We here at the alligatorSports Brand Picks Column are seeing double.
This week, we're proud to have twice the recommended daily value of Mike McCall.
Our Mike McCall is a 20-year-old journalism major and sports reporter.
But our guest this week is Mike McCall, a 43-year-old chief meteorologist for WCTV in Tallahassee and a FSU alumnus.
The Tampa native said he fell in love with the weather at age 10 or 11, and he knew meteorology was his calling after that. He was fascinated by the weather, but not a complete weather nerd.
"I wasn't obsessed with it," McCall said. "I didn't spend all my days logging weather records or anything like that."
But it was still his passion, and he went to Tallahassee for his degree because of its meteorology program. There, McCall joined the Marching Chiefs drumline and was quickly indoctrinated to the UF-Florida State rivalry when he was booed at The Swamp his freshman year.
"I understand fans want to yell at each other, and that's fine," McCall said. "But as an 18-year-old freshman, I didn't quite understand people getting in my face and screaming at me when I'm in the band. … I'm in the band, what can I do?"
The Seminoles also lacked other rivals back in the mid-1980s, but when they joined the Atlantic Coast Conference in 1991, his hatred started flowing to Miami as well.
So what of this year's UF-FSU game? McCall realizes what kind of team his Seminoles are going against this season, and the mood in Tally is reflecting that.
"I don't even know if you can call it 'cautiously optimistic,'" McCall said. "It's more realistic. "They think it's possible, but it's not likely that we'll come out with a win."
Believe it or not, McCall had heard of our McCall. While googling himself to see if something he had written made its way to the Internet, the meteorologist discovered the sports writer.
"It was odd, I guess ironic, that he would be writing for our archrival," McCall said.
And that's not the only Mike McCall that WCTV's head weatherman knows. He had been told of a Mike McCall who worked on the Washington Redskins' staff, a Mike McCall who is a professor in California, and even a Mike McCall who is a drummer.
One thing McCall couldn't provide us, however, was a clever insult for our own McCall based on his name.
"Nothing terribly exciting to manipulate about my name, fortunately," McCall said. "The only thing that any Mike got called when I was a kid was the Life cereal commercials that had the, 'Hey Mikey, he likes it.' I don't know if you're familiar with the commercial or not."
So does the meteorologist have any advice for our man?
"If anything, I'd tell him, as a writer, as a journalist…if you love doing what you do, stick with it," McCall said. "But our business as a whole is not one that's going to make a lot of money."
Don't we know it.
Finally, we couldn't do a column about a weatherman without his weather prediction for Saturday.
McCall said a cold front is expected on Friday in Tallahassee, but the weather should be downright comfortable on Saturday if the front blows through.
But what's more accurate: his weather or his football picks?
"I'd say my weather predictions are," McCall said. "I've played in a lot of football pools, I've played in a lot of fantasy leagues, and even taking the spread out, especially with NFL games… I'd like to say that I get my forecast right probably better than 90 percent of the time. And if I could get 90 percent right on football, I wouldn't be here, I'd be in Vegas."
Wouldn't we all. On to the picks!
In first place with a 74-36 record is Assistant Sports Editor Evan "You're fired" Drexler, who is probably in South Florida stalking Chad Pennington as we speak.
Trailing by a hair with a 72-38 record is Karl "You remember that one episode of 'Family Guy' when Peter is hilarious?" Hyppolite, who fails to realize that "Family Guy" is for 13-year-old middle schoolers whose idea of high comedy is a fart joke. Then again, it's right up his alley.
Burdened with mediocrity, like always, with a 71-39 record is Phil "Doritos are the only kinds of chips worth eating, except for these other two kinds" Kegler, whose Cooler Ranch breath may be the reason he's constantly failing with the lady-folk. Either that or his crippling need to have three forms of Internet connections on his body at all times.
Batting cleanup with a 70-40 mark is Sports Editor Brian "How does 12 inches sound?" Steele, who was certainly not talking about what you're thinking, you dirty-minded reader. Steele rarely exclaims things more vulgar than, "Oh, dear!"
And, as usual, in dead-ass last place with a piss-poor 67-43 record is Mike "Give it to Mikey! He likes it!" McCall, who is not a weatherman and never will be. Sorry to crush your hopes and dreams like that, Mike, but it's just not happening.
| ED | KH | PK | MM | BS | MM2 | |
| Kent-Tenn | Tenn | Tenn | Tenn | Tenn | Tenn | Kent |
| Aub-Bama | Bama | Bama | Bama | Bama | Bama | Bama |
| Okla-OkSt | Okla | Okla | Okla | Okla | Okla | Okla |
| SCar-Clem | SCar | SCar | SCar | SCar | SCar | Clem |
| Ore-OreSt | OreSt | OreSt | OreSt | OreSt | Ore | OreSt |
| ND-USC | USC | USC | ND | USC | USC | USC |
| UVA-VaTech | VaTech | VaTech | VaTech | UVA | VaTech | VaTech |
| UGA-GT | GT | UGA | GT | UGA | UGA | GT |
| WVU-Pitt | Pitt | Pitt | WVU | WVU | WVU | Pitt |
UF-FSU: ED - UF 49-9; KH - UF 40-17; MM - UF 49-10; PK - UF 56-14; BS - UF 31-10; MM2 - FSU 23-20
