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Bruce Dowbiggin

Damar Hamlin & The Heart Of The Matter: Political Football Follies

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The defensive back wearing his white Buffalo Bills No. 3 jersey cut across the field, eyes lasered on his target. In full stride, he lowered his shoulder and hit the running back midsection, stopping him short. A textbook tackle. Nothing you donā€™t see in every NFL game.

What made this play so notable was the tackler, Damar Hamlin. The last tackle heā€™d made in competition last January was almost fatal. Hereā€™s how we described it then. ā€œItā€™s a scene few who witnessed it live or on TV will forget anytime soon. Buffalo Bills DB Damon Hamlin made a jarring tackle on Cincinnatiā€™s Tee Higgins. They fell to the turf. The two men quickly resumed their feet to get back in position. It seemed like a routine play. Then Hamlin wavered and collapsed to the turf.

For football fans, seeing a player on the ground is, unfortunately, not unique. Injury occurs in a violent game.Ā Some in the crowd thought Hamlin might be faking to slow down the Bengals. But this moment was unlike almost any others. Players on both teams began urgently waving to medical staffs to attend to Hamlin.Ā 

As we know now, Hamlin was technically dead on the field. He was in the same crisis as Danish soccer star Christian Eriksen, who fell dead on the pitch at the 2021 Euro championships. Both men were in a frantic race for EMS help. Luckily the first responders reached both men in time to restart their hearts. Eriksen was able to resume his career after eight months following a diagnosis of cardiac arrest.ā€œ

As we know now, the game was cancelled as Hamlin fought for his life. But, like Eriksen, his conditioning and will brought him back to the point where, eight months later, he laid a crunching tackle, with no fear, on the Indianapolis Colts runner. ā€˜I made the choice that I wanted to play,ā€ he said after the game.

ā€œIt wasn’t nobody else’s choice but mine. So making that choice, I know what comes with it. When you see my cleats laced up and my helmet and shoulder pads on, there ain’t going to be no hesitation. You can’t play this game like that.ā€

While Hamlin is seemingly making his way back, the nasty debate over vaccine damage that started with his collapse still resonates from that January night. ā€œAlmost immediately the opposing sides in the debate over vaccine injuries leapt to social media to stake their sides in the argumentā€” despite having no firsthand knowledge of Hamlinā€™s case. Some cited the diagnosis of commotio cordis, blunt-force trauma.

Others took up the ā€˜terrible, horrible people’ theme. Indianapolis Colts writer Gregg Doyel harkened back to the hysteria that prevailed over those who refused to be vaccinated. ā€œAnti-vaxxers using Buffalo safety Damar Hamlin to promote their deadly agenda are evil, and need to be exposed for what they are. Those who believe them are gullible, and need to understand theyā€™ve been told lies.ā€

The denials flew fast and furious here and here.ā€ The debate that started over the efficacy of vaccines and the integrity of health care continues today. Anyone who thinks that the people who used intimidation to repress vaccine information since 2020 (Health Canada, Justin Trudeau, CDC, FDA, Anthony Fauci, Deborah Birx etc.) are now suddenly going to reveal, from the goodness of their hearts, anything that might show their duplicity doesnā€™t understand the links between the NFL, the government and Big Pharma.

As researcher John Leake explained, ā€œthe NFL is a member of theĀ COVID-19 Community Corpsā€”a Biden Administration & HHS program for transferring money to participating organizations in exchange for promoting COVID-19 vaccination among their members. This may explain why Green Bay Packers quarterback, Aaron Rodgers, came under such immense pressure to receive the vaccine in spite of his known severe allergy to one of its ingredientsā€¦ā€

The vaccine enthusiasts are assisted by an elite commentariat that bit hard on the ā€œ15 days to flatten the curveā€ narrative to crush Donald Trump. And whoā€™ve whitewashed dissent since at the behest of government officials in Canada and the U.S. (Twitter files now reveal that politicians used the media to ban reporters / columnists whose vaccine takes theyĀ didnā€™t like.)

With any reversals of their intimidation policy by CDC, WHO, Health Canada et al. why should anyone believe a sentence that comes out of the mouths of Big Pharma politicians, health officials, media and corporate shills these days? We neednā€™t list the misrepresentations (about the origin of the virus) they made while accusing others of misrepresenting the facts, but you can see but a few here. (Donā€™t get us started on the magic of masks.)Ā 

From Day One of the Covid panic the establishment side has insisted thereā€™s only been one side to truthā€” even when, as revealed by Covid Task Force member Deborah Birxā€” they knew their policy was unsupported by data.Ā Now, via Twitter reveals and determined scientists, we see how the population was intimidated into accepting a policy pushed by Big Pharma.ā€

In recent days, these authorities have allowed that, maybe, the vaccineā€™s efficacy was oversold. Data shows that, far from being spreaders of Covid, anti-vaxxers are no more dangerous than people whoā€™ve had five or six jabs. Only the most corrupt deny the lab source for the virus.

However, the hysterics who wanted neighbours dead because they declined to join a cult urged by medical elites are still silent as vaccines sit unused by the millions. That includes Canadaā€™s PM who locked returning citizens into hotel jails and then declared a public emergency when truckers didnā€™t sign up for his bullshit. Crickets from him.

As we said in January: ā€œDamar Hamlinā€™s restored health will be one positive outcome of this frightening incident. The second should be the restoration of active public debate on healthcare. Both are to be celebrated.ā€

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Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the editor of Not The Public BroadcasterĀ  A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada’s top television sports broadcaster, heā€™s a regular contributor to Sirius XM Canada Talks Ch. 167. Inexact Science: The Six Most Compelling Draft Years In NHL History, his new book with his son Evan, was voted the seventh-best professional hockey book of all time by bookauthority.org . His 2004 book Money Players was voted sixth best on the same list, and is available via http://brucedowbigginbooks.ca/book-personalaccount.aspx

BRUCE DOWBIGGIN Award-winning Author and Broadcaster Bruce Dowbiggin's career is unmatched in Canada for its diversity and breadth of experience . He is currently the editor and publisher of Not The Public Broadcaster website and is also a contributor to SiriusXM Canada Talks. His new book Cap In Hand was released in the fall of 2018. Bruce's career has included successful stints in television, radio and print. A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada's top television sports broadcaster for his work with CBC-TV, Mr. Dowbiggin is also the best-selling author of "Money Players" (finalist for the 2004 National Business Book Award) and two new books-- Ice Storm: The Rise and Fall of the Greatest Vancouver Canucks Team Ever for Greystone Press and Grant Fuhr: Portrait of a Champion for Random House. His ground-breaking investigations into the life and times of Alan Eagleson led to his selection as the winner of the Gemini for Canada's top sportscaster in 1993 and again in 1996. This work earned him the reputation as one of Canada's top investigative journalists in any field. He was a featured columnist for the Calgary Herald (1998-2009) and the Globe & Mail (2009-2013) where his incisive style and wit on sports media and business won him many readers.

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Bruce Dowbiggin

Are the Jays Signing Or Declining? Only Vladdy & Bo Know For Sure

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We were watching the Los Angeles Dodgers home opener on Thursday. The defending World Series champs came from behind to beat Detroit 5-4. The big hit was a three-run homer from a player named Teoscar Hernandez off AL Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal

If that name sounds familiar, Teoscar was a Toronto Blue Jay from 2018-2022. He pounded 121 homers in the span as part of the Jaysā€™ order. But when Toronto decided it needed bullpen help he was traded to Seattle in 2022 for pitchers Erik Swanson and Adam Macko. While Swanson has battled injuries and Macko is no-go, Hernandez keeps pounding the ball.

In his one year in Seattle he had strikeout problems but did hit 26 homers with 93 RBIs. In the winter of 2023-24 he signed as a free agent with the aforementioned Dodgers. Batting behind Shohei Ohtani he launched 33 homers and 99 RBIs. He won the All Star Home Run Derby. His key hit in Game 5 of the World Series propelled L.A. to the title. The stacked Dodgers liked him enough to give him a three-year, $66 million contract.

Why are we telling you this? Because the Blue Jays also started their 2025 season at home, matched against the Baltimore Orioles. And while there are reasons to believe the Jays will not replicate their 74-win disaster of 2024, there remain the old bugaboos of injuries and pitching. In the four games against the division rivals they need to beat, Jaysā€™ pitching gave up 24 runs while scoring 18ā€”nine of them in one game.

The splashy acquisition of 40 year old HOF pitcher Max Scherzer has already gone sideways as a bad thumb has put him on the IL. The new stopper, Jeff Hoffman, was rejected on medical grounds by two other teams before Torontoā€™s money made him healthy. The rest of the bullpenā€” a disaster in 2024ā€” got off to a rocky start with Orioles hitters playing BP against them. Theyā€™ve already DFAā€™d one pitcher and called up two more from the minors. The re-made pen performed well in Game 4, but how it holds up in their next 158 games is a mystery.

On offence, while their rivals in Boston and New York added sexy pieces to their rosters the Jays were only able to acquire veteran switch-hitting Baltimore slugger Anthony Santander. More typical of their other signees is ex-Cleveland 2B infielder Andres Giminez who in 2023 had the lowest average exit velocity of all AL batters (84.8Ā mph), and led the AL in percentage of balls that were softly hit (21.7%). He does play a slick second base.

The winter story line for the Jays offence was what to do about Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette, the erstwhile star-dust twins who wereā€” along with Cavan Biggioā€” supposed to guarantee titles when they emerged in 2019. Biggio is gone, so the other two carry the credibility of the management team of Mark Shapiro and Ross Atkins. From the outside the Jays seem paralyzed to act.

While the Jays dithered, the price for players like Guerrero and Bichette soared. Using Juan Sotoā€™s Mets $765 M deal as a yardstick Guerrero turned down a Jays offer of just under $600 M, saying he was done talking during the season. If Shapiro/ Atkins had anticipated the market Guerrero would have cost a lot less in 2023-24. If there is no progress by the trading deadline the Jays will be forced to get what they can in a trade.

Shortstop Bichetteā€” a gifted player who battled injuries in 2024ā€”is likewise up for a new deal. He has started strong in 2025 and would command a handsome return in a trade. He says the Jays are waiting to see what happens with Guerrero first.Ā  Having sold the pair for years to their loyal fans, having to trade them will be a massive PR blow. And while Jaysā€™ national audience can be an advantage, having a whole country pissed with you is devastating.

The rest of the secret sauce for a Toronto comeback revolves around one of their hitting prospects taking a step forward. Any/ all of Will Wagner, Alan Roden, Addison Barger or Leo Jimenez can have a job if they show their bats are for real. Otherwise Shapiro and Atkins will hope that Dalton Varsho, George Springer and Alejandro Kirk can find a little magic in their aging bats.

A failure to retain talent may prompt fans to recall that Rogers decided that Shapiro and Atkins, who dumped Teoscar, were worthy replacements for the previous GM whoā€™d walked away. The man Schneider and Atkins were hired to improve uponā€” Canadian Alex Anthopoulosā€” has made the Atlanta Braves a dominant team. Since AA moved to Atlanta theyā€™ve won 90, 97, 38 (Covid year), 88, 101, 104, 109, 89 games. Theyā€™ve won a World Series and two other playoff series.Ā They won six straight NL East titles before injuries sank them last year.

The Braves have developed young everyday superstars like Ronald Acuńa Jr. who donā€™t get picked off second base. They have built a pitching staff largely from within, not splashy FA signings. They have swagger without cockiness. They are set for years to come.

The Blue Jays? Since AA left theyā€™ve won 73, 67, 32 (Covid), 91, 92, 89, 74 games. Theyā€™ve won zero postseason games while missing the playoffs in four seasons. The players they traded are starring for other teams in the postseason. They are again employing an inexperienced company guy as manager.

While itā€™s true that the sun canā€™t shine on the same team every day, Jays fans believe it would be nice if the great orb would find their club as it did back in the 1992/93 World Series days. Instead of the reflected glory of past stars winning for other teams.Ā Patience is thin. And time is ticking.

Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the editor of Not The Public BroadcasterĀ  A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada’s top television sports broadcaster, his new book Deal With It: The Trades That Stunned The NHL And Changed hockey is now available on Amazon. Inexact Science: The Six Most Compelling Draft Years In NHL History, his previous book with his son Evan, was voted the seventh-best professional hockey book of all time by bookauthority.org . His 2004 book Money Players was voted sixth best on the same list, and is available via brucedowbigginbooks.ca.

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Bruce Dowbiggin

From Heel To Hero: George Foreman’s Uniquely American Story

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“The more you learn, the more you realize how much you don’t know.ā€ā€” George Foreman

For those who thought Donald Trumpā€™s role progression (in WWE terms) from face to heel to face again was remarkable, George Foreman had already written the media book on going from the Baddest Man in the World to Gentle Giant.

Itā€™s hard for those who saw him as the genial Grill Master or the smiling man withĀ  seven sons all named George (he also had seven daughters, each named differently) to conjure up the Foreman of the 1970s. He emerged as a star at the 1968 Olympics, winning the gold medal in heavyweight boxing. His destruction of a veteran Soviet fighter made him a political hero. In an age that already boasted a remarkable heavyweights Foreman was something unique.

Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, Ken Norton, Ron Lyle and Jimmy Ellis were still bankable household names for boxing fansā€” but on the downside of famous careers. They each had their niche. Foreman was something altogether different. Violent and pitiless in the ring. Unsmiling as he dismantled the boxers he met on his way to the top. He was the ultimate black hat.

With the inimitable Howard Cosell as his background track , he entered the ringĀ  in 1973 against the favoured ex-champ Frazier, coming off his three epic fights with Ali. While everyone gave Foreman a chance it was thought that the indomitable Frazier, possessor of a lethal left hook, would tame the young bull.

Instead, in under two rounds of savagery , Foreman sent Frazier to the canvasĀ  six times. Cosell yelled himself horse crying, ā€œDown goes Frazier! Down goes Frazier!ā€ This was a whole new level of brutality as the poker-faced Foreman returned to his corner as the most feared boxer on the planet. For good measure Foreman destroyed Norton in 1974.

Fans of Ali quaked when they heard that he would face Foremanā€™s awesome power in Africa in the summer of 1974. They knew how much the trio of Frazier brawls had taken from him. The prospect of seeing the beloved heavyweight champ lifted off his feet by Foremanā€™s power left them sick to their stomach. Foreman played up his bad-boy image, wearing black leather, snarling at the press and leading a German shepherd on a leash.

Everyone knows what happened next. We were travelling the time in the era before internet/ cell phones. Anticipating the worst we blinked hard at the headline showing the next day that it was a thoroughly exhausted Foreman who crumbled in the seventh round. The brilliant documentary When We Were Kings is the historical record of that night/ morning in Kinshasa. The cultural clash of Ali, the worldā€™s most famous man, and the brute against the background of music and third-world politics made it an Oscar winner.

But itā€™s largely about Ali. It doesnā€™t do justice to the enormity of Foremanā€™s collapse. Of course the humiliation of that night sent Foreman on a spiritual quest to find himself, a quest that took the prime of his career from him. It wasnā€™t till 1987 that he re-emerged as a Baptist minister/ boxer. With peace in his soul he climbed the ranks again, defiantly trading blows in the centre of the ring with opponents who finally succumbed to his ā€œold-manā€ power.

Instead of the dour character who was felled by Ali, this Foreman was transformed in the publicā€™s eye when he captured the heavyweight title in 1994, beating Michael Moore, a man 20 years his junior. He smiled. He teased Cosell and other media types. He fought till he was 48, although he tried to comeback when he was 55 (his wife intervened)

And, yes, for anyone who stayed up late watching TV there was the George Foreman Grill, a pitchmanā€™s delight that earned him more money than his boxing career. HBO boxing commentator Larry Merchant commented that “There was a transformation from a young, hard character who felt a heavyweight champion should carry himself with menace to a very affectionate personality.ā€

There was a short-lived TV show called George. There was The Masked Singer as “Venus Fly Trapā€. And there were the cameos on Home Improvement, King Of The Hill andĀ  Fast ā€™N Loud, delighting audiences whoā€™d once reviled him. He cracked up Johnny Carson.

Foremanā€™s rebound story was uniquely American. Where Canadians are enthusiastically damning Bobby Orr and Wayne Gretzky for political reasons, Foreman never became a captive of angry radicals or corporate America. He went his own way, thumping the bible and the grill. Rest easy, big man.

Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the editor of Not The Public BroadcasterĀ  A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada’s top television sports broadcaster, his new book Deal With It: The Trades That Stunned The NHL And Changed hockey is now available on Amazon. Inexact Science: The Six Most Compelling Draft Years In NHL History, his previous book with his son Evan, was voted the seventh-best professional hockey book of all time by bookauthority.org . His 2004 book Money Players was voted sixth best on the same list, and is available via brucedowbigginbooks.ca.

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