Why Florida needs more men like Frank Robb

Jul 22

Jul 22 Why Florida needs more men like Frank Robb

A Florida Man is making national news headlines this week and it’s not for kissing a rattlesnake or trying to make a getaway on a manatee; he wrastled a gator in Chicago.

Frank Robb is now famously being referred to as the “Florida Alligator dude” all over the internet after being brought to Chicago to catch a runaway gator in Humboldt Park. Chance the Snapper, a four-foot 18-pound gator had eluded capture for days before city staff decided to call in an expert. He caught it with a 25-foot fishing rod cast and hooked it by the tail before reeling it in. Because he’s a real man.

Robb, a self-employed “Alligator Trapping Agent” for the FWC in Brevard County has a Bachelor of Applied Science in Biological and Biomedical Sciences, and he’s super-handsome. Why is that important you may ask? Because the baseline assumption that mainstream America has of a gator wrangler from Florida is a mullet-sporting fan boat driver that was lucky to graduate high school.

Having articulate, polite, and approachable looking spokespersons for the state is invaluable when you look at shifting perceptions away from the stereotypical swampland hick to capable, educated hotties with great beards. I can literally hear the soft-power ranking of Florida climbing when I see stories like this in the news.

But Robb didn’t stop with simply catching Snappy and coming home,; he’s being hailed as a hero. He threw the first pitch at a Cubs game (threw the ball straight down the line) and then turned on the Buckingham Fountain. Chicagoans are stopping him on the streets to thank him and tell him where to get the best pizza. And he’s taken it all in with a quiet dignity that made me want to have his babies.