April 29, 2025 • 57 mins
In this week’s inspiring episode of Next Steps Forward, host Dr. Chris Meek sits down with Heather Lloyd - sports journalist, former news anchor, proud stepmom, and Daybreak Colts Contributor for WISH-TV in Indianapolis. From her early days in Eden Prairie, Minnesota (where she once had a near run-in with Prince!) to navigating the evolving world of local news, Heather shares her remarkable journey through broadcast journalism, public relations, financial sales, and ultimately back to her true passion - storytelling through sports.
Heather opens up about the challenges of covering the NFL for a morning audience and her unique approach to making sports journalism accessible and engaging for all viewers. She discusses how she built a voice in a male-dominated field, the growth of female representation in sports media, and how community-driven fan groups like the Blue Ladies Club are changing the game for women's engagement with sports. This episode is a celebration of passion, perseverance, and the unifying power of sports - don’t miss it!
About Heather Lloyd: Heather Lloyd attended Syracuse University where she got a degree in broadcast journalism and political science. She started her career as a news reporter at KCCO TV in Alexandria, Minnesota, where she also functioned as photographer, video editor, assignment editor, and Friday night football score taker. From there, she moved to Duluth, Minnesota as an anchor and reporter at KDLH TV. She eventually transitioned to public relations before moving into financial sales. In 2004, Heather took time off from her career, married her husband Michael, became a stepmom to two children, and fell madly in love with the Indianapolis Colts. She started a football blog, generated social media following, and went on to write for the Colts for five years. Today she is the Daybreak Colts Contributor for WISH News 8 in Indianapolis, Indiana.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
There are few things that make people successful. Taking a step forward to change their lives is one successful trait, but it takes some time to get there. How do you move forward to greet the success that awaits you? Welcome to Next Steps Forward with host Chris Meek. Each week, Chris brings on another guest who has successfully taken the next steps forward. Now here is Chris Meek.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Hello. You've tuned to this week's episode of Next Steps Forward, and I'm your host, Chris Meek. As always, it's a pleasure to have you with us. Our focus is on personal empowerment, a commitment to wellbeing, and the motivation to achieve more than you ever thought possible. We have another outstanding guest this week. Heather Lloyd grew up in Eden Prairie, Minnesota during the 1980s. Her parents was a distant neighbor who frequented the same back roads and almost ran over her dad in the parking lot of a local grocery store. That's a story we're definitely going to have to hear. Heather Lloyd attended my beloved alma mater, Syracuse University, where she was an active member of Alpha Z Delta sorority. According to her biography, in her spare time, she got a degree in broadcast journalism and political science. She started her career as a news reporter at KCCO-TV in Alexandria, Minnesota, where she also functioned as photographer, video editor, assignment editor, and Friday night football score taker, no surprise. From there, she moved to Duluth, Minnesota as an anchor and reporter at KDLH-TV. She eventually transitioned to public relations before moving into financial sales. In 2004, Heather took time off from her career, married her husband, Michael, became a step mom to two children, and fell madly in love with the Indianapolis Colts. She started a football blog, generated a social media following, and went on to write for the Colts for five years. And today, she's a Daybreak Colts contributor for WISH News 8 in Indianapolis. Heather Lloyd, welcome to Next Steps Forward.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
Thank you for having me. It's great to be here.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Great to have you. A lot to talk about. It's going to be a fun conversation. So our listeners, grab a beer, grab a coffee, let's have some fun. Excited to do it. Live TV produces some really crazy moments, and it seems like every broadcast journalist has at least one such war story. What was your crazy on-air moment, either at WISH or one of your previous stations, where something unexpected happened, and how did you handle it?
Speaker 3 (02:17):
My best, funniest war story is that I was a weekend anchor in Duluth, Minnesota. The opening credits are rolling, the broadcast is ready to start, and our sports guy is running upstairs. This is going to date me tremendously, by the way. Our sports guy is running upstairs with a pile of tapes to get in for the sports broadcast. And as I'm looking at the camera and getting ready to open the show and introduce myself, I hear him trip, and I hear the tapes all rolling down the stairs as the newscast is opening. We're opening with a house fire, and I'm trying to suppress my laughter because I'm picturing Chris falling down the stairs with all the sports tapes flying out. I didn't completely successfully suppress my laughter, so we got some calls afterwards in the newsroom saying, why was Heather laughing when you're opening with a house fire? And I'm like, I was laughing at the sports guy who fell down the stairs during the news open. So it's like, you have to be prepared for anything and everything. But that was the one that I was just like, and you know how it is when you're trying to not laugh? It just makes you want to laugh harder, and I was not super successful at that.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
How do you approach storytelling and sports journalism to make it engaging for all types of viewers?
Speaker 3 (03:35):
You know what? The interesting thing about that is exactly what you just said, the all types of viewers. Not everyone is fanatical about the game itself. Not everyone knows the technicalities of the game itself. To me, every game is kind of a story that you watch unfold, and then you've got the stories of the players who play the game. So when I was with the Colts and writing about the team, one of the things I really put an emphasis on was telling the stories of the players. Because for a lot of the fans, that's what gets you connected to the team, is the story of these guys and where they came from and their families. I mean, I wrote about their fashion. I wrote about their dogs. I mean, it was everything, and it was so much fun. Because for a lot of fans, they cared about the players and what they did on the field, but they cared about them even more, like who the people were off the field. It was really fun to bring that human side of the players to the fans, because that's what a lot of them wanted, especially the female fans.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Well, I guess maybe to that point, is there someone, a peer of yours for the Cincinnati Bengals who writes about fashion for Joe Cool?
Speaker 3 (04:39):
Oh, there should be. I mean, isn't he amazing? I still find myself so drawn to that. I always look at the pre-game photos, and I don't even care who the team is, you know? I mean, when I actually started my own blog, that's one of the things that I was writing about on my blog, was the best-pressed players every week. I mean, when social media was first coming up, we didn't used to get much of a glimpse behind the scenes when the players arrived at the games and what they were wearing and all that. And now it's become so much a part of the game. I mean, when I went to work for the Colts, one of the first things I thought was, I told them, that's what I wanted to do. I wanted to tell personal stories about the players and their fashion, their dogs. And as I was walking in there, one of the first times to actually talk about that, I was thinking to myself, are they going to think it's weird that I want to come in here and ask them about what they were wearing on Sunday? They loved it. I mean, they lit up. Because some of these players had a good game. Some of these players didn't have a good game. So when I came in on the Monday following the game, and we're not talking about what happened on the field. I want to talk about what they wore to game day. I mean, they lit up. They absolutely loved it. And I was shocked at how many of them had a really good story behind what they were wearing too. I remember asking Matt Hasselbeck about his outfit one time, he was like, yeah, Andrew Luck actually gave me this belt for Christmas. You got a lot of the stories behind the clothes too, and it was super fun.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
So when you consider best dressed, do you look more traditional business-like in a suit or more, what kind of flair or panache does the player have?
Speaker 3 (06:19):
I love the flair. I mean, because they can all put on a suit and look professional and all that. I like the flair where a player really shows you who he is by what he's wearing. Obviously you had Cam Newton, he was probably the most out there every week. But the Colts, and then you have on the opposite extreme, we had Andrew Luck, who always showed up super conservative, just in a suit with boots. And it was always kind of shocking if he showed up in anything out of the ordinary, but yeah, it was really, really fun. Even when you get a new player, we'd sign a new player. And honestly, one of my first thoughts was always like, I wonder how this guy's going to dress? It was always fun to see if he catched for a cure, they would come out in pink and it was just, it was always really fun to see what they were going to wear. So that was really a blast. And honestly, the dogs, that's the other one, is, I mean, you go in there and they hear question after question about, what about this play? What about next week? What about your injury? And I come up and I'm like, hey, let's talk about your dog. And I mean, they just like light up and just give these glowing interviews about their dog. And they say, you come home after a bad game and your dog doesn't care how you played. You know, your dog's just happy to see you. And I just, I mean, I, for some reason, our O-line, the biggest players had the smallest dog. And it was really funny to tell the stories about like Anthony Costanzo and his like little chihuahua. And sometimes it wasn't what you would expect. But these players just talking so lovingly about their dogs, I mean, it really, really humanized them. And honestly, it was some of the most popular stories that I told.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
I'm not a Colts offensive lineman, but my neighbors laugh at me being 6'3, 220 and walking my two little 14 pound shih tzus.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
Yeah. See? Right. It takes a real man to walk a small dog.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
I understand that. Absolutely. And maybe as a follow up to that, you talked about fashion, the dogs. What's it like covering NFL teams so closely? You know, do you have access to players, coaches and things that go on behind the scenes?
Speaker 3 (08:16):
Yeah. I mean, I was in the building when football season started all the way up until the last game of the season. I was in the building pretty much every day. My job was to just go into the locker room and get the stories that I wanted to tell, which were, again, not so much the football stories, but the other stuff. So, yeah, I was there. On game day, I'd be on the field before the games, and sometimes I'd be catching up with the family members, telling the stories of the players before they got to football. Those were always fun. And then everything the Colts players did off the field, I was there covering. So they did a ton of stuff in the community outside the game. I would literally spend, from training camp all the way until the season ended, running around Indianapolis with these players, covering everything they were doing off the field. And it was a blast. I have more stories than we could ever tell today. And then- On and off the record. Yeah, exactly. On and off the record. Some of the stuff that they told me in the locker room, I went right out and reported. And some of that stuff, I'll take to the grave. But it was so much fun. I will say it was exhausting. I ran like a crazy woman all season long. But I loved it. I loved every minute of it.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
We're going to get back to the players in a second, but thinking back to when you started your academic career at the Newhouse School, number one school in communications in the country, thinking about being a CNN News anchor, some other major network, could you have ever envisioned you'd be reporting on an NFL football team?
Speaker 3 (09:50):
Never. Because the funny thing is, when I went to school, I was going to be a reporter. Because back then, sports was a five-minute blip in the newscast. It really was. Sports was not what it is today. ESPN was out there, Headline News was out there, but it didn't occupy the space it occupies now in our lives. And the 24-hour news cycle has really come so far in making sports what it is today. But never, because sports wasn't even what I was looking to do. I came out and I wanted to cover news and politics, and that's what I did. And then the weird thing is, I got out of all of that and then come full circle back around again by starting a blog. And that's what thrust me right back into here. And pretty soon, I'm covering sports and talking about sports for a living, what I never really intended to. I fell right into this because of just life. It's just the path life takes you on. And I ended up in a city where I fell in love with this football team, in part, by the way, because Tony Dungy was the Colts coach. He was the defensive coordinator for the Vikings. Marvin Harrison was here, who of course we all loved and shared- All time Syracuse, great. All time Syracuse. Yes. So this was not a hard thing for me to move to Indy and fall in love with the Colts and then throw Peyton Manning in there, by the way, who just made everything so fun. It was, I moved here in August of 2004 as a Vikings fan. The Vikings played the Colts on Monday night football in November. So this whole time I'm picturing myself, my husband and I went to all the games. He was a season ticket holder. I'm picturing myself at that Vikings game in November as a Vikings fan. And by the time that game got here, about halfway through the game, I realized I was cheering for the Colts. And I was like, you know, I think this is my team now. I mean, that's how long it took.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
Did you have to go to the gift shop to get a new jersey?
Speaker 3 (11:48):
You know what, exactly. I'm like, you know what? No, I'm good. This is my team. So they were just, they were way too easy to fall in love with. And it just, it happened like that. And I would die hard. And then of course Peyton Manning left, broke my heart in a million pieces. And all of my friends were messaging me and, you know, oh my gosh, how you feel? What are you going to do? You know? I'm like, I can't even answer that question in a text message or on a Facebook post. You know? So I'm like, I think that's why people have blogs. So I started a blog to write about how heartbroken I was when Peyton Manning left. And there was one post in particular where Peyton was coming back to play the Colts on Sunday night football. We had Andrew Luck now. Life was good. I watched Andrew Luck that whole, his last college season, knowing he was probably going to be our quarterback. So I was dialed in. I knew we had to do what we were doing. It broke my heart. I knew they were going to probably part with Peyton Manning. Andrew Luck was going to be our guy. Of course, when it happened, it was way harder than I thought it would be. But so Andrew Luck comes in. We're excited. We're ready to start the season. We actually played a season with him and it was the next season that Peyton Manning came to play Andrew Luck on Sunday night football. And I'm like, at this point, I'm like, I'm good. We have Andrew Luck. I'm fine. And so I'm sitting there watching the game the week before and the promo comes on for Peyton Manning's return to Indianapolis and they've got him running out onto the field in slow motion and the song, with the song, I'm coming home playing in the background. And I started sobbing and suddenly I'm like, whoops, I lost my AirPod, hold on here. So I start sobbing and I'm like, oh my gosh, I don't think I'm over it. And I pulled out my computer and wrote a post basically talking about, I thought I was ready for this. I thought I was over it. I have Andrew Luck now. I've moved on. And then the promo comes on and I start sobbing and I don't think I'm over it. And I think I'm going to need therapy and waterproof mascara. I put it out there and I am not kidding you. It went so viral that every time it opened up Facebook or Twitter, it was getting shared again. Because I had captured how so many Colts fans felt about Peyton Manning's return. And that honestly was really, that was the launchpad for everything I'm doing in sports now. Was the story I wrote about Peyton Manning coming back to play the Colts on Sunday Night Football.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
So your bad breakup with an old boyfriend is what gave you the career.
Speaker 3 (14:29):
It was literally, it was. I mean, and I walked into the place that we would always go in and have brunch before the game. I walked in there and the people at the hostess stand said to me, we all read your blog. And I was like, I didn't tell you I had a blog. It was crazy, crazy, crazy, but it was just fun. And you know what, from then on, I wrote about how I felt about the Colts every week in my heart and with the different players that were coming and going. It's always so hard to say goodbye to a beloved player. I mean, it really is. And I wrote that story over and over again about Reggie, you know, Reggie Wayne and Robert Mathis. And you know, it just, it really rips your heart out. But it was the Peyton Manning one that just, I mean, people just got it. And I don't think there's anything better as a writer than writing something and having people say to you, oh my gosh, you captured exactly how I feel. It's the best feeling in the world.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
That's amazing. So we'll put Peyton Manning aside for a minute because I don't want you to cry on the show today. People have in the past, it's okay.
Speaker3: It's okay. It's another air pod. Yeah.
Are there iconic players you've had the privilege to meet, interact with and who are some of the players that stand out to you the most and what were your interactions with them like?
Speaker 3 (15:43):
Oh gosh. I mean, I could tell these stories forever too. The coolest thing about going to work in sports is that you meet your heroes, you know, and not only do you meet them, but you get to know them like as people and you get to know their families. And early, early on, before I was even working for the Colts, I went to the pro football hall of fame. And I had never been there before, but Chris Carter was being inducted and he is someone I cheered for growing up as a Vikings fan. So I'm like, you know what, I'm going to see if I can get a credential and go over and cover the, you know, the hall of fame induction. And I did. It's a very fan and media friendly, you know, facility. So they approved me. I went over there. I'm like, I can't believe I'm doing this right now. So I get over there and not only do I cover the hall of fame, but first of all, if you are a football fan, you have got to go to Canton, Ohio sometime and go to the pro football hall of fame. It's awesome. And the hall of fame weekend is even better because all the media people and all the coaches and all the players, it's just packed with people that, you know, I'm standing there talking to someone. I'm like, oh, look, there's Bill Belichick. Oh, look, there's, you know, I'm actually walking around the hall of fame museum and I run into Roger Goodell, introduce myself, shake his hand. I'm like, this is wild, you know? So later that, that afternoon, before the game started, I'm standing on, on the field next to the ESPN set. I'm talking to my, my new friend, Sal Palantonio, such a great guy. And I was obsessed at the time with Gruden's quarterback camp. I learned a ton about football watching Gruden's quarterback camp. So I'm standing there talking to Sal and up, John Gruden comes walking up and I'm like, so I just say John Gruden and he kind of looks up and he's kind of looking like, do I know you? And I just stick my hand out and he shakes my hand. And I said, I am so obsessed with watching quarterback camp that I said, I was, I was, I was just watching and my husband came downstairs and he says to me, haven't you seen this one before? And I was like, not the whole thing. Gruden gives me a big hug and he's like, I love you, man. You know? I mean, so that was just amazing. And then a couple of years later when Tony Dungy and Marvin Harrison were going to the Hall of Fame, now I'm working for the Colts, back at the Hall of Fame to cover that and then cover it. We were playing the Hall of Fame game and our cheerleaders were performing with Tim McGraw on stage. So the night before we're out there and the cheerleaders are, they're like rehearsing and I'm just standing on the stage, just watching him rehearse, taking some pictures, just hanging out. And all of a sudden I see someone walk, walk up next to me and I turn and look and it's Jim Kelly standing next to me. And it was right after he had gone through another one of those really tough health battles. And he looked kind of, he looked thin, but you know, he looked pretty good. And so I just started talking to him like, oh my gosh, we've all been pulling so hard for you. It's so good to see you here. And he gave me a huge hug, just the nicest guy in the world. I mean, so all of, I mean, it just goes on and on and on. I mean, when I first got into the Colts locker room, Robert Mathis was someone who, I mean, he was intimidating. Like when Robert Mathis came walking down, you know, down the hall in the locker room, you sort of just got out of his way. And by the time he announced his retirement, I congratulated him in the locker room after his press conference, you know, and told him I was happy with him and all that. And he gave me a big hug, you know? So it's like, it's just, there are so many players who, and just significant people who I'd followed and really like as a fan fell in love with over the years that I really got to know, got to know their families, you know, got to know what they were all about. And it's just, you know, they say never meet your heroes, but for me, it was the opposite. My heroes were great. I loved meeting my heroes. I was able to interview Peyton Manning a couple of times and I mean, just really, really cool.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
You realize you're living every NFL fan's dream right now, right?
Speaker 3 (19:38):
I fully realize that. And honestly, the whole time I was pinching myself all along, and I still am to this day. I mean, even when I come back and do something like this and tell the stories, I'm still like, I can't believe this happened, but it really all happened because of Peyton Manning. And because I felt so strongly about Peyton Manning and the Colts. And when I went to write about it, you know, my heart came out onto the computer and people identified with that. And that's what got me here. And then after, let's see, I was with the Colts for a few years and then Wish TV reached out and said, Hey, we'd love to have you on in the mornings to talk about the games. I said, absolutely. So now since, oh my gosh, way back and like, it's been almost 10 years now that I've been going in after the games and talking with my friends on daybreak about what happened the day before and what happened with the game and how we feel about the team. And that's been a blast too. So it's just, it's honestly, it's all been a dream and I still have to pinch myself every day. You know what else too? I love sharing the story, not because, you know, Oh, look at all these great things I was able to do. I love sharing the story to tell people that if you love something, you have to pursue it and you just have to just do it. You know? I mean, it's scary. It's intimidating. I had a blog for two years that I just threw out there and, you know, not thinking it was going anywhere when all of a sudden it opened the door for me with the Indianapolis Colts. And then it opened the door with me with a local TV station. And whether you're getting paid or not, you know, my first internship with WCCO-TV, that's what got me my first news job. I not only went and worked there for a summer, but every break during college, I would just go back and help out. When I was home for Christmas, I'd go back and just work on the assignment desk. I'd answer the phone and pass the tips along. And when I graduated and they were, you know, I was ready to go out and get my first job. And they hooked me up with my first job at their satellite station in Alexandria, Minnesota. So just get your foot in the door, however you can, contribute however you can, even if you're not getting paid, and just stick with it. And if you truly love it, and you work hard, and you stick with it, and you don't take no for an answer, and you just literally keep showing up, it will get you somewhere. It will. I just wouldn't go away. I didn't go away at WCCO. I didn't go away, you know, with football when I wanted to be covering the Colts. But eventually, the right things happened. The doors opened for me, and boom. And I also have to give huge credit to my friend, Anthony Calhoun, another Syracuse graduate of the Newhouse School. I met Anthony in person for the first time at training camp for the Colts. I knew he went to Syracuse. He knew I went to Syracuse. The funny thing is, when I moved to Indy, we never knew each other at Syracuse. But when I moved to Indy, I saw him on TV, and I was like, gosh, that guy looks familiar. So then social media opens up. I find on Twitter, I'm like, oh, no wonder I know him. He went to Syracuse. So we get to know each other at Colts training camp, and he had me on a few times on Sports Locker, his Sunday night show. So that kind of opened the door there. Then Daybreak came along, and I ended up doing a regular thing with them, and I still go on every once in a while and do Anthony's show. It's great. But honestly, I cannot overestimate how important connections are. Get to know anyone and everyone. Contribute however you can. Just offer to help. Just say, is there anything I can do? Any way you can get your foot in the door. Like I said, I just didn't go away. And eventually they're like, let's let this girl do something.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
Give her an ID.
Speaker 3 (23:18):
She's going to keep bugging us until we let her.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
So I'm going to make a suggestion that I've given to a few select special guests in the past, just because you don't have enough to do right now. From all the stories you've told, you have to write a book. And I've already got the title and the byline for you. The title is, It All Happened Because of Peyton Manning, and the byline is, If you love something, you have to do it.
Speaker 3 (23:44):
A hundred percent. You know what's really funny? I have a rough draft of a book on my computer. I do. I started it years ago, and then it just got so crazy with the cold, and I just put it away. I shelved it. And it might be time to go back and pull that out. You know why primarily? Because I'm going to forget these stories. I'm not writing this for the fans. I'm writing this for me, so I don't forget these stories. Even doing the podcast like this, there's stuff like, I didn't remember the Robert Mathis thing until you said it. I'm like, oh yeah, that was so cool. I mean, I know, you're right. I have to do it. I've got my old blog posts I can go back and pull back out. I don't even have my blogs anymore, because I didn't keep them up, because technology was so expensive. I don't even have my blogs anymore, because I didn't keep them up, because technology was so expensive. But you're right, I need to get it all down on paper and have this somewhere where I can continue if I can. But you're right, I need to get it all down on paper and have this somewhere where I can talking about the Colts.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
If I can help in any way, please do, because you have to do it.
Speaker 3 (24:52):
No, I know you can help. And I know, and congratulations on your books. Oh, thank you. I mean, absolutely amazing. So yes, you can help me.
Speaker 2 (24:59):
I just get bored easily, I guess. So you've been talking about all these great stories and great encounters you've had with these massive professional athletes, you know, the elite of the elite. Have you ever encountered skepticism about your sports knowledge because of your gender? And if so, how have you responded to it?
Speaker 3 (25:14):
Oh, sure. I mean, when I started my blog, there were not a lot of people, females, writing and talking about football. You know, there were the token ones. I mean, funny story. I was at WCCO TV as an intern when Michelle Tafoya was going into the first locker rooms as a female reporter. And do you remember the controversy with all that? And I remember watching all that unfold. And at the time, I wasn't even, you know, sports wasn't my thing, but I just remember watching that, being fascinated by it. And here I am now, years later, doing that myself because she paved the way. So yes, you have to prove yourself. You do. And you know, I'll say that whether you're a male or a female, because anytime you come in and you're the rookie and you're young, people are gonna look at you. And honestly, every chance you get, you have to make a good impression. You just do. You have to be more accurate. You have to be more of a professional. You have to go above and beyond if you're young and if you're a female. I found that in the financial world, believe it or not, way worse than in football. The financial world, I had to prove myself much harder when I worked in financial sales. But with football, the difference with me is that I was writing more of the personal stories. I did write some football stories on the Colts website, but mostly I was writing the personal stories. But I had to prove myself, believe it or not, more in the media room with the other members of the media, who, some of which had been covering the team for almost as long as I had been alive. So it was more of them that I had to prove, like, listen, I know what I'm doing. I can do this. And it really, it just takes time. Over time, they came to respect me. They did. And they'd turn around to do the same thing with the next young woman that walked in the door. You have to prove yourself. And honestly, the other thing you have to remember is you're not just going in there representing yourself. You're going in there representing the next women that are gonna come after you. And now, the beautiful thing about it now is there are so many women that it's not even, that's not so much of a thing anymore. It's really not. Like, they're used to it now. So, but it's cool to watch how that has evolved. And now, watching a woman covering sports of any kind is not that notable of a thing anymore. And that's awesome. I think that shows how far we've come. I mean, the locker room thing is always weird. It's never gonna be normal, you know? But you just figure it out, you know? But the first time I walked into the locker room, the thing I was most terrified about was that it was gonna smell bad. And it didn't. I was pleasantly surprised that I walked in there. It was clean. It smelled good. It was totally fine. The funniest locker room story I have is I was standing there waiting to talk to a player. And one of the players next to him was an O-line man, was getting dressed. And he, you know, they're pretty good about doing it subtly while we're standing there. And you just learn to look away and whatever. But he took off his towel and he just randomly kind of threw it behind his head. It landed on my foot. His wet towel. And I'm just sitting there staring at it. And I'm like, I'm not picking that up. There's no way. I had open-toed shoes on too, by the way, to make it all the worse. And he just turns around and he's like, I am so sorry. And he comes over and he grabs it real quick. I'm like, I hope you know I'm not picking that up and throwing it in the bin. And he was really good about it. He was actually horrified and way more embarrassed than I was.
(28:42):
Speaker2: Another story for the book.
See, and now I told it, so I'll remember it.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
And it's recorded, so we can go back to the notes.
Speaker 3 (28:49):
Yes, exactly.
Speaker 2 (28:50):
Something I've always appreciated about sports and something that's even amazed me at times is this ability to bring individuals, communities, states, even countries together. What is it about sports that makes them such a powerful force for bringing people together, regardless of background, generations, politics, or other differences?
Speaker 3 (29:06):
It's because it breaks down all the barriers. I mean, we're just all in the same place, cheering for the same cause. And really, how often does that happen in life? I mean, to have all these people brought together, there's a couple of things. I think animals bring people together. You know, pets, people love their pets. And then sports, people love their sports. And the cool thing about being at a game is you're sitting alongside all kinds of different people, all different age, all different sex, different race. It doesn't matter, because you're all cheering for the same thing. And it's so cool over the years. I mean, we got to know so many different people, you know, in our section at the games, and that's so fun. And you kind of watch their kids grow up, and you watch, you know, you watch everyone's lives change before your eyes as you're there cheering on your team every week. And I just, I never took that for granted either. It's just, it's such a cool thing, but it really does. I mean, it's just, it's an emotional thing that ties you together with other people. You could be in a different city, and you're just wearing a Colts hat or a Colts shirt, and strangers will come up to you and be like, oh, hey, you know, and you meet people that way. I know what's happened to you. It's happened to all of all sports fans. And it's just, it's such a cool thing. I moved here in 2004. I knew my husband and some of the people that he worked with, and that was it. And for me, it was going to the games, cheering on the Colts. Like the Colts turned Indianapolis into my home. They really did. By bonding with other fans, I made a ton of, all my best friends, I probably met cheering for the Colts. So it really does, you know, it bonds you with people. It gives you something in common right away. It gives you something that you're all passionate about and something that you, you know, that brings you together. And that, I mean, I don't know that there's anything else like that.
Speaker 2 (30:56):
Sorry, I've just met my dog Zeke to let everyone know that either UPS or Amazon is here right now.
Speaker 3 (31:01):
Well, if a squirrel shows up on my balcony, you're going to hear mine. Fortunately, that hasn't happened yet.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
Do you think certain sports have a stronger ability to unify people than others? And if so, why?
Speaker 3 (31:14):
I will preface this by saying that I am incredibly biased. But yes, I think football brings people together more so than any other sport. And this is why. First of all, because football owns Sundays. And really, they own Saturdays too, when you think about it, with college football. They also own holidays, Thanksgiving. But now Christmas day is a huge, it's a huge football day now. And I love it. So what happened for me, and one of the things that made me a football fan was Sundays is a day that a lot of people, you know, you do your stuff, you do your sports on Saturdays, you run around. Sundays is the day that everyone's kind of home and everyone is relaxing. And I was watching football with my dad on Sundays, growing up, watching the Vikings play. And so for me, that's just what we did on Sundays. And then on Thanksgiving day, you're watching your team play. And so I think a lot of your emotional and core memories, you know, growing up are around the game of football. And so that sort of, that ties you to the game much more than, you know, watching golf is great. You know, watching basketball is great. But for me, my core memories growing up were growing up around the game of football. With football on, my dad driving us to school on Monday mornings and listening to talk radio, talking about, you know, whatever horrific thing happened to the Vikings on Sunday that all of Minnesota is now commiserating about. I mean, talk about bringing people together. Bringing people together after terrible disappointment is a really good way to bond people. You know, my dad would be laughing, listening to KQ in the morning and talking about whatever disastrous thing happened to the Vikings. And it just, those are my core memories of growing up. And that is why I love football to this day. And by the way, my stepchildren who we took to the games, I mean, all of our family memories, so many of them were made watching football. I always say this. I came in, got to know them. We got married. We really became a family watching the Colts play on Sundays. I mean, that's what we did. Whether it was at home on the TV or whether it was in person, like that's what bonded me to my new family, my new community, my new friends. I mean, without the Colts, my life would have looked so different here.
Speaker 2 (33:36):
Well, it's like in Ted Lasso, Daniel says football is life.
Speaker 3 (33:41):
A hundred percent, a hundred percent. I mean, it's so beyond the game. It really is. And that's, it's bigger than football. You know, it's community, it's everything. And I feel like the pride for your community is on the line. When I first moved to Indianapolis, a lot of my friends were like, really, you're moving to Indianapolis? What made me proud to say that was the Colts. I'm like, heck yeah, I'm living in Indianapolis. Look, you know, we're hosting the Superbowl. We got Peyton Manning. You know, we were on every, how many Monday night and Sunday night and Thursday night games were the Colts on? So then I started getting messages from people like, oh, your city looks great. Fun to watch the Colts tonight. I mean, really, that was sort of how I was. I got the pride in my city. Then I'm like, hey, look, this is my city. This is my city now. Look at us, watch us on Sunday night. Watch us on Monday night. NFL Combine is here. You know, it just, we were sort of the center of the sports world for a long time. Now that's sort of fallen a little bit now, but we're, hopefully we'll get back there.
Speaker 2 (34:43):
Well, and I will say I've visited India a couple of times. I do some work with Indy 500, one of the racing teams there.
Speaker 3 (34:48):
Yeah.
Speaker2: And it's a spectacular city.
It's a great city. And that event is unbelievable. So I learned- If you have never been to an Indy 500, you have to go, you have to. I had never been to a car race before, ever in my entire life. And so I go to my first Indy 500 carb day and I watch the practice and I'm like, this is unbelievable. Yep. You cannot explain it to someone unless they see it in person.
Speaker 2 (35:13):
And I do some work with Rahal, Letterman, Lannigan. So I have to give them a shout out because they're a big supporter. Graham's a good friend. Yeah. And I think the stat is on the day of the Indy 500, there are more people at the event than in the state of Indiana.
Speaker 3 (35:29):
You can't, again, you cannot explain to people how big this event is or how many things you can fit inside the Indianapolis 500. There's that picture where they put all the things inside there. They put in like, they put in the Coliseum in Rome and they put in football fields. There is a golf course inside of the racetrack, inside, right in the middle. You can't even explain it. And Graham Rahal's a great guy. I've interviewed him many times. I used to go there with my blog and cover the 500. So he's a huge Ohio State fan. So whenever we would bring the new Colts rookies out to IMS, we literally baptized the new Colts players by bringing them out to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway to be like, hey, welcome to Indy. This is Indy. So they'd come out to the track. They'd attend a practice. We'd bring them around to meet the drivers. And Graham Rahal always loved meeting the guys from Ohio State because he was a huge Ohio State fan. So that was always fun for him, but he's awesome, awesome guy. And he is always one of the guys I'm pulling for to win it. Marco Andretti, Graham Rahal, every year I'm cheering for one of those guys to win it. So hopefully this is Graham's year.
Speaker 2 (36:41):
Hopefully, Graham's involved with a nonprofit I work with and he actually hosts a charity golf tournament the Thursday before the Indy 500 at that golf course inside the track for our charity and another one called One Cure.
Speaker 3 (36:52):
Oh, that's awesome.
Speaker 2 (36:53):
Yeah, so we'll connect on that after the show, but he's a great guy.
Speaker 3: Yeah, for sure, good, good guy. Yep, yep. (36:56):
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Speaker 2 (36:58):
Are there any specific Colts players past or present who've made a significant impact in bringing people together beyond their on-field heroics?
Speaker 3 (37:07):
Oh gosh, I mean, I don't think I can put into words what Peyton Manning did for the city of Indianapolis. I feel like he put the city on the map. I really do. I mean, just everything changed with him. We would have never hosted the Superbowl probably had Peyton Manning not been here. Lucas Oil Stadium would not be here. I mean, that is literally the house that Peyton built. I mean, just, he was on every commercial. He was on, you saw him in prime time all the time. I just, I feel like he took this nice little Midwestern city and he just put a humongous spotlight on it. And you can't even contemplate financially and the way that that has impacted the city of Indianapolis. You really can't. And you know what? Andrew Luck was awesome for that too, just awesome. I mean, he sort of came around. He had big shoes to fill both on the field and off. And he did it in a very different way than Peyton did it. Peyton was very out there. Andrew was more the quiet, like he was out of his comfort zone when he was doing commercials. So he did much, many, much fewer of them, but he still did them and he did what he needed to do at times. But Andrew was also the guy that would just quietly go to Riley Hospital for children and just visit with the kids almost every week. And just do, he liked to do things quieter and behind the scenes, what were Peyton was much more like out there upfront. And certainly Peyton did plenty of that stuff behind the scenes too as well. Peyton Manning really, we like to say that he changed the landscape of Indianapolis. He really did. I mean, and I was there at, when they dedicated the statue in front of Lucas Oil Stadium to Peyton Manning. And I mean, you've got guys like David Letterman was speaking. They unveiled a statue of Peyton Manning in front of Lucas Oil Stadium. And David Letterman is talking about how he changed the landscape of Indiana and all the things that he's done for the state. And it's just, it's unbelievable. And you still feel it. You still see it. I mean, no, I don't think any athlete yet has replaced what Peyton Manning meant to the city. So it's, there's one who's coming up who might, you know, well, I know we're gonna talk about it at some point, but there's an athlete coming up who's coming, you know, she's got a ways to go, but I think she might be, she might be up there when her career is wrapping up.
Speaker 2 (39:35):
Let's go right into it. What has Caitlin Clark done for the state of Indiana?
Speaker 3 (39:41):
I mean, the amazing thing is she's played one season for the Indiana Fever, and we've just, we've never seen anything like it. Even, even Peyton Manning, Peyton Manning would fill Lucas Oil Stadium. Peyton Manning would not fill the other stadiums of the other teams that were playing at away games. These WNBA teams have to play in bigger stadiums when they play the Indiana Fever because they can't fit all the fans in their stadium because so many people want to come and see Caitlin Clark play. It's, she's a phenomenon before she's even achieved that much yet. So imagine where her, where her ceiling is. I mean, and you know what else I like about her? Very much like Andrew Luck, it's not about her. She's not about the spotlight. She just wants to be a good team player. She represents Indianapolis perfectly. You know, she's from the Midwest. She's a hard worker. She just wants to get out there and do her job. And she really, she says all the right things. She does all the right things. It's like, you just, you love everything about her. I mean, funny fact, I did not go to a Pacers game last year, but I went to a Fever game. So, I mean, if you would have told me 10 years ago that the Pacers wouldn't be filling their stadium every game, the Colts would be filling their stadium every game, but the Indiana Fever would be sold out every single game, I would have said, you are absolutely crazy. But one person has done that, and that person is Caitlin Clark.
Speaker 2 (41:13):
I mean, it's fun to watch these female athletes and superstars come up, because they are truly, truly changing the sport and changing the game and giving them what they deserve and equal pay and all that stuff.
Speaker3: Oh, all of that, 100%.
Our oldest daughter's graduating from UConn next week, and she's just fallen in love with Paige Beckers and watching her run. And so, not quite Caitlin Clark, but along the caliber. And someone showed me recently, you mentioned David Letterman, and we're talking Caitlin Clark. I think it was, so David Letterman recently interviewed her for his show, I think on Netflix. There's a great scene in there where they're doing ping pong balls, and she just crushes him. So I highly recommend everyone look that up, because it's funny as shit.
Speaker 3 (41:52):
She is an athlete, I mean, and she is competitive as they come. I mean, just, there was a video of her when the Pacers were playing the Bucs in the playoff game. They were at Gainbridge Fieldhouse throwing out t-shirts. And there's a video where she says to one of her teammates, that there was a Bucs fan there. And she was like, hit that Bucs fan right in the face. It doesn't matter what it is. She is just hardcore right there, competitive as anything. She supports all the other teams. She's at the Pacers game. She was at the Colts game. I mean, she is just, she's amazing. I mean, you can't help but to absolutely love her. And I love the spotlight that's been on her. I love the opportunities that are coming her way. She deserves them all. She is gonna make way more off the field than she's making on the field. And I hope someday that changes, because they do all deserve that. But for now, I'm like, you go get every endorsement you possibly can to kind of fill that gap between the men and the women pay-wise. If you have to make that up in endorsements, you go get it, girl. I mean.
Speaker 2 (42:57):
Well, I guess maybe that point is a follow-up to what you mentioned about how Peyton Manning put Indianapolis on the map, or where it is today. Do you see her as sort of a 2.0? I mean, those are big shoes, but still.
Speaker 3 (43:06):
Absolutely. Yeah, because she's just getting started. I mean, like I said, I know some people that maybe were Tennessee fans would maybe wanna go and see Peyton when he came with the Colts in their home stadium. But they did not have to switch to a bigger stadium because so many people wanted to come see him play. I mean, she's just getting started, and it's immense, the impact she's had on the game. I do think Peyton Manning, you could argue, elevated the entire map of football, not just the Colts. Because Peyton Manning was one of those people that because of his Saturday Night Live appearances, the commercial appearances, he is one of the people that really got women into the game. They loved Peyton Manning. He was a cultural icon. They wanted to see him. So he got a lot of women into football that maybe didn't love football before. I think Katelyn Clark is gonna do the same thing for the WNBA now. I had never watched a WNBA game until Katelyn Clark came in last year. And then I'm like, this is fun. These girls are amazing. I love this. So she's gonna do the same thing. She's gonna elevate the game to a level that they probably never thought possible.
Speaker 2 (44:12):
Okay, we talked about this in the beginning. I wanna make sure we cover this. Prince, Purple Rain. Prince was a distant neighbor.
Speaker 3 (44:21):
The first R-rated movie I ever went to, by the way. My aunt took me to Purple Rain when I was in middle school.
Speaker 2 (44:27):
I was gonna say, you had to be like eighth grade. That was my guess.
Speaker 3 (44:29):
I was young.
Speaker 2 (44:30):
So he was a distant neighbor who frequented the same back roads and almost ran your dad over in the parking lot of a local grocery store. Tell us how Prince almost ran over your dad and how your dad escaped.
Speaker 3 (44:42):
Well, first of all, so we lived in Eden Prairie. We were out in the Southwest suburbs. Prince lived in Shanhassen, which was the next town over. And our horses were at a barn in Shanhassen. So to go see our horses, we would take these back roads through Shanhassen. And he actually, his first house was a purple house on a little lake out in Shanhassen. And you'd drive by. Of course, it stuck out like a sore thumb. I mean, and we're not talking about a gated neighborhood. It was just a regular neighborhood with a purple house sitting on a lake. And that was Prince's house. And it was not uncommon to go driving out to the stable and a purple BMW goes whizzing by. There was only one purple BMW in the entire state of Minnesota and it belonged to Prince. So you're like, oh, look, there's Prince. You can kind of see the shadow of his hair through the dark windows. So one day he had moved on. Actually, the bodyguard now drove the purple BMW. Once he got more famous, he couldn't really drive around with a purple BMW anymore. So he had a different car. I think then he had a big black BMW. But my dad's leaving the grocery store and this car is just coming right at him and not really paying attention. So he kind of like jumps out of the way and the car slows down and it's got real dark tinted windows and it rolls down the window about this much. And it's just this guy in a really soft spoken voice. This guy goes, hey, sorry, man. And my dad looks, he's like, oh my gosh, it's Prince. And he came home and he told us a story. We're like, that did not happen. And he's like, I swear to God it happened.
Speaker 2: Near life or death experience with Prince. (46:17):
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Speaker 3 (46:19):
Yeah, Prince almost ran my dad over. Thankfully he did not. And he did feel bad about it. And he did stop and roll the window down and say, sorry, man. So that was the closest run-in any of my family members had with Prince. But it really, it was not uncommon to see him though at the gas station, out and around town. And I think one of the reasons that he stayed in Minnesota was because he could do that. People let him live his life. People let him do his thing. I mean, he was one of us. He really was. So he could come and go around. And of course the more famous he got, he got off the house on the lake. He had a house with a security gate and all of that. I mean, Paisley Park came around, his recording studio. So things certainly changed over time. But it really was a place I think he could just live his life and be kind of private and low key.
Speaker 2 (47:06):
Something I left out of your introduction was that during your time in Duluth, you began what you describe as quote, a lifelong obsession with Lake Superior. I've never heard this from anyone before. This show is a show first. I've never heard of anyone with an obsession with a great lake.
Speaker 3 (47:20):
My lifelong love affair with the Colts and with Lake Superior. Yes. So my grandma lives North of Duluth, Minnesota, which most people would look at a map and be like, does anyone live North of Duluth? Because when you look at the map, it's just all green. But this is where my parents grew up. This is where I was born. So coming up to see my grandma, we would drive up through Duluth and there's Lake Superior, you can't miss it. And my mom would always be talking about, oh, look at that lake. It's so cold and it's so scary. There's a lot of history there. Ships have gone down. People have died in Lake Superior. And it's kind of an ominous presence, but it's also like beautiful and stunning. And it's just such a combination of things that I always grew up thinking, well, Lake Superior was this kind of dark, cold, it's like an ocean up in Northern Minnesota. So when I moved to Duluth, I was driving down the hill for the first, this is the other thing, Duluth, Minnesota is all built on a hill and everything slopes down to Lake Superior. So it's like, it's the center of everything. So I'm driving downtown to my workplace for the first time and I'm looking out and there's the buildings on both sides. And then there's a building in the middle that's moving. I'm like, what in the world is going on? It was a ship coming in on Lake Superior, so big that it looks like a floating building. I'm like, this is wild. But Lake Superior, it kind of set your mood for the day every day. You wake up, it's a bright sunny day. The Lake is sparkling and kind of calm. It's like, oh, you know what? This is gonna be a sunny day. No, find you in the fog rolls, and suddenly it's 40 degrees. I'm like, oh, dang. I had a picnic planned today. I wanted to go do this. Mother Superior had other ideas. So it's like, it controlled our news cycle. It controlled what you wanted to do outside that day. It literally controlled your entire life. But there's a beautiful walking path, a beautiful Lake walk along. And so I, almost every day, I'd be out there walking along Lake Superior. Winter, summer, cold, snow, rain. And it just like, that's kind of where I did my thinking and planning my life, which of course this I never would have known. But whenever I look back at Lake Superior, I always think about, that's kind of where all of this started. I was kind of starting my professional life there. Lake Superior was just always there. And it's just this crazy ominous presence that you really can't escape. One day in November, I was driving into work and it was the anniversary of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald. And I'm driving in and of course, the song's playing on the radio and I'm driving in and it's a cold, windy day that the November gales or the big waves are splashing up and almost getting my car windows wet. And I'm thinking to myself like, you almost got goosebumps because you're kind of looking out there going, this was that kind of day. And here we are again, with the song playing on the radio and Gordon Lightfoot. And I'm like, oh my gosh, this is crazy. But really like as the weekend anchor, you're sitting around and there's not slow news and all of a sudden you've got some ice fishermen out there and the piece of ice they're fishing on floats away from the shore and they're out in the middle of the lake and the Coast Guard's going out to rescue them. And that was a lot of our news cycle too, was Coast Guard going to rescue boaters and fishermen. And I mean, Lake Superior is just everything up there. And when you live around that, I was up there for almost 10 years. And when you live around that, it literally just like becomes part of you. It really does. And to this day, I'm like, I know I told my stepkids, I'm like, you might have to sprinkle my ashes in Lake Superior someday when it's all over. So it's just, I don't know, I feel like that lake somehow kind of formed me and my future. And I don't know, it will always be really, really special to me. And if you're ever in Minnesota, again, go just take 35 as far North as you can and drive all along the North shore. And you'll see what I mean. It really, it's hard to explain how big and how impactful that lake is to that whole region, but it's just, it's everything. It controls everything. Your mood, your weather, your plans for the day.
Speaker 2 (51:40):
I mentioned the Blue Leaves Club earlier. Tell me about your connection with that group. It rolled into playing your cult's fanaticism.
Speaker 3 (51:46):
Big, that was big too. So I hadn't even started my blog yet, but one day I, to this day, I don't know how this happened. And I've still, I've asked people in the cult's organization and they don't know how it happened. But one day I get an email from Kaylin Ursay, who's the youngest daughter of Jim Ursay, saying that they're forming a focus group of female cult's fans to start a fan club. And they basically want to know what we want from the team. And could I come to the cult's facility and meet with them on this day and time? To which I responded, absolutely, I will be there. So I showed up and there were like eight of us and they gave us a private tour of the facility. And then we just sat and we just talked. And they did like three different sessions with us. We just talked about like, what is your dream for a female fan club for your team? We told them everything we wanted. We wanted special events. We wanted players to come and meet us. We wanted to be able to help with some of their charitable stuff. I mean, everything. And you know what? They did it. They put together the cult's blue ladies group and they did all of that. And we had football 101. We had football 201. We had NFL referees come in and talk to us and explain penalties and all that. We went out on the field and we tried to kick field goals. And we did throwing drills. We did tackling dummies. We did the whole thing. I remember being told once when I tackled a dummy on a mat that I could not have tackled that any softer. And I said, yeah, and you know what? It hurt anyway. But it really gives you an appreciation for what the game is like. When you are looking at a guy out there kicking a 30 yard field goal, and we as fans are referring to it as a chip shot. When you get out there on the field and you attempt to kick that, you realize real fast that that is not a chip shot. It's really, really hard. So it gave us an appreciation of the game. And then the thing I love the most about the blue ladies was I would always tell people, once social media came around, after a game, you get a lot of fans tweeting at the players, telling them how terrible they were. It was the blue ladies. It was the female fans that were tweeting the players after a bad game, telling them, hey, we still believe in you. You're gonna do great next week. Keep your chin up. And that is such a valuable thing. It really is. So it's just, I always said that the female fans are the heart of the fan base. They are your best fans. They're your fans that don't give up on the team. Not to call them out, but when the game is going badly, my husband will go upstairs and be like, I'm done, I can't watch this anymore. I'm like, what, are you kidding me? You're leaving me here by myself to watch the rest of this game? That's not fair. He's like, I can't even watch this anymore. I'm going upstairs. And half the time, by the way, he does that and then they come back. So I'm like, good, go upstairs again. But it's female fans that hang in there. They hang in there with the team. It's like they're families. You don't give up when your kid does something wrong. You hang in there. So it was honestly, I have so many great friends from that group. We have so many fun memories, doing so many different things. Really, we learned a lot about the game. We went out and tried. Most of us learned that we couldn't be professional football players without a doubt. We broke nails, but such a fun thing. And to be honest, ever since COVID, they really didn't, the whole thing kind of fizzled. So there isn't an active Blue Ladies group anymore. And I really think that the fans and the organization is missing out by not continuing to have that fan club because it was huge and it was so much fun. And we just, we enjoyed every minute of it. But again, that was my first door open into the Colts organization. And I still don't know how it happened. But then once I had my blog and I had ownership following me on my blog, then all of a sudden one day, I hear from one of the marketing people that they're starting a blog for their female fans, the Colts, and they were looking for a writer. I'm like, hello. So I was kind of like the perfect person at the perfect time. And they brought me in and interviewed me and the job was mine. And honestly, they brought me in, they gave me a code to the door and they were like, go do your thing. But I mean, I thought that the parameters were gonna be, you know, but they really just let me go and do my thing. And I was amazed. They're like, go write the stories you wanna write. And I did and it was a blast. And yeah, I don't know how I got in that door, but once I did, I mean, it was just, it was magic, it really was.
Speaker 2 (56:49):
How did Lloyd run a time? It's an absolute pleasure. That's so sad.
Speaker3: You'll have to read my book, right?
Absolutely, and Peyton's gonna write the foreword for you.
Speaker 3 (56:58):
Yeah, I hope so.
Speaker 2 (56:59):
And again, the title is, it all happened because of Peyton Manning.
Speaker 3 (57:02):
I originally thought my title of my book was gonna be Pigskin and Pearls, my love affair with football. But that- That's your second book. Yeah, exactly, exactly.
Speaker 2 (57:11):
Right on time. I'm Chris Meek. Until next week, stay safe and keep taking your next steps forward.
There are few things that make people successful. Taking a step forward to change their lives is one successful trait, but it takes some time to get there. How do you move forward to greet the success that awaits you? Welcome to Next Steps Forward with host Chris Meek. Each week, Chris brings on another guest who has successfully taken the next steps forward. Now here is Chris Meek.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Hello. You've tuned to this week's episode of Next Steps Forward, and I'm your host, Chris Meek. As always, it's a pleasure to have you with us. Our focus is on personal empowerment, a commitment to wellbeing, and the motivation to achieve more than you ever thought possible. We have another outstanding guest this week. Heather Lloyd grew up in Eden Prairie, Minnesota during the 1980s. Her parents was a distant neighbor who frequented the same back roads and almost ran over her dad in the parking lot of a local grocery store. That's a story we're definitely going to have to hear. Heather Lloyd attended my beloved alma mater, Syracuse University, where she was an active member of Alpha Z Delta sorority. According to her biography, in her spare time, she got a degree in broadcast journalism and political science. She started her career as a news reporter at KCCO-TV in Alexandria, Minnesota, where she also functioned as photographer, video editor, assignment editor, and Friday night football score taker, no surprise. From there, she moved to Duluth, Minnesota as an anchor and reporter at KDLH-TV. She eventually transitioned to public relations before moving into financial sales. In 2004, Heather took time off from her career, married her husband, Michael, became a step mom to two children, and fell madly in love with the Indianapolis Colts. She started a football blog, generated a social media following, and went on to write for the Colts for five years. And today, she's a Daybreak Colts contributor for WISH News 8 in Indianapolis. Heather Lloyd, welcome to Next Steps Forward.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
Thank you for having me. It's great to be here.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Great to have you. A lot to talk about. It's going to be a fun conversation. So our listeners, grab a beer, grab a coffee, let's have some fun. Excited to do it. Live TV produces some really crazy moments, and it seems like every broadcast journalist has at least one such war story. What was your crazy on-air moment, either at WISH or one of your previous stations, where something unexpected happened, and how did you handle it?
Speaker 3 (02:17):
My best, funniest war story is that I was a weekend anchor in Duluth, Minnesota. The opening credits are rolling, the broadcast is ready to start, and our sports guy is running upstairs. This is going to date me tremendously, by the way. Our sports guy is running upstairs with a pile of tapes to get in for the sports broadcast. And as I'm looking at the camera and getting ready to open the show and introduce myself, I hear him trip, and I hear the tapes all rolling down the stairs as the newscast is opening. We're opening with a house fire, and I'm trying to suppress my laughter because I'm picturing Chris falling down the stairs with all the sports tapes flying out. I didn't completely successfully suppress my laughter, so we got some calls afterwards in the newsroom saying, why was Heather laughing when you're opening with a house fire? And I'm like, I was laughing at the sports guy who fell down the stairs during the news open. So it's like, you have to be prepared for anything and everything. But that was the one that I was just like, and you know how it is when you're trying to not laugh? It just makes you want to laugh harder, and I was not super successful at that.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
How do you approach storytelling and sports journalism to make it engaging for all types of viewers?
Speaker 3 (03:35):
You know what? The interesting thing about that is exactly what you just said, the all types of viewers. Not everyone is fanatical about the game itself. Not everyone knows the technicalities of the game itself. To me, every game is kind of a story that you watch unfold, and then you've got the stories of the players who play the game. So when I was with the Colts and writing about the team, one of the things I really put an emphasis on was telling the stories of the players. Because for a lot of the fans, that's what gets you connected to the team, is the story of these guys and where they came from and their families. I mean, I wrote about their fashion. I wrote about their dogs. I mean, it was everything, and it was so much fun. Because for a lot of fans, they cared about the players and what they did on the field, but they cared about them even more, like who the people were off the field. It was really fun to bring that human side of the players to the fans, because that's what a lot of them wanted, especially the female fans.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Well, I guess maybe to that point, is there someone, a peer of yours for the Cincinnati Bengals who writes about fashion for Joe Cool?
Speaker 3 (04:39):
Oh, there should be. I mean, isn't he amazing? I still find myself so drawn to that. I always look at the pre-game photos, and I don't even care who the team is, you know? I mean, when I actually started my own blog, that's one of the things that I was writing about on my blog, was the best-pressed players every week. I mean, when social media was first coming up, we didn't used to get much of a glimpse behind the scenes when the players arrived at the games and what they were wearing and all that. And now it's become so much a part of the game. I mean, when I went to work for the Colts, one of the first things I thought was, I told them, that's what I wanted to do. I wanted to tell personal stories about the players and their fashion, their dogs. And as I was walking in there, one of the first times to actually talk about that, I was thinking to myself, are they going to think it's weird that I want to come in here and ask them about what they were wearing on Sunday? They loved it. I mean, they lit up. Because some of these players had a good game. Some of these players didn't have a good game. So when I came in on the Monday following the game, and we're not talking about what happened on the field. I want to talk about what they wore to game day. I mean, they lit up. They absolutely loved it. And I was shocked at how many of them had a really good story behind what they were wearing too. I remember asking Matt Hasselbeck about his outfit one time, he was like, yeah, Andrew Luck actually gave me this belt for Christmas. You got a lot of the stories behind the clothes too, and it was super fun.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
So when you consider best dressed, do you look more traditional business-like in a suit or more, what kind of flair or panache does the player have?
Speaker 3 (06:19):
I love the flair. I mean, because they can all put on a suit and look professional and all that. I like the flair where a player really shows you who he is by what he's wearing. Obviously you had Cam Newton, he was probably the most out there every week. But the Colts, and then you have on the opposite extreme, we had Andrew Luck, who always showed up super conservative, just in a suit with boots. And it was always kind of shocking if he showed up in anything out of the ordinary, but yeah, it was really, really fun. Even when you get a new player, we'd sign a new player. And honestly, one of my first thoughts was always like, I wonder how this guy's going to dress? It was always fun to see if he catched for a cure, they would come out in pink and it was just, it was always really fun to see what they were going to wear. So that was really a blast. And honestly, the dogs, that's the other one, is, I mean, you go in there and they hear question after question about, what about this play? What about next week? What about your injury? And I come up and I'm like, hey, let's talk about your dog. And I mean, they just like light up and just give these glowing interviews about their dog. And they say, you come home after a bad game and your dog doesn't care how you played. You know, your dog's just happy to see you. And I just, I mean, I, for some reason, our O-line, the biggest players had the smallest dog. And it was really funny to tell the stories about like Anthony Costanzo and his like little chihuahua. And sometimes it wasn't what you would expect. But these players just talking so lovingly about their dogs, I mean, it really, really humanized them. And honestly, it was some of the most popular stories that I told.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
I'm not a Colts offensive lineman, but my neighbors laugh at me being 6'3, 220 and walking my two little 14 pound shih tzus.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
Yeah. See? Right. It takes a real man to walk a small dog.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
I understand that. Absolutely. And maybe as a follow up to that, you talked about fashion, the dogs. What's it like covering NFL teams so closely? You know, do you have access to players, coaches and things that go on behind the scenes?
Speaker 3 (08:16):
Yeah. I mean, I was in the building when football season started all the way up until the last game of the season. I was in the building pretty much every day. My job was to just go into the locker room and get the stories that I wanted to tell, which were, again, not so much the football stories, but the other stuff. So, yeah, I was there. On game day, I'd be on the field before the games, and sometimes I'd be catching up with the family members, telling the stories of the players before they got to football. Those were always fun. And then everything the Colts players did off the field, I was there covering. So they did a ton of stuff in the community outside the game. I would literally spend, from training camp all the way until the season ended, running around Indianapolis with these players, covering everything they were doing off the field. And it was a blast. I have more stories than we could ever tell today. And then- On and off the record. Yeah, exactly. On and off the record. Some of the stuff that they told me in the locker room, I went right out and reported. And some of that stuff, I'll take to the grave. But it was so much fun. I will say it was exhausting. I ran like a crazy woman all season long. But I loved it. I loved every minute of it.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
We're going to get back to the players in a second, but thinking back to when you started your academic career at the Newhouse School, number one school in communications in the country, thinking about being a CNN News anchor, some other major network, could you have ever envisioned you'd be reporting on an NFL football team?
Speaker 3 (09:50):
Never. Because the funny thing is, when I went to school, I was going to be a reporter. Because back then, sports was a five-minute blip in the newscast. It really was. Sports was not what it is today. ESPN was out there, Headline News was out there, but it didn't occupy the space it occupies now in our lives. And the 24-hour news cycle has really come so far in making sports what it is today. But never, because sports wasn't even what I was looking to do. I came out and I wanted to cover news and politics, and that's what I did. And then the weird thing is, I got out of all of that and then come full circle back around again by starting a blog. And that's what thrust me right back into here. And pretty soon, I'm covering sports and talking about sports for a living, what I never really intended to. I fell right into this because of just life. It's just the path life takes you on. And I ended up in a city where I fell in love with this football team, in part, by the way, because Tony Dungy was the Colts coach. He was the defensive coordinator for the Vikings. Marvin Harrison was here, who of course we all loved and shared- All time Syracuse, great. All time Syracuse. Yes. So this was not a hard thing for me to move to Indy and fall in love with the Colts and then throw Peyton Manning in there, by the way, who just made everything so fun. It was, I moved here in August of 2004 as a Vikings fan. The Vikings played the Colts on Monday night football in November. So this whole time I'm picturing myself, my husband and I went to all the games. He was a season ticket holder. I'm picturing myself at that Vikings game in November as a Vikings fan. And by the time that game got here, about halfway through the game, I realized I was cheering for the Colts. And I was like, you know, I think this is my team now. I mean, that's how long it took.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
Did you have to go to the gift shop to get a new jersey?
Speaker 3 (11:48):
You know what, exactly. I'm like, you know what? No, I'm good. This is my team. So they were just, they were way too easy to fall in love with. And it just, it happened like that. And I would die hard. And then of course Peyton Manning left, broke my heart in a million pieces. And all of my friends were messaging me and, you know, oh my gosh, how you feel? What are you going to do? You know? I'm like, I can't even answer that question in a text message or on a Facebook post. You know? So I'm like, I think that's why people have blogs. So I started a blog to write about how heartbroken I was when Peyton Manning left. And there was one post in particular where Peyton was coming back to play the Colts on Sunday night football. We had Andrew Luck now. Life was good. I watched Andrew Luck that whole, his last college season, knowing he was probably going to be our quarterback. So I was dialed in. I knew we had to do what we were doing. It broke my heart. I knew they were going to probably part with Peyton Manning. Andrew Luck was going to be our guy. Of course, when it happened, it was way harder than I thought it would be. But so Andrew Luck comes in. We're excited. We're ready to start the season. We actually played a season with him and it was the next season that Peyton Manning came to play Andrew Luck on Sunday night football. And I'm like, at this point, I'm like, I'm good. We have Andrew Luck. I'm fine. And so I'm sitting there watching the game the week before and the promo comes on for Peyton Manning's return to Indianapolis and they've got him running out onto the field in slow motion and the song, with the song, I'm coming home playing in the background. And I started sobbing and suddenly I'm like, whoops, I lost my AirPod, hold on here. So I start sobbing and I'm like, oh my gosh, I don't think I'm over it. And I pulled out my computer and wrote a post basically talking about, I thought I was ready for this. I thought I was over it. I have Andrew Luck now. I've moved on. And then the promo comes on and I start sobbing and I don't think I'm over it. And I think I'm going to need therapy and waterproof mascara. I put it out there and I am not kidding you. It went so viral that every time it opened up Facebook or Twitter, it was getting shared again. Because I had captured how so many Colts fans felt about Peyton Manning's return. And that honestly was really, that was the launchpad for everything I'm doing in sports now. Was the story I wrote about Peyton Manning coming back to play the Colts on Sunday Night Football.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
So your bad breakup with an old boyfriend is what gave you the career.
Speaker 3 (14:29):
It was literally, it was. I mean, and I walked into the place that we would always go in and have brunch before the game. I walked in there and the people at the hostess stand said to me, we all read your blog. And I was like, I didn't tell you I had a blog. It was crazy, crazy, crazy, but it was just fun. And you know what, from then on, I wrote about how I felt about the Colts every week in my heart and with the different players that were coming and going. It's always so hard to say goodbye to a beloved player. I mean, it really is. And I wrote that story over and over again about Reggie, you know, Reggie Wayne and Robert Mathis. And you know, it just, it really rips your heart out. But it was the Peyton Manning one that just, I mean, people just got it. And I don't think there's anything better as a writer than writing something and having people say to you, oh my gosh, you captured exactly how I feel. It's the best feeling in the world.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
That's amazing. So we'll put Peyton Manning aside for a minute because I don't want you to cry on the show today. People have in the past, it's okay.
Speaker3: It's okay. It's another air pod. Yeah.
Are there iconic players you've had the privilege to meet, interact with and who are some of the players that stand out to you the most and what were your interactions with them like?
Speaker 3 (15:43):
Oh gosh. I mean, I could tell these stories forever too. The coolest thing about going to work in sports is that you meet your heroes, you know, and not only do you meet them, but you get to know them like as people and you get to know their families. And early, early on, before I was even working for the Colts, I went to the pro football hall of fame. And I had never been there before, but Chris Carter was being inducted and he is someone I cheered for growing up as a Vikings fan. So I'm like, you know what, I'm going to see if I can get a credential and go over and cover the, you know, the hall of fame induction. And I did. It's a very fan and media friendly, you know, facility. So they approved me. I went over there. I'm like, I can't believe I'm doing this right now. So I get over there and not only do I cover the hall of fame, but first of all, if you are a football fan, you have got to go to Canton, Ohio sometime and go to the pro football hall of fame. It's awesome. And the hall of fame weekend is even better because all the media people and all the coaches and all the players, it's just packed with people that, you know, I'm standing there talking to someone. I'm like, oh, look, there's Bill Belichick. Oh, look, there's, you know, I'm actually walking around the hall of fame museum and I run into Roger Goodell, introduce myself, shake his hand. I'm like, this is wild, you know? So later that, that afternoon, before the game started, I'm standing on, on the field next to the ESPN set. I'm talking to my, my new friend, Sal Palantonio, such a great guy. And I was obsessed at the time with Gruden's quarterback camp. I learned a ton about football watching Gruden's quarterback camp. So I'm standing there talking to Sal and up, John Gruden comes walking up and I'm like, so I just say John Gruden and he kind of looks up and he's kind of looking like, do I know you? And I just stick my hand out and he shakes my hand. And I said, I am so obsessed with watching quarterback camp that I said, I was, I was, I was just watching and my husband came downstairs and he says to me, haven't you seen this one before? And I was like, not the whole thing. Gruden gives me a big hug and he's like, I love you, man. You know? I mean, so that was just amazing. And then a couple of years later when Tony Dungy and Marvin Harrison were going to the Hall of Fame, now I'm working for the Colts, back at the Hall of Fame to cover that and then cover it. We were playing the Hall of Fame game and our cheerleaders were performing with Tim McGraw on stage. So the night before we're out there and the cheerleaders are, they're like rehearsing and I'm just standing on the stage, just watching him rehearse, taking some pictures, just hanging out. And all of a sudden I see someone walk, walk up next to me and I turn and look and it's Jim Kelly standing next to me. And it was right after he had gone through another one of those really tough health battles. And he looked kind of, he looked thin, but you know, he looked pretty good. And so I just started talking to him like, oh my gosh, we've all been pulling so hard for you. It's so good to see you here. And he gave me a huge hug, just the nicest guy in the world. I mean, so all of, I mean, it just goes on and on and on. I mean, when I first got into the Colts locker room, Robert Mathis was someone who, I mean, he was intimidating. Like when Robert Mathis came walking down, you know, down the hall in the locker room, you sort of just got out of his way. And by the time he announced his retirement, I congratulated him in the locker room after his press conference, you know, and told him I was happy with him and all that. And he gave me a big hug, you know? So it's like, it's just, there are so many players who, and just significant people who I'd followed and really like as a fan fell in love with over the years that I really got to know, got to know their families, you know, got to know what they were all about. And it's just, you know, they say never meet your heroes, but for me, it was the opposite. My heroes were great. I loved meeting my heroes. I was able to interview Peyton Manning a couple of times and I mean, just really, really cool.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
You realize you're living every NFL fan's dream right now, right?
Speaker 3 (19:38):
I fully realize that. And honestly, the whole time I was pinching myself all along, and I still am to this day. I mean, even when I come back and do something like this and tell the stories, I'm still like, I can't believe this happened, but it really all happened because of Peyton Manning. And because I felt so strongly about Peyton Manning and the Colts. And when I went to write about it, you know, my heart came out onto the computer and people identified with that. And that's what got me here. And then after, let's see, I was with the Colts for a few years and then Wish TV reached out and said, Hey, we'd love to have you on in the mornings to talk about the games. I said, absolutely. So now since, oh my gosh, way back and like, it's been almost 10 years now that I've been going in after the games and talking with my friends on daybreak about what happened the day before and what happened with the game and how we feel about the team. And that's been a blast too. So it's just, it's honestly, it's all been a dream and I still have to pinch myself every day. You know what else too? I love sharing the story, not because, you know, Oh, look at all these great things I was able to do. I love sharing the story to tell people that if you love something, you have to pursue it and you just have to just do it. You know? I mean, it's scary. It's intimidating. I had a blog for two years that I just threw out there and, you know, not thinking it was going anywhere when all of a sudden it opened the door for me with the Indianapolis Colts. And then it opened the door with me with a local TV station. And whether you're getting paid or not, you know, my first internship with WCCO-TV, that's what got me my first news job. I not only went and worked there for a summer, but every break during college, I would just go back and help out. When I was home for Christmas, I'd go back and just work on the assignment desk. I'd answer the phone and pass the tips along. And when I graduated and they were, you know, I was ready to go out and get my first job. And they hooked me up with my first job at their satellite station in Alexandria, Minnesota. So just get your foot in the door, however you can, contribute however you can, even if you're not getting paid, and just stick with it. And if you truly love it, and you work hard, and you stick with it, and you don't take no for an answer, and you just literally keep showing up, it will get you somewhere. It will. I just wouldn't go away. I didn't go away at WCCO. I didn't go away, you know, with football when I wanted to be covering the Colts. But eventually, the right things happened. The doors opened for me, and boom. And I also have to give huge credit to my friend, Anthony Calhoun, another Syracuse graduate of the Newhouse School. I met Anthony in person for the first time at training camp for the Colts. I knew he went to Syracuse. He knew I went to Syracuse. The funny thing is, when I moved to Indy, we never knew each other at Syracuse. But when I moved to Indy, I saw him on TV, and I was like, gosh, that guy looks familiar. So then social media opens up. I find on Twitter, I'm like, oh, no wonder I know him. He went to Syracuse. So we get to know each other at Colts training camp, and he had me on a few times on Sports Locker, his Sunday night show. So that kind of opened the door there. Then Daybreak came along, and I ended up doing a regular thing with them, and I still go on every once in a while and do Anthony's show. It's great. But honestly, I cannot overestimate how important connections are. Get to know anyone and everyone. Contribute however you can. Just offer to help. Just say, is there anything I can do? Any way you can get your foot in the door. Like I said, I just didn't go away. And eventually they're like, let's let this girl do something.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
Give her an ID.
Speaker 3 (23:18):
She's going to keep bugging us until we let her.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
So I'm going to make a suggestion that I've given to a few select special guests in the past, just because you don't have enough to do right now. From all the stories you've told, you have to write a book. And I've already got the title and the byline for you. The title is, It All Happened Because of Peyton Manning, and the byline is, If you love something, you have to do it.
Speaker 3 (23:44):
A hundred percent. You know what's really funny? I have a rough draft of a book on my computer. I do. I started it years ago, and then it just got so crazy with the cold, and I just put it away. I shelved it. And it might be time to go back and pull that out. You know why primarily? Because I'm going to forget these stories. I'm not writing this for the fans. I'm writing this for me, so I don't forget these stories. Even doing the podcast like this, there's stuff like, I didn't remember the Robert Mathis thing until you said it. I'm like, oh yeah, that was so cool. I mean, I know, you're right. I have to do it. I've got my old blog posts I can go back and pull back out. I don't even have my blogs anymore, because I didn't keep them up, because technology was so expensive. I don't even have my blogs anymore, because I didn't keep them up, because technology was so expensive. But you're right, I need to get it all down on paper and have this somewhere where I can continue if I can. But you're right, I need to get it all down on paper and have this somewhere where I can talking about the Colts.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
If I can help in any way, please do, because you have to do it.
Speaker 3 (24:52):
No, I know you can help. And I know, and congratulations on your books. Oh, thank you. I mean, absolutely amazing. So yes, you can help me.
Speaker 2 (24:59):
I just get bored easily, I guess. So you've been talking about all these great stories and great encounters you've had with these massive professional athletes, you know, the elite of the elite. Have you ever encountered skepticism about your sports knowledge because of your gender? And if so, how have you responded to it?
Speaker 3 (25:14):
Oh, sure. I mean, when I started my blog, there were not a lot of people, females, writing and talking about football. You know, there were the token ones. I mean, funny story. I was at WCCO TV as an intern when Michelle Tafoya was going into the first locker rooms as a female reporter. And do you remember the controversy with all that? And I remember watching all that unfold. And at the time, I wasn't even, you know, sports wasn't my thing, but I just remember watching that, being fascinated by it. And here I am now, years later, doing that myself because she paved the way. So yes, you have to prove yourself. You do. And you know, I'll say that whether you're a male or a female, because anytime you come in and you're the rookie and you're young, people are gonna look at you. And honestly, every chance you get, you have to make a good impression. You just do. You have to be more accurate. You have to be more of a professional. You have to go above and beyond if you're young and if you're a female. I found that in the financial world, believe it or not, way worse than in football. The financial world, I had to prove myself much harder when I worked in financial sales. But with football, the difference with me is that I was writing more of the personal stories. I did write some football stories on the Colts website, but mostly I was writing the personal stories. But I had to prove myself, believe it or not, more in the media room with the other members of the media, who, some of which had been covering the team for almost as long as I had been alive. So it was more of them that I had to prove, like, listen, I know what I'm doing. I can do this. And it really, it just takes time. Over time, they came to respect me. They did. And they'd turn around to do the same thing with the next young woman that walked in the door. You have to prove yourself. And honestly, the other thing you have to remember is you're not just going in there representing yourself. You're going in there representing the next women that are gonna come after you. And now, the beautiful thing about it now is there are so many women that it's not even, that's not so much of a thing anymore. It's really not. Like, they're used to it now. So, but it's cool to watch how that has evolved. And now, watching a woman covering sports of any kind is not that notable of a thing anymore. And that's awesome. I think that shows how far we've come. I mean, the locker room thing is always weird. It's never gonna be normal, you know? But you just figure it out, you know? But the first time I walked into the locker room, the thing I was most terrified about was that it was gonna smell bad. And it didn't. I was pleasantly surprised that I walked in there. It was clean. It smelled good. It was totally fine. The funniest locker room story I have is I was standing there waiting to talk to a player. And one of the players next to him was an O-line man, was getting dressed. And he, you know, they're pretty good about doing it subtly while we're standing there. And you just learn to look away and whatever. But he took off his towel and he just randomly kind of threw it behind his head. It landed on my foot. His wet towel. And I'm just sitting there staring at it. And I'm like, I'm not picking that up. There's no way. I had open-toed shoes on too, by the way, to make it all the worse. And he just turns around and he's like, I am so sorry. And he comes over and he grabs it real quick. I'm like, I hope you know I'm not picking that up and throwing it in the bin. And he was really good about it. He was actually horrified and way more embarrassed than I was.
(28:42):
Speaker2: Another story for the book.
See, and now I told it, so I'll remember it.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
And it's recorded, so we can go back to the notes.
Speaker 3 (28:49):
Yes, exactly.
Speaker 2 (28:50):
Something I've always appreciated about sports and something that's even amazed me at times is this ability to bring individuals, communities, states, even countries together. What is it about sports that makes them such a powerful force for bringing people together, regardless of background, generations, politics, or other differences?
Speaker 3 (29:06):
It's because it breaks down all the barriers. I mean, we're just all in the same place, cheering for the same cause. And really, how often does that happen in life? I mean, to have all these people brought together, there's a couple of things. I think animals bring people together. You know, pets, people love their pets. And then sports, people love their sports. And the cool thing about being at a game is you're sitting alongside all kinds of different people, all different age, all different sex, different race. It doesn't matter, because you're all cheering for the same thing. And it's so cool over the years. I mean, we got to know so many different people, you know, in our section at the games, and that's so fun. And you kind of watch their kids grow up, and you watch, you know, you watch everyone's lives change before your eyes as you're there cheering on your team every week. And I just, I never took that for granted either. It's just, it's such a cool thing, but it really does. I mean, it's just, it's an emotional thing that ties you together with other people. You could be in a different city, and you're just wearing a Colts hat or a Colts shirt, and strangers will come up to you and be like, oh, hey, you know, and you meet people that way. I know what's happened to you. It's happened to all of all sports fans. And it's just, it's such a cool thing. I moved here in 2004. I knew my husband and some of the people that he worked with, and that was it. And for me, it was going to the games, cheering on the Colts. Like the Colts turned Indianapolis into my home. They really did. By bonding with other fans, I made a ton of, all my best friends, I probably met cheering for the Colts. So it really does, you know, it bonds you with people. It gives you something in common right away. It gives you something that you're all passionate about and something that you, you know, that brings you together. And that, I mean, I don't know that there's anything else like that.
Speaker 2 (30:56):
Sorry, I've just met my dog Zeke to let everyone know that either UPS or Amazon is here right now.
Speaker 3 (31:01):
Well, if a squirrel shows up on my balcony, you're going to hear mine. Fortunately, that hasn't happened yet.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
Do you think certain sports have a stronger ability to unify people than others? And if so, why?
Speaker 3 (31:14):
I will preface this by saying that I am incredibly biased. But yes, I think football brings people together more so than any other sport. And this is why. First of all, because football owns Sundays. And really, they own Saturdays too, when you think about it, with college football. They also own holidays, Thanksgiving. But now Christmas day is a huge, it's a huge football day now. And I love it. So what happened for me, and one of the things that made me a football fan was Sundays is a day that a lot of people, you know, you do your stuff, you do your sports on Saturdays, you run around. Sundays is the day that everyone's kind of home and everyone is relaxing. And I was watching football with my dad on Sundays, growing up, watching the Vikings play. And so for me, that's just what we did on Sundays. And then on Thanksgiving day, you're watching your team play. And so I think a lot of your emotional and core memories, you know, growing up are around the game of football. And so that sort of, that ties you to the game much more than, you know, watching golf is great. You know, watching basketball is great. But for me, my core memories growing up were growing up around the game of football. With football on, my dad driving us to school on Monday mornings and listening to talk radio, talking about, you know, whatever horrific thing happened to the Vikings on Sunday that all of Minnesota is now commiserating about. I mean, talk about bringing people together. Bringing people together after terrible disappointment is a really good way to bond people. You know, my dad would be laughing, listening to KQ in the morning and talking about whatever disastrous thing happened to the Vikings. And it just, those are my core memories of growing up. And that is why I love football to this day. And by the way, my stepchildren who we took to the games, I mean, all of our family memories, so many of them were made watching football. I always say this. I came in, got to know them. We got married. We really became a family watching the Colts play on Sundays. I mean, that's what we did. Whether it was at home on the TV or whether it was in person, like that's what bonded me to my new family, my new community, my new friends. I mean, without the Colts, my life would have looked so different here.
Speaker 2 (33:36):
Well, it's like in Ted Lasso, Daniel says football is life.
Speaker 3 (33:41):
A hundred percent, a hundred percent. I mean, it's so beyond the game. It really is. And that's, it's bigger than football. You know, it's community, it's everything. And I feel like the pride for your community is on the line. When I first moved to Indianapolis, a lot of my friends were like, really, you're moving to Indianapolis? What made me proud to say that was the Colts. I'm like, heck yeah, I'm living in Indianapolis. Look, you know, we're hosting the Superbowl. We got Peyton Manning. You know, we were on every, how many Monday night and Sunday night and Thursday night games were the Colts on? So then I started getting messages from people like, oh, your city looks great. Fun to watch the Colts tonight. I mean, really, that was sort of how I was. I got the pride in my city. Then I'm like, hey, look, this is my city. This is my city now. Look at us, watch us on Sunday night. Watch us on Monday night. NFL Combine is here. You know, it just, we were sort of the center of the sports world for a long time. Now that's sort of fallen a little bit now, but we're, hopefully we'll get back there.
Speaker 2 (34:43):
Well, and I will say I've visited India a couple of times. I do some work with Indy 500, one of the racing teams there.
Speaker 3 (34:48):
Yeah.
Speaker2: And it's a spectacular city.
It's a great city. And that event is unbelievable. So I learned- If you have never been to an Indy 500, you have to go, you have to. I had never been to a car race before, ever in my entire life. And so I go to my first Indy 500 carb day and I watch the practice and I'm like, this is unbelievable. Yep. You cannot explain it to someone unless they see it in person.
Speaker 2 (35:13):
And I do some work with Rahal, Letterman, Lannigan. So I have to give them a shout out because they're a big supporter. Graham's a good friend. Yeah. And I think the stat is on the day of the Indy 500, there are more people at the event than in the state of Indiana.
Speaker 3 (35:29):
You can't, again, you cannot explain to people how big this event is or how many things you can fit inside the Indianapolis 500. There's that picture where they put all the things inside there. They put in like, they put in the Coliseum in Rome and they put in football fields. There is a golf course inside of the racetrack, inside, right in the middle. You can't even explain it. And Graham Rahal's a great guy. I've interviewed him many times. I used to go there with my blog and cover the 500. So he's a huge Ohio State fan. So whenever we would bring the new Colts rookies out to IMS, we literally baptized the new Colts players by bringing them out to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway to be like, hey, welcome to Indy. This is Indy. So they'd come out to the track. They'd attend a practice. We'd bring them around to meet the drivers. And Graham Rahal always loved meeting the guys from Ohio State because he was a huge Ohio State fan. So that was always fun for him, but he's awesome, awesome guy. And he is always one of the guys I'm pulling for to win it. Marco Andretti, Graham Rahal, every year I'm cheering for one of those guys to win it. So hopefully this is Graham's year.
Speaker 2 (36:41):
Hopefully, Graham's involved with a nonprofit I work with and he actually hosts a charity golf tournament the Thursday before the Indy 500 at that golf course inside the track for our charity and another one called One Cure.
Speaker 3 (36:52):
Oh, that's awesome.
Speaker 2 (36:53):
Yeah, so we'll connect on that after the show, but he's a great guy.
Speaker 3: Yeah, for sure, good, good guy. Yep, yep. (36:56):
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Speaker 2 (36:58):
Are there any specific Colts players past or present who've made a significant impact in bringing people together beyond their on-field heroics?
Speaker 3 (37:07):
Oh gosh, I mean, I don't think I can put into words what Peyton Manning did for the city of Indianapolis. I feel like he put the city on the map. I really do. I mean, just everything changed with him. We would have never hosted the Superbowl probably had Peyton Manning not been here. Lucas Oil Stadium would not be here. I mean, that is literally the house that Peyton built. I mean, just, he was on every commercial. He was on, you saw him in prime time all the time. I just, I feel like he took this nice little Midwestern city and he just put a humongous spotlight on it. And you can't even contemplate financially and the way that that has impacted the city of Indianapolis. You really can't. And you know what? Andrew Luck was awesome for that too, just awesome. I mean, he sort of came around. He had big shoes to fill both on the field and off. And he did it in a very different way than Peyton did it. Peyton was very out there. Andrew was more the quiet, like he was out of his comfort zone when he was doing commercials. So he did much, many, much fewer of them, but he still did them and he did what he needed to do at times. But Andrew was also the guy that would just quietly go to Riley Hospital for children and just visit with the kids almost every week. And just do, he liked to do things quieter and behind the scenes, what were Peyton was much more like out there upfront. And certainly Peyton did plenty of that stuff behind the scenes too as well. Peyton Manning really, we like to say that he changed the landscape of Indianapolis. He really did. I mean, and I was there at, when they dedicated the statue in front of Lucas Oil Stadium to Peyton Manning. And I mean, you've got guys like David Letterman was speaking. They unveiled a statue of Peyton Manning in front of Lucas Oil Stadium. And David Letterman is talking about how he changed the landscape of Indiana and all the things that he's done for the state. And it's just, it's unbelievable. And you still feel it. You still see it. I mean, no, I don't think any athlete yet has replaced what Peyton Manning meant to the city. So it's, there's one who's coming up who might, you know, well, I know we're gonna talk about it at some point, but there's an athlete coming up who's coming, you know, she's got a ways to go, but I think she might be, she might be up there when her career is wrapping up.
Speaker 2 (39:35):
Let's go right into it. What has Caitlin Clark done for the state of Indiana?
Speaker 3 (39:41):
I mean, the amazing thing is she's played one season for the Indiana Fever, and we've just, we've never seen anything like it. Even, even Peyton Manning, Peyton Manning would fill Lucas Oil Stadium. Peyton Manning would not fill the other stadiums of the other teams that were playing at away games. These WNBA teams have to play in bigger stadiums when they play the Indiana Fever because they can't fit all the fans in their stadium because so many people want to come and see Caitlin Clark play. It's, she's a phenomenon before she's even achieved that much yet. So imagine where her, where her ceiling is. I mean, and you know what else I like about her? Very much like Andrew Luck, it's not about her. She's not about the spotlight. She just wants to be a good team player. She represents Indianapolis perfectly. You know, she's from the Midwest. She's a hard worker. She just wants to get out there and do her job. And she really, she says all the right things. She does all the right things. It's like, you just, you love everything about her. I mean, funny fact, I did not go to a Pacers game last year, but I went to a Fever game. So, I mean, if you would have told me 10 years ago that the Pacers wouldn't be filling their stadium every game, the Colts would be filling their stadium every game, but the Indiana Fever would be sold out every single game, I would have said, you are absolutely crazy. But one person has done that, and that person is Caitlin Clark.
Speaker 2 (41:13):
I mean, it's fun to watch these female athletes and superstars come up, because they are truly, truly changing the sport and changing the game and giving them what they deserve and equal pay and all that stuff.
Speaker3: Oh, all of that, 100%.
Our oldest daughter's graduating from UConn next week, and she's just fallen in love with Paige Beckers and watching her run. And so, not quite Caitlin Clark, but along the caliber. And someone showed me recently, you mentioned David Letterman, and we're talking Caitlin Clark. I think it was, so David Letterman recently interviewed her for his show, I think on Netflix. There's a great scene in there where they're doing ping pong balls, and she just crushes him. So I highly recommend everyone look that up, because it's funny as shit.
Speaker 3 (41:52):
She is an athlete, I mean, and she is competitive as they come. I mean, just, there was a video of her when the Pacers were playing the Bucs in the playoff game. They were at Gainbridge Fieldhouse throwing out t-shirts. And there's a video where she says to one of her teammates, that there was a Bucs fan there. And she was like, hit that Bucs fan right in the face. It doesn't matter what it is. She is just hardcore right there, competitive as anything. She supports all the other teams. She's at the Pacers game. She was at the Colts game. I mean, she is just, she's amazing. I mean, you can't help but to absolutely love her. And I love the spotlight that's been on her. I love the opportunities that are coming her way. She deserves them all. She is gonna make way more off the field than she's making on the field. And I hope someday that changes, because they do all deserve that. But for now, I'm like, you go get every endorsement you possibly can to kind of fill that gap between the men and the women pay-wise. If you have to make that up in endorsements, you go get it, girl. I mean.
Speaker 2 (42:57):
Well, I guess maybe that point is a follow-up to what you mentioned about how Peyton Manning put Indianapolis on the map, or where it is today. Do you see her as sort of a 2.0? I mean, those are big shoes, but still.
Speaker 3 (43:06):
Absolutely. Yeah, because she's just getting started. I mean, like I said, I know some people that maybe were Tennessee fans would maybe wanna go and see Peyton when he came with the Colts in their home stadium. But they did not have to switch to a bigger stadium because so many people wanted to come see him play. I mean, she's just getting started, and it's immense, the impact she's had on the game. I do think Peyton Manning, you could argue, elevated the entire map of football, not just the Colts. Because Peyton Manning was one of those people that because of his Saturday Night Live appearances, the commercial appearances, he is one of the people that really got women into the game. They loved Peyton Manning. He was a cultural icon. They wanted to see him. So he got a lot of women into football that maybe didn't love football before. I think Katelyn Clark is gonna do the same thing for the WNBA now. I had never watched a WNBA game until Katelyn Clark came in last year. And then I'm like, this is fun. These girls are amazing. I love this. So she's gonna do the same thing. She's gonna elevate the game to a level that they probably never thought possible.
Speaker 2 (44:12):
Okay, we talked about this in the beginning. I wanna make sure we cover this. Prince, Purple Rain. Prince was a distant neighbor.
Speaker 3 (44:21):
The first R-rated movie I ever went to, by the way. My aunt took me to Purple Rain when I was in middle school.
Speaker 2 (44:27):
I was gonna say, you had to be like eighth grade. That was my guess.
Speaker 3 (44:29):
I was young.
Speaker 2 (44:30):
So he was a distant neighbor who frequented the same back roads and almost ran your dad over in the parking lot of a local grocery store. Tell us how Prince almost ran over your dad and how your dad escaped.
Speaker 3 (44:42):
Well, first of all, so we lived in Eden Prairie. We were out in the Southwest suburbs. Prince lived in Shanhassen, which was the next town over. And our horses were at a barn in Shanhassen. So to go see our horses, we would take these back roads through Shanhassen. And he actually, his first house was a purple house on a little lake out in Shanhassen. And you'd drive by. Of course, it stuck out like a sore thumb. I mean, and we're not talking about a gated neighborhood. It was just a regular neighborhood with a purple house sitting on a lake. And that was Prince's house. And it was not uncommon to go driving out to the stable and a purple BMW goes whizzing by. There was only one purple BMW in the entire state of Minnesota and it belonged to Prince. So you're like, oh, look, there's Prince. You can kind of see the shadow of his hair through the dark windows. So one day he had moved on. Actually, the bodyguard now drove the purple BMW. Once he got more famous, he couldn't really drive around with a purple BMW anymore. So he had a different car. I think then he had a big black BMW. But my dad's leaving the grocery store and this car is just coming right at him and not really paying attention. So he kind of like jumps out of the way and the car slows down and it's got real dark tinted windows and it rolls down the window about this much. And it's just this guy in a really soft spoken voice. This guy goes, hey, sorry, man. And my dad looks, he's like, oh my gosh, it's Prince. And he came home and he told us a story. We're like, that did not happen. And he's like, I swear to God it happened.
Speaker 2: Near life or death experience with Prince. (46:17):
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Speaker 3 (46:19):
Yeah, Prince almost ran my dad over. Thankfully he did not. And he did feel bad about it. And he did stop and roll the window down and say, sorry, man. So that was the closest run-in any of my family members had with Prince. But it really, it was not uncommon to see him though at the gas station, out and around town. And I think one of the reasons that he stayed in Minnesota was because he could do that. People let him live his life. People let him do his thing. I mean, he was one of us. He really was. So he could come and go around. And of course the more famous he got, he got off the house on the lake. He had a house with a security gate and all of that. I mean, Paisley Park came around, his recording studio. So things certainly changed over time. But it really was a place I think he could just live his life and be kind of private and low key.
Speaker 2 (47:06):
Something I left out of your introduction was that during your time in Duluth, you began what you describe as quote, a lifelong obsession with Lake Superior. I've never heard this from anyone before. This show is a show first. I've never heard of anyone with an obsession with a great lake.
Speaker 3 (47:20):
My lifelong love affair with the Colts and with Lake Superior. Yes. So my grandma lives North of Duluth, Minnesota, which most people would look at a map and be like, does anyone live North of Duluth? Because when you look at the map, it's just all green. But this is where my parents grew up. This is where I was born. So coming up to see my grandma, we would drive up through Duluth and there's Lake Superior, you can't miss it. And my mom would always be talking about, oh, look at that lake. It's so cold and it's so scary. There's a lot of history there. Ships have gone down. People have died in Lake Superior. And it's kind of an ominous presence, but it's also like beautiful and stunning. And it's just such a combination of things that I always grew up thinking, well, Lake Superior was this kind of dark, cold, it's like an ocean up in Northern Minnesota. So when I moved to Duluth, I was driving down the hill for the first, this is the other thing, Duluth, Minnesota is all built on a hill and everything slopes down to Lake Superior. So it's like, it's the center of everything. So I'm driving downtown to my workplace for the first time and I'm looking out and there's the buildings on both sides. And then there's a building in the middle that's moving. I'm like, what in the world is going on? It was a ship coming in on Lake Superior, so big that it looks like a floating building. I'm like, this is wild. But Lake Superior, it kind of set your mood for the day every day. You wake up, it's a bright sunny day. The Lake is sparkling and kind of calm. It's like, oh, you know what? This is gonna be a sunny day. No, find you in the fog rolls, and suddenly it's 40 degrees. I'm like, oh, dang. I had a picnic planned today. I wanted to go do this. Mother Superior had other ideas. So it's like, it controlled our news cycle. It controlled what you wanted to do outside that day. It literally controlled your entire life. But there's a beautiful walking path, a beautiful Lake walk along. And so I, almost every day, I'd be out there walking along Lake Superior. Winter, summer, cold, snow, rain. And it just like, that's kind of where I did my thinking and planning my life, which of course this I never would have known. But whenever I look back at Lake Superior, I always think about, that's kind of where all of this started. I was kind of starting my professional life there. Lake Superior was just always there. And it's just this crazy ominous presence that you really can't escape. One day in November, I was driving into work and it was the anniversary of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald. And I'm driving in and of course, the song's playing on the radio and I'm driving in and it's a cold, windy day that the November gales or the big waves are splashing up and almost getting my car windows wet. And I'm thinking to myself like, you almost got goosebumps because you're kind of looking out there going, this was that kind of day. And here we are again, with the song playing on the radio and Gordon Lightfoot. And I'm like, oh my gosh, this is crazy. But really like as the weekend anchor, you're sitting around and there's not slow news and all of a sudden you've got some ice fishermen out there and the piece of ice they're fishing on floats away from the shore and they're out in the middle of the lake and the Coast Guard's going out to rescue them. And that was a lot of our news cycle too, was Coast Guard going to rescue boaters and fishermen. And I mean, Lake Superior is just everything up there. And when you live around that, I was up there for almost 10 years. And when you live around that, it literally just like becomes part of you. It really does. And to this day, I'm like, I know I told my stepkids, I'm like, you might have to sprinkle my ashes in Lake Superior someday when it's all over. So it's just, I don't know, I feel like that lake somehow kind of formed me and my future. And I don't know, it will always be really, really special to me. And if you're ever in Minnesota, again, go just take 35 as far North as you can and drive all along the North shore. And you'll see what I mean. It really, it's hard to explain how big and how impactful that lake is to that whole region, but it's just, it's everything. It controls everything. Your mood, your weather, your plans for the day.
Speaker 2 (51:40):
I mentioned the Blue Leaves Club earlier. Tell me about your connection with that group. It rolled into playing your cult's fanaticism.
Speaker 3 (51:46):
Big, that was big too. So I hadn't even started my blog yet, but one day I, to this day, I don't know how this happened. And I've still, I've asked people in the cult's organization and they don't know how it happened. But one day I get an email from Kaylin Ursay, who's the youngest daughter of Jim Ursay, saying that they're forming a focus group of female cult's fans to start a fan club. And they basically want to know what we want from the team. And could I come to the cult's facility and meet with them on this day and time? To which I responded, absolutely, I will be there. So I showed up and there were like eight of us and they gave us a private tour of the facility. And then we just sat and we just talked. And they did like three different sessions with us. We just talked about like, what is your dream for a female fan club for your team? We told them everything we wanted. We wanted special events. We wanted players to come and meet us. We wanted to be able to help with some of their charitable stuff. I mean, everything. And you know what? They did it. They put together the cult's blue ladies group and they did all of that. And we had football 101. We had football 201. We had NFL referees come in and talk to us and explain penalties and all that. We went out on the field and we tried to kick field goals. And we did throwing drills. We did tackling dummies. We did the whole thing. I remember being told once when I tackled a dummy on a mat that I could not have tackled that any softer. And I said, yeah, and you know what? It hurt anyway. But it really gives you an appreciation for what the game is like. When you are looking at a guy out there kicking a 30 yard field goal, and we as fans are referring to it as a chip shot. When you get out there on the field and you attempt to kick that, you realize real fast that that is not a chip shot. It's really, really hard. So it gave us an appreciation of the game. And then the thing I love the most about the blue ladies was I would always tell people, once social media came around, after a game, you get a lot of fans tweeting at the players, telling them how terrible they were. It was the blue ladies. It was the female fans that were tweeting the players after a bad game, telling them, hey, we still believe in you. You're gonna do great next week. Keep your chin up. And that is such a valuable thing. It really is. So it's just, I always said that the female fans are the heart of the fan base. They are your best fans. They're your fans that don't give up on the team. Not to call them out, but when the game is going badly, my husband will go upstairs and be like, I'm done, I can't watch this anymore. I'm like, what, are you kidding me? You're leaving me here by myself to watch the rest of this game? That's not fair. He's like, I can't even watch this anymore. I'm going upstairs. And half the time, by the way, he does that and then they come back. So I'm like, good, go upstairs again. But it's female fans that hang in there. They hang in there with the team. It's like they're families. You don't give up when your kid does something wrong. You hang in there. So it was honestly, I have so many great friends from that group. We have so many fun memories, doing so many different things. Really, we learned a lot about the game. We went out and tried. Most of us learned that we couldn't be professional football players without a doubt. We broke nails, but such a fun thing. And to be honest, ever since COVID, they really didn't, the whole thing kind of fizzled. So there isn't an active Blue Ladies group anymore. And I really think that the fans and the organization is missing out by not continuing to have that fan club because it was huge and it was so much fun. And we just, we enjoyed every minute of it. But again, that was my first door open into the Colts organization. And I still don't know how it happened. But then once I had my blog and I had ownership following me on my blog, then all of a sudden one day, I hear from one of the marketing people that they're starting a blog for their female fans, the Colts, and they were looking for a writer. I'm like, hello. So I was kind of like the perfect person at the perfect time. And they brought me in and interviewed me and the job was mine. And honestly, they brought me in, they gave me a code to the door and they were like, go do your thing. But I mean, I thought that the parameters were gonna be, you know, but they really just let me go and do my thing. And I was amazed. They're like, go write the stories you wanna write. And I did and it was a blast. And yeah, I don't know how I got in that door, but once I did, I mean, it was just, it was magic, it really was.
Speaker 2 (56:49):
How did Lloyd run a time? It's an absolute pleasure. That's so sad.
Speaker3: You'll have to read my book, right?
Absolutely, and Peyton's gonna write the foreword for you.
Speaker 3 (56:58):
Yeah, I hope so.
Speaker 2 (56:59):
And again, the title is, it all happened because of Peyton Manning.
Speaker 3 (57:02):
I originally thought my title of my book was gonna be Pigskin and Pearls, my love affair with football. But that- That's your second book. Yeah, exactly, exactly.
Speaker 2 (57:11):
Right on time. I'm Chris Meek. Until next week, stay safe and keep taking your next steps forward.
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