you know, I don't need the
latest and greatest. Well, inevitably, every car I own. It's that
magical point where the AC gives out. Oh, and that's mine just gave
out like a week before. This heat had bad timing, you know.
And but to be honest with you again, since I lost the weight,
it doesn't really bother me. And I don't spend a lot of time in
my car. But so I was looking and I saw something that they had,
and I've been mean to get to one of my favorite auto places.
It's like a do it yourself thing. I think it just needs to be
recharged, and I think there's something that that I can either. Yeah,
there's something that I can get. I was looking at it here, some
sort of refrigerate. I don't even know if it's gonna work. I gotta
stop in there and find out. But it's one of those things I keep
telling myself, I'm gonna I'm gonna get it, and I never do,
and so I just endure it. I rolled the windows down, and and
it's true, especially and you're you're you're primarily commuting in the overnight hours.
Why the sun's not out right, I kind of enjoy that fresh air as
you're driving into you know, driving downtown. So maybe it's some more bearable
for you. It is, it is, and and you know it was
worse, Like I said when I was heavier. That what's interesting is,
you know, I just I worry so much about my ac going home,
but I also have to accept the fact there's nothing I can do. It
goes out. I gotta get it repaired. Yeah, you get it fixed.
Nobody likes the extreme temperature zone. Nobody likes extreme cold. I really
do you remember when we had the polar vortex that year. I feel like
over the past few years we've had a couple What's weird about the winters we've
had in Louisville, at least in the past five or ten years. They're
not super long, but there's usually one, maybe two weeks where it gets
to the unbearable point. People don't know how to act, and that's just
the way things roll in this part of the country. But I think it
was not this past Christmas, but the Christmas before where they had people like
you and a few of our other news guys on standby. Maybe maybe did
you even come in. I think it was around Christmas that I don't know
if it was actually Christmas Day, but it was around that time. A
year or it got pretty unbearable. Yeah, it's that's one of the things.
That's the thing with this gig. My wife says every time she's over
it. Now she just knows it used to be when I first started,
because you can't go driving in that it's it's you gotta go. And I
mean I was when COVID hit. There were like three people. In fact,
I still have the card in my wallet. I Heart issued us a
special hazard card. Did you get what? I never saw I was furloughed,
but I did have a card. You got a card? Yeah,
right before the furlough, they gave me one of those hazard cards and then
a nice relic to have because they literally thought they were going to shut the
streets down. Yes, they literally, and you were gonna have like checkpoints
to have cards to get through. So you know, I was here all
through COVID. I I've been here through some of the worst. I mean
there were times I didn't tell my wife this, and she doesn't listen to
the station, so I won't bother her, but there were I don't usually
get too freaked out about driving in snow or thunderstorms or anything like that,
and part of that was living in Michigan. I mean, I've drove through
some crazy snowstorms, but there were a couple of times when I came in
I was like, Okay, I don't know if this is going to happen,
and maybe this was a bad choice on my part, and but we
made it. But when we had the polar vortex that was the year our
house was popping. It was so cold, I mean so cold. I
mean we had seen temperatures that were fifty sixty below. And I just at
the time, I had a really old car. It takes a lot for
me to buy a new car. So I just remember not only was my
aic out, but my heat had gone out. Oh man. So luckily
enough, I for my days in the Navy, I still had my old
pea coat. And if you've not seen an authentic navy pea coat, these
things are amazing. They are the thickest thing. They will keep you warm.
I just remember, here's when we're in a bitch of Blane and I
was coming down the Waterson and I remember wrapping the flaps of my pea coat
or foat just to stay warm. And if that wasn't the kicker, there
was an electrical short in my car and my headlights went out. Oh my
gosh. Now the nice thing was nobody's on the road in the morning,
and so I was able to get it. So at that point I did
finally break down by the way, and I just told my mother, I
said, I think I need a new car, and and we went and
got it. But you get into these weather extremes, and the important thing
is it's a lot of it's mental. A lot of it's just keeping your
wits about you, you know, don't get too stressed out. My wife,
my wife has seasonal defective disorder. If it's cold, her mood is
off. Now the heat will alter my mood sometimes, but not crazy like
I'll get not unmotivated. But I certainly look at when I looked down at
my phone in the in the lky weather app, I look at it and
it says straight nineties for the next week and a half. And I'm like,
I'd say, what it does to me? And it's not so much
seeing it, but like, for example, this past week in Father's Day,
you spend a lot of time outside. That was one of the first
days of it being that hot. Yes, the next day, the next
morning, I was so drained from all of the sun and heat exposure that
I was physically exhausted, and it was it was so much more harder,
Yeah, getting out of bed compared to the past several days. That's exactly
right. It is. It's very hard. And you look at it and
you go, man, and then and then once it's here, then you're
like, okay, we're in it. Now, let's let's just make this
happen. But you know, I know in the in the mornings, when
I get up to your point to get up about two in the morning,
you walk out and the garage door opens and you're like it just hitch in
a face, like it's the mugginess now, right, we're in the midst
of the humidity, and yeah, the swamp the swampiness. Well, and
I'm lucky. We're lucky here because we get to work in an environment where
I was listening to me, I was just complaining I was too cold.
You know, you got these people like that work out of the Ford Truck
Planner working factories or maybe listen to us on the way home right now,
going, dude, you have no idea what it's like to work all day
and now we have no right to complain it, No, no, little
studio. Please don't hear me complaining. Please don't hear that. I totally
every time I go by folks with that are working outside on the roads,
you know, or working just work on to HVAC ladies and gentlemen. You
both have to go out there and you got to work out. I mean,
I remember getting orace he repaired before. I'm watching a guy who came
over just I mean, my man looked like he just got out of a
swimming pool. And so you got to work out there in that. And
and of course, lest we forget our first responders, you know, and
to looking at the firefighters who when it's extremely cold have to go out there
and spray water, and then when it's extremely hot have to don that gear
and go out in the heat. So yeah, please don't hear that I'm
complaining, just making light of the fact. And as Matt Melosevich said when
we talked things non football, if you listen to Kentucky Focused this week,
you'll hear Matt and I had a nice weather discussion. This is common.
This won't be the that We'll have hotter temperatures as we get into August,
we haven't broke any records yet, at least that I know of. That's
surprising. Yeah, I do feel like all of these nineties for this time
of year. I mean today, like like like Matt said's we're going to
be the first day of summer at some point, I guess, And you
know, today's whenever that official solstice time hits. Because one thing we might
do is have consecutive days with ninety degree high temperatures. Yeah, exactly.
I don't know when that would be, but that started. I guess it
was Saturday or Sundays past weekend. If it's going to go in the next
week. I mean, that is a lot of days hitting the nineties.
Oh and you remember it was so beautiful right before it hit. Oh yeah,
and so everything fell in line. Tony and I had this conversation just
last week. It's interesting, right when we come out of spring, we
get into Derby and my yard looks like carpet. I mean, it is
such just a pop in green. Even my wife, like, especially right
before sunset, my wife goes, oh my god, the yard looks so
green. I said, it does that, and then I said, what
happens is and it usually happens in July, it comes through and then everything
dries up, and because Tony says, well do you keep water? And
I go no. At that point, I just give up. At that
point, I let my yard go dorm it and it just settles in for
the winter. I don't try to get it back. I don't. I
tried all that when we first moved in, and I don't try to get
it back. But the important thing here is, you know, we're talking
about yards. The important thing is keeping yourself comfortable, keeping yourself, taking
the right precautions to keep yourself hydrated. And we say it over and over,
and sometimes it can sound like a broken record, but that's how the
message gets through. Because people can get complacent, people can forget, and
then I always get a little bit more nervous. When I was coming home
from the gym last night, you're starting to see a few more of those
HVAC trucks out on the road. Oh yeah, And you start to see
them out and about and trying to fix stuff. But we do this every
year. We do this every year. Real quick though. The last time
the city of Louisville had a large number of consecutive days of temperatures above ninety
degrees. It was back in August of twenty ten, fifteen days straight with
realating at least ninety degrees. Oh good fine, dude, good fine.
So I think we may break that then be close to you know, if
definitely we get to two weeks, will be close to And that's not a
record, the overall record, leive it or not. Back in nineteen twenty
one, from June twenty second to August second, forty two days of temperatures
of at least ninety degrees. So and this was before AC. Oh yeah,
I don't know when AC was invented, but yeah, nineteen twenties,
that's insane. And this was yeah, this was before AC. So then
you take that and that's well. And that's why some of these homes in
my other gig where I work over in Germantown, that's why some of these
homes have such big porches because people would go out and sit on their porches
and that's how they would cool off. Speaking of before we I know we're
going to break here. Did you see the team, the football team and
is it Montana that they were practicing just this past week it was snowing.
Really, it was snowing. Something about those high elevations. Huh they had,
Yeah, they said, and I'll get where it Hillcrest. Apparently Hillcrest
High School. It began snowing at Montana State University on Monday during a summer
football session. The moment was caught by Brannon Mossholder. He is the head
coach of Hillcrest High School football Idaho Falls, Idaho. They said that you'll
see it. I'll try to see if I can kick this out VX.
I just lugged out of my ex account and they said it was snowing,
but the temperature Saturday is going to reach eighty three. That's just insane.
That's a heck of a swing. That is a heck, but it is.
And all this is attributed to La Nina. It's it's moving over to
We're moving over to La Nina. All right, there's your weather talk for
today. We're gonna take a quick break. When we come back, we're
gonna wrap things up. Great first day. Thanks for having me, everybody.
I appreciate that Nick is on vacation and he'll be back with you on
Monday. And this is always a treat for me. I always enjoy coming
in here. It's just a lot of fun to be able to do this
something I look forward to. And John makes this easiest pie, that's for
sure, a little top gun for you. We're back after this on Sports
Talk seven ninety. Here we go summer. How'd you know? Summer sixty
nine, Bro, that's when I was born. Oh really nice, very
nice six song though. Hey, John Aldon. I wrapping things up here
on this first day, filling in for the first of two days for the
vacationing Nick Coffee. I'm Scott Fitzgerald. I'll be back on the airwaves tomorrow
morning five o'clock with Tony Cruz. Then we're gonna do Radio Study Hall on
Saturday. It'll be Joe Jacomino and yours. Truly just Thursday is the new
Friday for me, man, and this is so much fun. I love
when they asked me to do this on Thursdays and Fridays because tomorrow is going
to be a lot of fun and this has been fun. Big, big
thank you to Matt Melosvich with WLK. Why I posted that interview, by
the way on social media, Matt and I talking a little baseball. If
you want to get in line with that big thank you to Jeff Milby.
Appreciate you as always, my brother, Jeff. You'll hear more of my
conversation with Jeff tomorrow morning. Coming up with Tony Cruz. A big sports
weekend is on tap here locally, a lot to talk about. Tomorrow,
John and I are going to meet back here, same time, same place,
same bat channel, and we're gonna talk with somebody who you've heard on
WHS a few times. Got a tie to one professional sports organization. We'll
talk to him as well. John Olden, you're the best my friends.
Always looking forward to it. Tomorrow, same here. I'm Scott Fitzgerald,
He's John Alden. Safe drive home, everybody, Talk to you tomorrow morning
on news Radio eight forty WHAS