Dana Zinger

Weather Weenie • Writer • History Buff •⚾️ Mom.

[Aakash Gupta @aakashgupta]

If you pitched this as a screenplay, every studio would reject it for being too on-the-nose.

Fernando Mendoza was a 2-star recruit ranked 2,149th in his high school class. Zero FBS scholarship offers. Not one. He walked on at Cal, fought for a starting job, transferred to Indiana for his senior year, then led them to 16-0 and the first national title in school history. Heisman, Walter Camp, Maxwell, Davey O'Brien, Manning, Big Ten MVP. 41 TDs, 72% completion, 8-to-0 TD-to-INT ratio in the playoffs.

The Raiders took him #1 overall Thursday night. $54.56M fully guaranteed. Only the third player ever to win the Heisman, win a national championship, and go first overall the next spring. Burrow. Newton. Mendoza.

Then he skipped Pittsburgh.

The biggest stage in football, the moment every kid imagines from the second they pick up a ball, and Fernando watched the call from his living room in Florida because his mom Elsa is in a wheelchair and the travel is hard for her. She was diagnosed with MS when he was 4. She wrote a letter to her sons in The Players Tribune in 2015 promising the disease "won't affect us in the ways that matter."

The part nobody talks about: while every other top pick was on stage, Fernando announced the Mendoza Family Fund the same day. $500K personal donation to the National MS Society. Committed to raising $1M over three years. He hasn't taken an NFL snap and he's already given more to a cause than most players donate in a full career.

He and his brother Alberto have already raised $360K through the Mendoza Bros. Burger at BuffaLouie's in Bloomington. At Christmas, he handed four families dealing with MS $10,000 each for an Adidas shopping spree.

Both his parents are children of Cuban refugees who fled Castro. His dad rowed at Brown, won a Junior World Championship in 1987, and played high school football in Miami next to a teammate named Mario Cristobal. Fernando beat his dad's old teammate in the national championship game in January.

Every athlete talks about playing for their family. Fernando actually did it.

[Matt Jones @KySportsRadio]

I will watch this 1,000 times in my life

[Bryce Jones @BryceJonesWx]

How a weatherman goes to the grocery before snow❄️

Lyla and I managed to get through the Bread & Milk aisles at Kroger without being noticed. 🥸

@WDRBNews

[Dana Zinger @danazinger]

His story will 100% be a movie.

[Dane Brugler @dpbrugler]

Fernando Mendoza returning to his hometown Miami to play the Hurricanes for the National Championship is straight out of a Hollywood script:

- Mendoza grew up a mile from Miami's campus.
- Mendoza won a state championship at Miami's Columbus High, the alma mater of Mario Cristobal (Mendoza's dad and Cristobal were HS teammates in the late 80s).
- Mendoza's mother played college tennis at Miami
- Mendoza dreamed of becoming Miami's QB, but Manny Diaz's staff was hesitant to even offer a walk-on spot.
- Mendoza considered Miami while in the transfer portal last offseason before choosing Indiana instead.

[Clay Travis @ClayTravis]

Mountain lion sighting provokes epic local news interview with witness. Enjoy:

[Griffin S. DeMarrais @GDeMarraisTV]

Murray St. making it to Omaha is one of the best stories in college sports. This is their stadium it holds 800 people. Their head coach Dan Skirka literally cuts the grass.

Gotta feel good for those guys.

[Dana Zinger @danazinger]

https://t.co/0r1KgFicPR

[katie @katefeetie]

an underreported reason people are having fewer and fewer kids: now we’re expected to watch them 24/7. at least in the summer my mom got 10+ hours a day free from me while I crawled around in ditches

[Dillon Gaudet @GaudetWeather]

Here's a look at a radar loop of the supercell that produced the tornado in Somerset and London. The storm started just a showers in northwest Arkansas earlier Friday afternoon. #kywx

[Dana Zinger @danazinger]

@AMR_Krissy @kendelliott Truth!

[Chris Bailey @Kentuckyweather]

We now have a Moderate Risk for severe storms for much of western and central Kentucky on Friday. Significant wind damage, a few strong tornadoes and large hail are all on the table. Stay alert! #kywx

[Reed Timmer, PhD @ReedTimmerUSA]

MEMPHIS WE’RE COMING BACK FRIDAY for an all hazards severe weather threat including southeast MO, far northeast AR, into western KY and TN including Memphis, Jackson, Nashville, TN up to Bowling Green, KY.

This severe weather event is more associated with the subtropical jet connection, and follows the #tornado threat in Wisconsin/Illinois on Thursday.

We will have some very complicated storm chases ahead in the Dominator 3

Thank you @PettusWX for these amazing graphics

[Dana Zinger @danazinger]

😬 #kywx

[Dana Zinger @danazinger]

@ReedTimmerUSA Walmart knows better, it should be “papaw” not “grandpa” 😂

[Peter Wilson @peterwiKY]

Great Crossing 13, Model 4, Final
Comebacker to Zinger ends it.

[Kal Oakes @oaksie72]

Chase Little 2-3, 2B, 2 RBI
Zach Zinger 2-2, RBI
Dustin Hoffman 2B, RBI
Caden Howland 2-4
Collier Curtis 1B
Brenton Alcorn 1B
Nate Adkins 1B
Cooper Duvall 1B
Landen Walters 3.1 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 1 K

[FL Division of Emergency Management @FLSERT]

At the direction of @GovRonDeSantis, we are deploying a 6-person team supporting operations, logistics & planning for search & rescue teams in @KentuckyEM.

Our thoughts are with Kentucky residents as they experience this flooding event, & we are ready to help however we can.

[Dana Zinger @danazinger]

@RBernardX @NashSevereWx Ugh. So sorry. 😞

[Dana Zinger @danazinger]

1, 2, 3, 4… 😬 textbook supercells. #arwx