Cape Breton's famed amateur weather forecaster chats with football great Tom Brady
When amateur weather forecaster Frankie MacDonald joined one of his favourite podcasts Monday evening, he had no idea he was on a collision course with one of sport's biggest stars.
Max Field is the host of the SoBro Radio Podcast out of New York, N.Y. He says, thanks to a mutual friend, he had Hall of Fame quarterback Tom Brady on for a brief interview that lasted about three minutes.
During that time, MacDonald was contacted and asked to join the on-air podcast.
"I happened to just call in Frankie while we were on with Tom,” said Field. “And it was a match made, as they say. The rest is history."
The exchange between Brady and MacDonald lasted only a few seconds.
"I said, 'You're doing a great job,’” MacDonald told CTV Atlantic during an interview in his home community of Whitney Pier, N.S.
It's unclear if the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ quarterback knew who he was talking to.
"Frankie was like, 'Hey, how're you doing? I love the weather,'” Field explained. “And then Tom's like, 'Oh hey, Frankie. Good to meet you,' and it was a very short sort of thing."
Many consider Brady to be the greatest football player of all time. However, the Super Bowl rings and records aren't the numbers that really matter to MacDonald.
"On his Instagram, he has 10 million followers. He has only two million followers on his Twitter,” said MacDonald.
MacDonald has a big social media platform of his own. Field says it was the power of the amateur weather forecaster’s words -- not Brady’s -- that got people talking about their encounter.
"No one cared until Frankie tweeted about it. That's when people cared,” said Field.
The podcast host says he now realizes he may have had two GOATS (Greatest Of All Time) on the same broadcast.
"Around this corner, Frankie MacDonald is a bigger star than Tom Brady in some regards,” said Field. “People like Frankie. They like that he's not like some big industry guy. It's just him being himself."
MacDonald says there are some other big names he'd like the chance to connect with.
"I'd like to say hi to Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, and I'd like to say hi to David Letterman,” he said.
For now, MacDonald says his brush with the football legend is his biggest celebrity encounter to date.
"It makes me feel great. It's excellent. It's epic."
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