Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Dan Giancola: Toronto Mike'd Podcast Episode 1540

Episode Date: August 23, 2024

In this 1540th episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with Dan Giancola about how he defied all the odds to become a star with the Toronto Argonauts, his multiple triumphs over adversity, his recent brushes with death and why his life story would make an inspirational film. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Ridley Funeral Home, The Advantaged Investor podcast from Raymond James Canada, The Toronto Maple Leafs Baseball Team and RecycleMyElectronics.ca. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Toronto Mike at [e-mail]

Welcome to episode 1540 of Toronto Miked, proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, a fiercely independent craft brewery who believes in supporting communities, good times, and brewing amazing beer. Order online for free local home delivery in the GTA. Palma pasta, enjoy the taste of fresh, homemade Italian pasta and entrees from Palma pasta in Mississauga and Oakville. The Toronto Maple Leafs baseball team, the best baseball in the city outside the dome.

I'm gonna be at Christie Pitts this coming Saturday, that's tomorrow if you're listening right away. August 24th. I will be at Christie Pitts because there's a game tomorrow night. It's a playoff game and happy hour starts at six o'clock. You get the Maple Leafs beer for $3.50. You get hot dogs for $3.

I'm bringing my kids. There'll be prizes, there'll be giveaways. It's gonna be a great time. Fill the Hill, Saturday night for Toronto Maple Leafs playoff action. Recyclemyelectronics.ca, committing to our planet's future means properly recycling our electronics of the past.

And Ridley Funeral Home, pillars of the community since 1921. Today, making his Toronto Mike debut is the man they call Cl call clutch Dan Giancola. How you doing Dan? I'm doing great man. Thank you so much for having me. Well thanks for making the track.

You came a long way to be here, right? How was the commute? Are you ready to strangle me? No, you know what? It was actually good. It was a little congestion right around the Burlington skyway. Other than that, we made good time. Well you said Burlington, so shout out to the Spoons. That's what we say when we hear

a reference to Burlington. What a pleasure it is to meet you. A lot of touch points in the story that I want to collect here. You wrote a book. I did. I can't even read a book, but you wrote one. Right. Be that one. Why does it have to be someone else? Why not me? I actually talked to the guy who kind of helped edit it. Uh, people know, you know, who helped you with this book, Perry Lefkoe, man. Okay. We got to shout out Perry Lefkoe. Do you know when

Perry Lefkoe hears the song, uh, the promise by when in Rome, he openly weeps. He can't help himself. If you ever want to make Perry Lefko cry. Are you serious? Yeah. I'm giving you a pro tip here. Oh, that's fantastic. He'll just start crying. He can't help it. Just play Wenin Romm's The Promise. I wish I would have known that man. We were together so much when we were doing this book and I was always weeping when I was writing it. So that would, that's a little bit of a bonus for me. Well, now you know, next time you see Perry Lefkoe. So Perry tells me you wrote this book, like sometimes you get a ghost, someone who helps you and they do all the heavy lifting.

That might have been the case with Nick Kiprios. I won't say for sure, but I heard you actually legitimately you wrote this book be that one. You know, he's so nice when he says that. And you know, he says to me that I wrote like 90% of it and he did 10% of it and that means so much to me because I think at the opening creds here you said that you really don't read either and I don't read and I can honestly say to you I've read one book front to back in my entire life. Is that right? Honest to God, I'm not lying to you.

What book? Shane. Okay, that's the movie, right? I think so., I'm not lying to you. What book? Shane. That's the movie, right? With the... I think so. It's a country kind of thing. That they made that was a very famous movie with John Wayne. Yeah, that is the only book I read front to back.

So for Perry to say that I did that, that that means a lot to me. Can we just not bury the lead here and just explore that just for a moment here? Sure. You that that's unusual for someone who's literate You're literate. Yeah, just point Like it is and you know, you're uh, I don't know how old you are now you're young 54. You're okay You're not younger than me. You just look younger than me. Okay, dan come on You have only read one book one book cover to cover. Honestly, why is that?

Like how can that be? That's a mind blow. I'm just not a reader. I'm just honestly, I enjoy listening to, you know, to music. I, you know, I look, I mean, if I had this book, like I have in front of me right now, the first thing I would go to,

I probably would read the back of the book just to kind of find the gist of it. And then I go to the pictures and just kind of, uh, you know, go from there. But is it okay if I give this to you now? Of course. So thank you. No, thank you. That one. Why does it have to be someone else? Why not me? This is Dan Giancola with Perry Lefkoe. Good thing. Your font as much bigger, bolder Perry Lefko, thinner, smaller. That's the way it should be. Oh, pinball wrote the forward.

Yes, he did. Pimples. He's the one who calls you clutch, right? He's the one that called me clutch. We started in training camp in 1999. So again, I'm going to play like a Quentin Tarantino movie. So we're going to go back, but just to tease, you know, you know, you start off in the diner scene and then you got to come back and why are they dressed like

that, but you played for the Toronto Argonauts. Yeah. 1999 went to training camp with them after 131 for aging camps. Okay. So that's like a teaser because we're going to explore that because I mean, I've read your book. I had a PDF version now that I have a real version. So thank you very much. I'll try to hold it up for the photo. I want people to be inspired by your story here and to go purchase this book be that one Why does it have to be someone else? Why not me by Dan Giancola former Toronto ergonaut? Okay, and We're gonna we're gonna get there, but I want to go back because um my youngest son, so I got four kids but number three Soccer fanatic. Okay, just wants to play last, I guess he's trying out for this competitive team.

So we did trials on Tuesday, Thursday. He had a house league game in high park on Wednesday. Like I'm forever getting them to and from different soccer pitches. He just wants to live and breathe soccer. Right. Was that you as a young man? Yeah, man, I was born with a soccer ball on my foot. That was my first love.

My dad, we used to always tell this story. I was, I was very with a soccer ball on my foot. That was my first love my dad We used to always tell this story. I Was I was very lazy? Baby, I took me forever to learn how to walk and one day a little red ball rolled across the room and Apparently I got up and I chased it and started kicking it and ever since that point I never stopped You were destined to be I mean I was reading some of the highlights in the book here, but you played pretty competitively. I did man as soccer I saw Yeah, yeah, I excelled at that game. I loved it, man. Every waking moment we used to live down the street from see gross

soccer field in Thorold and you know, is that by the way, is that near Niagara Falls? It's in thrills in between Niagara Falls and St. Catharines. Okay. It's kind of like right there in between little blip. Is that, is that a whereabouts you live now? No, I live in Niagara falls. Now we moved, uh, the year I signed with the Buffalo bills.

Okay. Well, see more teasers because you signed with the Buffalo. That's after the argument. Sorry. No, listen, I've, I love, uh, letting people know that there's, there's, we're going to tell a story here and it's a great story. Now, just to give it some context,

you're representing Canada in national under 16 tournaments. You were all about competitive soccer. I was. I was 14 years old and I got the phone call from one of my regional coaches and he was a Brock at Brock University was one of the head coaches there Bill Miller and all he

did just called me and he my dad picked up the phone and he was telling my dad the story and my dad said I think it would mean more to him if you if you you'd said it you told him and the age of 14 I was going out for under 16 national team and went out to Sheridan College and that's where it all started. Now as we weave this story, because we got to get you into football here, maybe can you tell me a little bit more about your relationship with your father when you're in these under 16 tournaments representing Canada in competitive soccer?

We had a fantastic relationship, man. You know, it was your typical father-son just like, you know, you was it was your typical father-son Just like you know, you're taking your sons to where they go. My dad did the exact same thing, you know I was also playing hockey too competitively, right? So I had a lot going on as you and keep in mind. I still have two other brothers Tino and Joe, right? So Yeah, you know, they were always busy my mom and dad. Okay, great now What happens your competitive soccer guy, but then you shift your focus to football. Like basically, how does that happen?

You just played it in high school and dug it? Like how did that happen? You know, soccer came to the conclusion because of politics and that's just straight up. Well, can you give me more politics? Like, what does that mean? So for example, I went from the national team came back home 17 years old played in Niagara Falls in the NSL League they

were about 18 years old I think was under 18 and because I came from the Canadian team the expectations were so high and if I wasn't scoring two or three goals a game I got benched. Wow. And it was like ridiculous. And next thing, you know, you know, halfway through, like you're losing the love of the game, you know, and then, and then, you know, you get the opportunity to play. And then some kid comes off the streets and his dad's got money. He owned a Tim Hortons. That's the political. Yes. Okay. He came in, he, uh, he, I think he put forward like $3,500 for the, for the team, for traveling and all that. And he played my position and therefore I was null and void.

I'm hoping my third born is not as good as you were because I'm trying to avoid this, like this whole idea of getting, getting the playing time, right? And the political aspects of that, like I just don't have an appetite for this. Yeah. It's very, it's very heartbreaking, especially when you have the ability to play. And because somebody's, you know, father, mother, whatever the situation is has money that, you know, unfortunately they take presidents over you. So it's not necessarily that a talent it's, it's more of about the money. Well, Dan, on this program, we call that bullshit. I agree. That's 100%. Okay. So you shift your focus to football. Grade nine, man. Grade nine. Well, grade 10, actually. One of my best

friends came up to me and said to me, he says, man, we're looking for a kicker for the junior team. And I said to him, I said, man, there's no chance in hell. My dad's going to let me do no chance. I was with the national team at that point, right? So, just come out, just come out. Anyway, long story short, I go out in the field with the junior team and back when I was playing, the junior and senior team, they shared.

So half of the team was one side, juniors, other side, senior. So I run out there with a rubber football. He handed me two tees, a black tee and an orange tee. So the orange tee, if anybody knows anything about kicking, is the kickoff tee. Next thing you know, he hands me the tees and I said, well, what the hell do I do with this?

And he said to me, well, we put it down and then I put the ball on it and I said, okay. So not only do we pick the wrong tee, we turned it upside down facing the wrong way with the spikes in the ground. Right. So he puts the ball down and he goes hike. And I look at him, I go, what, what the hell you saying?

What was hike? He says, well, that's when you kicked the ball. I said, because you really know nothing about this, do you? And I laughed and I said, no, man. So anyway, I lined up about six yards back and, uh, we were about 40 yards out and I hammered this kick. Yeah. And, uh, this kick goes nowhere near,

so it doesn't make it through the uprights, but this thing travels another 20 yards through the end zone. So from my- It had the depth. It definitely did. Next thing I know, I hear the coach for the senior team, and I didn't know who he was at first. And he screams over, he goes,

say, cumba in Italian, all it is is just an enduring, I like you. So that's why I can use that term? Absolutely, you totally can. You say c goes a Cumba in Italian all it is is just an enduring, you know, I like you So that's why I can I can use that term. Absolutely. You totally can you say Cumba Cumba? So next thing you know, I look at him and I started walking over he goes no, no, no, no Cumba Kick another one move back. I Walked back over to my buddy Bill and I said who the hell's that and he was that's a senior That's a senior coach Wow, and I said you're great nine, right? I'm a great Yeah, you know, so he I moved back and he puts the rubber ball down again and boom, I smoke it.

And once again, from 50 yards out, doesn't go through the uprights, but goes again to the back of the end zone. Right. He says to me, come back, come here. So I make my way over and he says, Italian. I go, yeah, yeah. Play soccer. Yeah.

He goes, how many years you've been playing football? How many years you've been kicking? And I said, those are my first two kicks. He just, he, he just looks at, uh, the assistant coach and, uh, he says, do me a favor, come on on my side. And the rest, the rest was history. The rest is history. You're kicking, uh, field goals for the senior team. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. By the way, I just noticed your t-shirt. I'm going to later. I'm going to reference Rocky. Yeah, man. I'm a big Rocky fan here. This is only this I've had this for about eight years and I wore it for you. I don't know why I wore it today. God, I'm actually just late. I don't want to look at them teasing them. I'm, I am the Quentin Tarantino of podcast. Yeah. Yeah. I'm teasing that I'm going to drop a Rocky reference later in this conversation

But I just stumbled like by accident flipping channels. I caught like the the last third of The second Creed movie, okay And it's Paulo Creed son is fighting the Russian son. Yes, he for I haven't It's the only one I haven't seen out of the whole entire thing. But it's like the same movie that gets almost like, uh, I must call them Arnold. So that's just alone. He's got the blueprint, right? Like so, but, but that first Rocky movie worthy of best picture, highly rewatchable. I love Rocky. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So slip the jab, right? Right. Right. Right. Yeah. Okay, so slip the jab rock, right?

Okay, so we're gonna get back to Rocky later. Okay, so you are Playing high school football. Yeah now at what point did you think? Hey, I'm pretty good at this. I could play pro It was in my my last year actually my like last two years and I went I went out to Hamilton and I got selected to go to Where basically you just go and showcase your stuff to all the universities So you're you're about to go to university and then you had all the Canadian universities that are there the US the whole nine yards, so I went there yeah, and I

Can't tell you the amount of attention that I was getting, especially from the US schools. In my last year, I went and did the exact same thing. And now they're sending you all the letters of intent. Right? So I got every Canadian, I can honestly say this to you. And I may or may not have kept them, I don't know. But I had every possible

Canadian university send me a letter of intention to go to the school and also I think it was eight or nine of the top universities in Miami, Penn State, Notre Dame, Nebraska. These are NCAA schools. Yeah. They're going to give you a scholarship? Absolutely. Full ride. Full ride.

That's amazing. A couple of the schools wanted me to also play soccer, but you know, in all honesty, Mike, I mean, I didn't do very well in school. I mean, I was like a 65 guy. Well, you only read one book, that's why. Yeah, you don't, right? I can tell you why you didn't. No, honestly, I don't know how you get through school.

You must've been like the biggest fan of Cole's Notes. Yes. Because you're assigned books to read, Fifth Business or whatever it's like, and then you need to write an essay on it. And like, did you just fake it? I took zeros. And I don't know if it's a you know, if you want to go here with this, but I want to go everywhere. I was bullied in grade four by my my elementary school teacher. Make a

long story short, again, were doing, it was my very speed first speech ever and you know how you get those little cue cards that you're allowed to have? Absolutely. Okay, so we were grade four grade five split. Yeah. And she picked me first to go up. And unfortunately, I didn't do it. I forgot. You didn't write a speech. I didn't write a speech. So I thought I'd go up there and I'd fake it. And it was a two minute speech. So I went up there and I started to I picked, I think it was Paolo Rossi in 1986, whatever it was World Cup.

And I picked him as my, you know, my guide to talk about. Sure. I got about 20, 30 seconds into it. And I literally stopped. I didn't know what else to say. Right. So she says to me, do it again. So I take a deep breath. And I start all over and I do it again. You know, 1990 1986. Paolo Rossi is my favorite, but but but but I freeze again. Do it again. By the third time, everybody in the class both sides started laughing. At that point, I was

scared. I was scared to death. I was right. The fourth time I go up and I do it. And man, that's when that's when I broke down because she looks at me and she goes sit down. That's a zero Wow, so I sit down the next day comes Does she not know now that was I was in grade four. Yeah, so now they're doing grade fives and I was the first person that she calls to come back up. Well at that point If I would have known I was doing it probably would have crushed something and even if I read it off the cue cards At least I would have got a mark.

Right. She did the exact same thing to me. Wow. I was up there four times and... She's humiliating you in front of your classmates. Absolutely. But this, Dan, you do realize, again, I'm not your psychiatrist. Yeah, no, no, no.

I'm not your therapist, but this is why you didn't read a book. Like, the way you were treated by this teacher in grade four, now it makes sense. Absolutely. It must've been devastating for your academic confidence. Horrible, man. Horrible. Listen, when it was time for me to go write my, um, S A T's and it's in the book, I made the decision that I couldn't do it. I was terrified. I was scared.

I didn't want to be embarrassed. And that was ultimately to go to the states that was ultimately one of the things that killed me. It's a prerequisite right? Yeah it all it's all coming together now. So what did you do after high school? So after high school I decided to go to Niagara College. My dad basically said to me he says I don't care what you do. I don't care what you do with your life, but I want you to be a productive part of society. And I want you to either, you're either going to school or you're going to get a job. So I made a decision to go to Niagara college and no idea what I wanted

to do. So I just took business administration. Okay. I took that the first year and, um, it was okay. I did. Okay. So you have the choice. You can branch out. So for some reason or another, I decided to branch out the next year and I went into accounting. Halfway through that, I made a decision. I'm like, ah, man, this is not me. I can't be pushing. I mean, God bless the people who do it. You know, it's not me. Right. So about halfway through, I guess you can just say I started training in the mezzanine at the school.

I started training a lot, picking up my training for no reason other than I love to lift. My third year I decided to take computer programming. That was a big mistake. That was, I was so illiterate with that it wasn't even funny. I mean, you know, even the word cursor, I was lost, youate with that. It wasn't even funny. I mean, you know even the word cursor I was lost, you know, and that's basically when you know the big square computers route like no laptops or anything like that I remember well, you only got four years on me. I remember these days. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, right So needless to say that went to the wayside

yeah, and then law and security was was you know my next choice and Yeah, and then law and security was was you know my next choice and That's gonna probably lead into something and I'm not sure if you want to go there with it with the professor Gina O'Rourke and all that stuff go for it. Yeah, I want to go I want to go everywhere. Okay, where you going there? So In that in between those couple years with not playing high school football anymore. I Just I missed the game so much. So I stole that rubber football from from my high school and I stole the orange tee and the black tee. And I went over to soccer field right down the road from my house in Thorold. And I'd go there God on his truth. I would go there every day religiously religiously and

You know if you've ever been on a football field, and I'm sure you have You know 55 yards is quite a jaunt. Yeah, I would I would line up Pretending I'm kicking the Grey Cup winning field goal or you know the Super Bowl kick whatever it was exactly or whatever exactly right exactly And I boom that ball I Superbowl kick, whatever it was. The saglia or whatever. Exactly. Right. Exactly. And I'd boom that ball, I kick it, I run down 55 yards, run back, kick it. And I would do that for hours on end every day for no reason. Like there was nowhere for me to go play. I just love the art of watching the ball go through the uprights, which in this sense

it was just going over the top of a soccer net. Right. So I ran into Gino Arcaro in my fourth year and Gino looked at me and he says, Hey man, you're Dan Ginkola, aren't you? You played a DM. And I said, yes, sir, I did. So what the hell you doing here? And I said, well, coach, I didn't have the marks, so I got nowhere to go.

He looks at me and he says to me what if I told you that I can get you a tryout a workout right now with the Toronto Argonauts, which would have been the free agent camp and Possibly get you on semi-pro team in Toronto the Toronto athletics. I Looked at him in disbelief. I really thought he honest the guy there. Are we okay to swear you can swear I I honest to God I thought he was full of shit. I really know I said bullshit earlier. That's true But you know it you know it Like the fact that he disclosed to you that there is a path Yeah, you without an education mind-boggling to still kick field goals. Yeah paid to do it. Yeah

Yeah, okay, but but but the semi pro team, you don't get paid for that, right? No, man, it's a glorified name. That's all it is. You know, it's where guys pay to play. They tape their number on their jerseys. Uh, some guys have never even played the game before. Some guys are former college players. Some of them are guys that played in high school and just still want to play. Right. Um, you, You pay for your gas, you're not getting on any buses or anything

fancy like that. And some of the fields, like when I was playing in Buffalo, we were playing in the hood. And when I say to you playing in the hood, there was games where practices where gunshots were going off. And, you know, you know, some of the guys that are from there where, you know, like they look around and meanwhile, like you're duck you know, you know, some of the guys that are from there were, you know, like they look around and meanwhile like you're duck and run, you know, you're heading for shelter, you know,

but it's just the way it was right. But you did that for how many years did you play? So I started 1990, started chasing my dream in 1990. I started playing semi pro 1993 and I played 93 through 98. Wow. Okay. Now tell me a little bit about these tryouts that you were told you could have.

Like, uh, I, I don't know what the number is. 131 or something. 131 for you. So just to, just to make sure that people don't gloss over this one, right? You had 131, 131 free agent tryouts, and this is of teams in Canada and the United States, right? Yes. So like, are you trying out for any NFL teams? I went to, well, the NFL workouts

were a little bit more difficult. I went for one in Buffalo, actually quite a few years. I went to Buffalo, I went to New York, the Jets, and I went to Philadelphia. Okay. Nothing came York the Jets and I went to Philadelphia Okay, nothing came of those. I mean it was just one of those things but still they're in the 131 Oh, yeah, and then when you like CFL obviously, especially cuz you're you're domestic, right? Yeah ton of ton of them. So every team and I say that like there's lots of teams Okay, I don't know eight or nine

I love right but but but but every team would give you a tryout To see if you could be their kicker there was some cases where like teams are holding like three like so for example the Argos They had one in Florida They had actually they had two in Florida and then they had the one in Mississauga And one over here literally right down the road from here on on Lakeshore Okay, so like in Sam Smith Park maybe, or Colonel Sam Smith Park. I see rugby games happen there all the time. Yeah, it's a rugby... It used to be a rugby field, and I'm yet still to find this field again.

I'll show you it after this recording. I know it well. They had a transatlantic rugby tournament either last week or the week before. And teams... There were teams from Ireland and England and Columbia and of course America and the Canadian team having a big tournament there and it was televised and everything but okay I digress that's that's the right that's for the rugby cast which I'll record another day so Dan yes I want to get us to 1999 okay but I mentioned Rocky earlier because I closed my eyes and I think about Rocky, although

now hearing your story, it almost sounds more like Rudy, but Rudy, Rocky, you're a hybrid man. Am I right? At the age of 29, this is 1999, you're working as a grocery clerk. I was a grocery clerk, but I worked in the grocery department. It sounds like you might've been working in the meat department. I did. I did all of them, honestly. I really did. I started in the meat department. Which grocery stores?

Kamesos. All of them were at Kamesos. Okay. I was a food city man. Oh, no way. Food city. All right. Back when Oshawa Foods owned it. And then we did convert it to a price chopper at some point, but this is the gallery, the late great, although still open. I biked over to the gallery of malls to just, to just respect still open. So I don't know. They're building this massive condo tower, which is what you do now, I guess. But they haven't actually closed the part I worked at. I think it's a fresh co now. I'm not sure. I digress. You're handling like frozen meat carcasses. Like I'm picturing Rocky. Remember

he was working out pounding the meat? That's you at the age of 29 in 1999. It was exactly that, man. It was exactly that. I'd take the meat off the trucks, put them on the hooks. And then from there, I'd unload them to the, you know, for the butchers. And then of course I was there late at night

and I was the guy who was cleaning up. So you're washing all the carcasses, you're washing all the machines, sanitizing everything. Gonna fly now. Right? Right? Sing it with me Dan. Gonna fly now. Dun dun dun dun dun dun.

Now I want to hear City Pulse news. Alright so Dan, this is the moment, we're pausing here because something exciting is about to happen in this story. Love your story by the way, but there's ups and downs and we got more downs, but here's an up upcoming up. I am going to crack open a Great Lakes beer. Oh, absolutely. You, I have it's called hop pop. Okay. Uh, that's yes. You got in your hand right now. Fresh from the fridge. All right. So non-alcoholic, just a heads up there. You know that and, uh, mine is definitely alcoholic. So I'm just going to crack it on the mic right in front. Oh, I'll do mine. Are we doing? Okay. You go. All right. So cheers to you, Dan.

Cheers brother. Thank you so much. Enjoy your Great Lakes Brewery. Pop pop. Your surname, I know it, it's Italian. So you know your Italian food. Am I right? I do. Okay. I'm sending you, this is a test. I want to test palma pasta out, okay? So palma pasta's in Mississauga and Oakville. The Petrucci family owns and operates this, there's four locations. I have it on good authority, well my stomach is one,

my taste buds are another, but I know that this is the best Italian food that's not made by your nonna, okay? So I'm gonna send you home with a, it's in my freezer, a large meat lasagna pasta. You're going to cook this up one day. Tell me what you think we're going to post it up. Absolutely. Tell me what you think of Palma pasta. I want to know a true Italian absolutely. Am I saying that right? Okay. So if you're going to go the Italian way, you're going to go, I mean, you're going to go Italian. I'm going to try junk cola junk cola junk cola. So

it's almost like John John Cola. You're right. I've been kind're gonna go Italian. I'm gonna try John Cola John Cola John Cola. So it's almost like John John Cola You're right. I'd kind of like anglicize. Okay, John Cola the way we've always been brought up is Drink cola. Yeah, and cola. There's no right and wrong. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. That's what I need I need more where there's no right and wrong. Otherwise, I'll just go wrong You're gonna take your lasagna home. Let me know what you think. Thank you. And this is kind of timely So I said it in the intro. That's why I ran out of song in the intro, because today it's Friday, August 23rd, tomorrow, Saturday night, the 24th of August, 2024, is the first playoff game of the season. The Toronto Maple Leafs are going to be playing

at Christie pits. I think it's a first. I say that, but I think it's a first. But bottom line is tomorrow night, I'm taking my two little kids to Christie Pitts because they're going to have a great deal on the Maple Leaf beer, $3.50. The hot dogs are going to be three bucks. They're going to have prizes, giveaways. I'm going to make sure my kids get to run the bases. It's going to be amazing. And there's no ticket required. Okay. This is a free event. Get your butts to Christie Pitts tomorrow for Toronto Maple Leafs baseball. And to get you excited, Dan, there's the history of Toronto Maple Leafs baseball all in that book I'm going to send you home with. Oh, thank you. So you gave me a book and I've

given you a book. That's amazing, man. Thank you so much, bro. So go Leafs go. And at least we have some playoff baseball in this city. I will also let you know that recyclemyelectronics.ca, Dan, it's where you go if you have old electronics, old cables, old devices you need to get rid of. You don't throw it in the garbage because those chemicals end up in our landfill. Go to recyclemyelectronics.ca, put in your poster code and they'll be like, hey, Dan, drop it off here and it will be properly recycled. So that's a pro tip for you. That's amazing. Thank you.

One last gift before we get to this exciting moment in 1999, Ridley funeral home pillars of this community since 1921. This is a measuring tape from them. You can measure your biceps. How big are those? Thank you. I saw you at the door and I'm like, oh, I can't mess with this guy. He'll beat me up. No, you do whatever you want. I'm good, man.

You're good. I can mess with you? Okay, let's see. Absolutely. Let's see how it goes. With my pipe cleaner arms here. Okay. So in, we've set the table nicely here.

In 1999, at the age of 29, when you're working at a grocery store, you achieve your dream. You sign a contract with the Toronto Argonauts. So is it just finally after, I don't know, 131 free agent tryouts, somebody at the Argo said, let's give them a shot. How did this happen? It was because of 1998. A lot of people don't know I signed with the Saskatchewan Roughriders. So that, that is where I'll be honest with you. That's where the story of be that one was derived from, right is actually that moment. When I signed in 1998 with Saskatchewan, right, that's when

everything blew up for me. Next thing you know, it was in the papers, it was on TV, it was on TSN, you know, this, I remember my first article, it said, Dan Jin Cola, heading for greener pastures, have leg, will travel. And Bill Patras wrote that story. And, um, I was on the plane. I was legitimately on a plane and my, uh, my wife at the time, my girlfriend was in the airport, uh, waving bye to me.

And, uh, next thing you know, the, the stewardess goes, well, passenger Dan Ginkola, please come to the front of the plane. And I'm like, what the hell's going on? Like I thought maybe somebody put something in my bag, something's not right. Next thing you know, I get there, get to the front of the plane. They says, do me a favor, please go to boarding. They'll have the information you need. Long story short, I get there. And one of the people at the door said, apparently, I slip in with Dan Rambo for the Saskatchewan Rough Riders and message me and Rambo, Dan Rambo. Yes. How that works, right? It's all about slide. Right? What a name. Okay. And he apparently was trying to call me and I had my phone on silent.

So here I am on the plane getting ready to rock and roll, getting ready to leave. Right. And he says that Paul McCallum is coming back from the world league and they no longer need my services. And you're on the, you're on the plane. Oh, you're on the plane. I'm on the plane and I'm going to Saskatchewan. Right.

And next thing you know, I am devastated. I walk over and my wife's the plane starts pulling out and I walk behind my wife and my wife's you know, like, just waving. Yeah. And I'm standing behind her and I said, babe, she goes turns around with this look on her face of disbelief. What are you doing? I said, let's just go home. And so what ended up happening was that led into 1999 and I was in Cocoa beach, Florida and the late John Gregory was the coach there and, uh, the I, so I did a lot, I did a ton of arena teams also over the years and all the

free agent camps, you know, Albany firebirds and so on and so on and so on. And I was trying out for for Kurt Warner's arena team Right and here you got another grocery clerk, but you know, he least went to university and did all that I did it right. He read more than one book. Right? He read way more than one book. Right? It was the Bible Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Exactly And man Next thing I know I'm over there and I kicked a bunch of field goals.

Coach looks at me and he says, Hey man, he says, listen, you're my guy. You're my guy. He says, do me a favor. Come on over here. Let's do a couple of kickoffs. Yeah. My very first kickoff, I've already made the team. My leg goes, goes through the, through the ball and all I felt was terror, terror, terror, terror, four spots, my leg was

dangling. Yeah. And immediately their therapist came over, they iced me up, they told me the severity of it. And he said, Dan, if you can kind of piece yourself together by I think the workout again, I'm guessing now I'm spitballing I think it was probably around December and the league was starting in March so I had basically two three months to piece my leg together and next thing you know uh-huh I get back to the hotel and my phone is ringing like crazy there's my light is flashing on the phone. Yeah. I pick up the phone and it says you have 25 messages. My mom was trying to get a hold of me. He said that my agent was trying to get a hold of me and don't sign

anything. Right. So I wasn't too worried about it. Honestly, really didn't matter to me. Um, I finally get on the phone and he said, Hey, Danny, you're B you're bleeding blue, buddy. I said, what the hell are you talking, Hey Danny, you're bleeding blue buddy. I said, what the hell are you talking about? Do you know I got hurt bad? He goes, what are you talking about? I go, well, you first. He goes, well, you're signing with the Argos.

And I'm like, you gotta be kidding me, bro. So there's a part of me that's happy, but there's a part of me is like, are you kidding me with this right now? Right. I just tore my leg up. So anyway, fast forward to making it to preseason. I never kicked one football. I was in rehab every day, every day to keep my leg piece together. So I went about two, three months not touching a football. I went directly in

the training camp. And that's where 1999 started for me. Okay, this story needs to be a movie. Are you working on this? So you got the book now. You just got to like, give, license the book to some filmmakers. So I'm just like Rudy meets Rocky. I'm going to say something to you. You've got a movie coming out. There's a couple of things that are happening. Sly Stallone is playing you. Is he too old? There's a couple of things that are happening. So I'm going to get, I'm probably going to get in trouble, but, uh, no one's listening. Yeah, right. Private.

I know better. Did you think I was recording this, Dan? Yeah. I didn't know you wanted me to record it. We're working on a documentary, and then from the documentary, we're gonna be talking to a Hollywood producer. So they're comparing my story to Rudy and Vince Papali.

Not even sure I know that name. Invincible. Okay, okay. But the Rudy I know, because I've seen that movie a hundred freaking times and there's a lot of Rudy going on here. So you're now, okay, just again, you're 29 years old. You've recovered from this leg injury and now you're going, is it, is it, you're going to training camp of the Toronto Argonauts? The double blue, the Argos, can you give me like, who are the stars of the 1990s?

Oh man, well the first person, one of the first people I met was Pinball and for me growing up, Pinball's the guy. You know, I idolized them on and off the field. He's one of those guys that you can honestly say what a role model on and off the field. This is what a human being is supposed to be like. Paul Mazzotti, Michael Shea, Pree, London's Bryce was big. I mean, my God, I could just keep going on and on and on and on. Adrian Smith, Jim Ballard, one of the other quarterbacks.

Jimmy Kemp was a great friend of mine. Jay Barker. You know, what an amazing bunch, man. They, to me, my biggest role models in that situation in my first year, I can honestly say was first and foremost was pre pre-Fontaine. He taught me how to be a pro. He really did. He was hands on with me. There was a couple of times, you know, he grabbed me by my jersey and pulled me out of the room and literally ripped me a new ass. I mean, he, yeah. And tough love. It was tough love and they weren't he did privately, right? Well, he did it privately but he made it known like in front of everybody. Like, so if here's an example, we were in

Calgary and I kicked five field goals that game. Wow. And the furthest one I made that game was 54 yards. So I had a great game. Yeah. And they beat us by a late, late pass touchdown. I think it was, actually I'd be honest with you, I think the, we threw an interception, they returned it and they won. So we got back to the locker room and I was I was so pissed off because I played a good game and all I wanted is well I wanted with was for us to win and I slammed my helmet down right in front of me pre grabs me literally grabs me by my my shoulder pads and Yanks me he goes. Let's go now and

So like I'm like a kid man. Like I'm I'm following him like a, like a kid and he's grabbing my shoulder pads. He's dragging me. Right. We get out in the hallway and he said, listen to me. You had a great game. Those guys just went to war for four quarters and we lost a brutal game. Take this win, go talk to the media, tell them how good you did, tell them how great the team played, get on a plane and go home and be a professional. And you know, at the time, I really didn't think I did anything wrong because I was upset we lost. That was me. Right. But I think him understanding the role of a kicker, I think was more of, you know, these guys went to war, they battled their asses off, they're in the trenches. And yes, all we do is go out there and kick a field goal. And I'm not,

trust me, I'm the last person to go in and demean, you know, the kicking position. But can I ask, this is a silly question. The overlapping skill sets for your punter versus your field goal goal kicker. Sometimes they're one in the same, right? They're two different, they really are two different arts. They really, really truly are. You couldn't be the punter. I practiced to be the punter. I had the ability to be a punter.

They were really at the end of the day, they were grooming Pree for at some point to take over all three. And I like to believe that I helped him and pushed him those years so that, you know, he was able to have like a 10 year career like he did and an outstanding kicker, right? So, and we're still great friends to this day, man.

We, you're not gonna find two kickers as close as we were. Well, that's great to hear. Now let's shine a light on this season 1999 with the Toronto Argonauts, because you became a star man. Like you kicked two game winning field goals in that first year. And am I right? So you, you nearly tied the CFL record for most points scored in a single season. I just did a podcast last night. I think the guy's name was Ray MacCarrity,

May REC or MacCarrita. I believe he played in Edmonton. I had no idea, I had no idea, I kicked five field goals that game. And so next thing you know as soon as the game was over I was sitting in the locker room and Danny Webb came up to me, the equipment guy and he says, hey, good game bro, we won. He said, good game bro. He says, man, you just fell just short. I had no clue what the hell he was talking about. He said, good game, bro. We won. He said, good game, bro. He says, man, you just fell just short. I had no clue what the hell he was talking about. He said, short of what? And he said, of beating the scoring.

Oh, points in a season. So you scored this, just to make sure we shine a light on this, the second most points in CFL history that season. That's your rookie year with the Argos. And your 29 year old rookie. You know what? Not just Rudy and Rocky, you know we're also gonna throw in the pile there? The natural, okay? Because the natural, right? This phenom young guy and then this wasteland of years before he suddenly shows up with this contract. I love the natural. It gets a little bit of hate online I've noticed. I love the natural. I love it when Roy Hobbs shows up as an older guy, and you know, he just just plays now That's a bit you too. So I think I mean this is why only the one year

Like I just I want to understand like because I know that you go you're gonna sign a contract with the Buffalo Bills next But like why didn't you get the 10-year career like pre-fontaine? You know Some guys are what they call and I I learned this, they're called journeymen, right? And it's one of those things where unfortunately, you know, there's some guys that, you know, play the game, they play the game for six years and they win five great cups. Right. There's some guys who play 15 years and never even been to the playoffs, you know? So for me, it was, you know, I played my first year, had an outstanding year.

Yes. And that the second year, that's when the new coaching and ownership came into play, J.I Albright and John Heward. And I believe who was the owner there? Cinnamon or whatever? No, no, no, no, no. Schwartz. Schwartz, right. And I'm sure with Schwartz, but not the guy from the Brady bunch. I was confused at first. You know, he was such a nice man. He, he absolutely loved me. They, uh, Schwartz called me on the phone and, um, G I called me on the phone and G I, uh, basically read me the riot act.

Where are you going to go? You're going to go to the NFL. You're going to be there for five minutes. Stay here. You will. You know, you could have a career here. Yada, yada, yada. And honestly, Mike, this has got honest truth.

And I was very honest in the book and I've been very honest in any podcast or TV shows that I've been on. I told everybody I never wanted to go to the NFL. It was more peer pressure. The media was really hitting me on me hard. They were, you know, a lot of them saying, and a lot of, I'll be honest with you, a lot of guys who I played against and a lot of guys that, uh, I even played with and dude, you gotta go, man. Like, are you kidding me?

What a story. Like you're a grocery clerk and then you come over here and you light it up You got an opportunity to go to the NFL and right so finally I gave in I gave in and I gave it a shot and I went to Buffalo and Again, I don't know where I don't know where you want to take it. So I don't want to go I don't I don't I you take me where you want to go. Let's go. Well, let's hold hands and go together we After that decision I made you know, obviously things things went fantastic they did like I went to Buffalo and

The media was insane and I mean insane you you couldn't go take you couldn't go take a piss Wait, I think that was the only place that you can actually go where like there wouldn't be any cameras at least with me and I mean and who was I really at the end of the day? Who is I but for some reason everybody wanted to know about the grocery clerk everybody wanted to know about You know my story and even the guys on the team, you know Marcellus Wiley was was one of my one of my boys and such a great guy and Flutie Flutie was amazing with me. And so anyway, I go to training camp and we're not even a week in a training camp and Doug says to me Dude, I you better go check your phone and I'm like, what's up?

He says your dude your phones been going off all day like legitimately all day and I says well only my wife really's got the Number so I don't know why Make a long story short, that's when my mom made a decision to leave my, oh, no way. Stop it. And you got just everybody I've shown Dan my Doug Flutie, my Argonaut Bob, like, yeah, the head comes off. Okay, Dan, now what are you done? He's deheaded. And here we are in a very serious moment with your parents are breaking up here It's okay. I'll fix that later. Don't worry. Don't worry. I'll fix late. It's been coming off but

Now this is some serious shit your deal. So even though here's the thing So people you're 30 years old or whatever. Yeah, your parents are separating right? There is a Misconception out there that this won't affect you. You're 30 years old. You're not like a 10 year old or whatever, but it does affect you. You know, man, for me, I can only speak for me. Of course.

We are in a very close family. Right. You know, we grew up our whole life with my mom and our dad and our brothers and my great grandparents. I was blessed to have them into their hundreds. My grandmother in the hundreds. Into their hundreds.

In their hundreds. And my great grandparents. How many hundred? I think. 200? No, no. I think my great grandfather was 101 and my great grandmother I think was 99

or something like that. Just yesterday I booked my oldest guest ever. She's 101 years old. Oh, that's amazing. She's gonna be in the basement. Peter gross's mom. You know, Peter, I know the name. Peter was on city TV. And then he was on six 80 news. Peter gross's mom and Peter in the basement in September. She's a hundred and one years old. Wow. That's amazing. But you find out your parents are breaking up.. My mom left. Your mom left. My dad came home one day from work and all their other stuff was

gone. But you're in training camp with the Buffalo Bills and you find out that your parents are basically divorcing. Yeah so my dad's brother, my uncle, my cousin, my wife and I had not heard from my mom and I had not heard from my dad. This was everybody just telling me. And so I'm sitting there and I was, I cried. And when I say to you, I cried, I bawled, I bawled for hours. I, I couldn't use an excuse. So I went to my, my meeting, my special teams meeting, and I don't even remember what the hell even happened. I was so distraught, you know, and I left, went home, went back to the dorm and cried a little bit more

than I called my wife and I said, you know, how they doing? And she goes, I, Dan, I, I'm sorry. I gave your uncle the number and I guess he must have gave it to everybody. And so anyway, it messed me up, man. It messed me up. You know, my mind was always on, you know, what is my mom doing?

Where is she? Um, you know, I heard my dad fell down the stairs. He was bawling. Um, at that point he was being diagnosed with, um, uh, Parkinson's at that point. So you know, now he's got Parkinson's and my wife is pregnant. So it's just a shit show. It's just an absolute shit show and You know the end of the day man people are like well, you know, you did good you did good You know, I don't you know what? Listen Christie was the better kicker. He was booming the ball to the end zone

I was told very another Canadian beach out, right? You know exactly you know what I mean? So, you know, he's the better man and period. I mean, I was getting the ball down to the five yard line. You know, maybe if I would have pulled my head out of my ass for five minutes, maybe I would have gave myself an opportunity. Um, but you were cut before the first preseason. I was. And the main reason was, is because I was starting to come on strong and Wade Phillips said to me and he made it very clear to me. He said, I'm already dealing with a quarterback controversy. And at the time it was Rob Johnson and you know, I remember well, Doug Flutie should

have been starting that playoff game. The Memphis city that's in 2000, I believe the Memphis city miracle game should have been a Doug Flutie game. I had a Doug foodie bills Jersey. I was watching that game with my buddy Mark Carey. I'm still upset about it. That was 1999. 99. Okay. I think it's 2000. Maybe it's early 2000. That's the, well, that's the reason why they signed me in 2000. What was because of Steve Christie, because they said it was a short field goal. So that was, and I didn't know this and that, that was my, that was my issue at the end with my agent.

You know, this turned me off of NFL football for decades. It really did turn me off of football. That game. Yeah. Okay. It's funny how this is all coming together here. You know, you're working through some trauma here. Right. So am I, Dan, right? I was too. Okay. So, so, so you, uh, you're cut the Buffalo Bills cut you. Yep. The Argos still have your rights in the CFL, right? They trade you to BC. So he held out, he held out right to the bitter end. I, cause I think he just wanted to prove a point.

Well, who's he? Yeah. GI. Okay. And the very last day, uh, Danny Webb, Jerry Townen, I think came out, Jerry Townen or, uh, Danny Webb came out and said, I think came out, Jerry Townen or, uh, Danny Webb came out and said, we need you to get off the field. I was like, what the hell's going on?

Yeah. So they called me into the office and, uh, J I I'm standing outside the door forever and he finally says to me, come, come sit down. So I sit down and I took my shoulder pads and put them on the chair beside me. And, um, he goes on telling me all about the war days and this, that, everything else. And, and then his last, we talked for, he talks to me like 20 minutes. And then he says to me, and by the way, we traded you get out of here. And I was like, okay.

So I literally, I literally was in such shock. I literally stood up. Yeah. And I started walking out the door. So I walk out I literally was in such shock. I literally stood up and I started walking out the door. So I walk out of the portable realizing two things. One, where am I going? I don't even know where the hell I'm going. Two, I left my shoulder pads and my jersey in there. So I go back to the door and I knock on the door and he's on the phone, he closes the door on me.

And I'm standing there with the door closed in my face and I'm like, so he finally opens the door and he's on the phone, he closes the door on me. And I'm standing there with the door closed in my face. And I'm like, so he finally opens the door after 10 minutes. I continuing to stand there. And I said, I just want to, he goes, what do you want? He goes, you're traded. I see you never told me where. So you're going to BC. We traded you for two guys that I think in a draft pick or something like that. And I'm like, okay. I said I need my shoulder pads, he grabs it legitimately grabs my shoulder pads. Yeah. And chucks it out the door. Literally right past me just chunks it out the

door. slams the door. I grab my stuff. I go back into the change room and pre walked in right away. He came off the field. O'Shea came off the field. And they can sold me. They can sold me and I mean, you're a human being. I hate hearing this treatment of like, you know, this reminds me of your fourth grade teacher here. Is that this disrespect that you're a human being?

Yeah. Yeah. And I really, no compassion, none. And you know, and the sad part is, you know, I like, I think to this day, that was all because just punishment because I didn't stay in Toronto. Right. Cause you tried to, I tried to this day, that was all because just punishment, because I didn't stay in Toronto. Right, because you tried to play in the NFL. Yeah. Which wasn't even your dream.

You felt this pressure to, it's like you were writing the movie in real time. Yes. And the movie needs you to kick a playoff winning field goal for the Buffalo Bills. Yes, right. Absolutely, you know, and, but unfortunately, and I raced home and I called my wife and I said,

you got to appreciate now she's pregnant and we're getting ready to go to BC. And she says, honey, you know, I can't go cause I won't be able to fly and I can't leave my job. So, uh, it was a hard night that night. We, uh, we cried the entire night and, uh, she took me to the airport. I got on the plane and I arrive in BC and I met Brailly, the owner. Yeah. He owned a couple of teams for awhile.

If I remember correctly. Yeah. Yeah. He owned Mara goes to right. Yeah. And you know, he was really, he was a really nice man with me. He really was honestly. And then I met a few of the guys. I met Drummond, I met a few of the guys I met drumming.

I met Alfred Jackson, Donnie Blair. And then finally, after I did, they did the big, it was actually kind of really cool though. Like you always see it, you know, when you're doing your press conference and they're holding up your Jersey. And so like legitimately, like I'm like that guy, like I got this number three Jersey

and I wanted number four, cause that was my number and yada, yada, yada. And, but, uh, next thing you know, you're playing the next day. Right. And, uh, I walk into the locker room and there's Louie. There's Louie. And I'm like, Oh my God, the legend. So I walk up to him and I said to him, I go, Oh my God, it's such a pleasure to meet you legend. He looks at me, he goes, Coca-Cola, what's up brother? Good to have you here. Right.

So we had a great, we had a great rate conversation and, um, and God bless him the entire season, man, you want to talk about learning from the best guy was 50 years old, collecting a pension and still playing 25 years with the same team. Wow. What a story. What a story. Well, he can be the B plot. You're the A plot. Well, he, yeah, that guy there, man, just, uh, like I said, God bless him. That's what made my year in BC, honestly.

But how does it end for you in BC? Well, they, uh, they made a decision. Adam Rita had, uh, called me up. And, um, at the time the time, I can't remember, Coach Brattle, Coach Brattle took over for Coach Mons and we were seven and eleven going into the playoffs. It's amazing you can make the playoffs seven and eleven. It's crazy. It actually is crazy. There's a few things about the, I root for the CFL, but there's a few Mickey mouse things

that you're sort of like, Oh, you can make the playoff seven 11. And then you mentioned Braley and I'm like, Oh, you can own two teams. You can have two teams. When I grew up with two teams named the rough riders, right? Like that one's still a mind blow to me. There's a few things like that. And this is a good moment for me to ask you a quick question before we get back. Cause I'm going to get awfully serious with you And if you use it a moment here, but question did come in from Greg

Who's a big CFL booster big Argos fan? He wants to know and you're honestly in your opinion I know you're the field goal kicker should the Rouge be abolished this is in the news from an Argo game last night that I can't say I watched but I did catch a bit of the Controversy because I saw FOTM Howard Berger made this grandiose statement after I don't know what he said, 60 years of being a fan of the CFL and the Toronto Argos. He's attended his last Argos game because I think that was an officiating concern, but there was a Rouge that won this game. What do you think of the Rouge? You know, I was watching before I came here, I was watching it on a Tik Tok and I followed

the Argos there and I saw Liam missed the field goal. You can see that he had the intention to pound it, to make sure that there was no return. I mean, the CFL is a special game. And do I agree with the end of the game and that's how the game ends? No. It's either he makes the field goal or he doesn't. That's just my opinion. In that situation, in a game winning situation, I think that that should be null and void. But outside of that, man, it makes for great, it really does make for some great football. You got guys back there, you know, like your receivers with the good hands because they

got to try to jump up and they got to catch that ball. You got guys back there, you know, like your receivers with the good hands, because they got to try to jump up and they got to catch that ball. If you notice, I believe they had two receivers in the end, in the end zone last night, just in case they got a hand on it so they can kick the ball out of the end zone. And I think that makes great. I personally, your pro Rouge, I totally am. But again, with that said how the game ended on that Miss field goal. And because it went through the end zone, no return one point. No, I don't, I don't, I think that's, I think that's shitty. Yeah. Okay. So

always a great debate. Uh, the Rouge always find it very interesting, but I value your opinion on that. And Greg, there's your answer from, uh, Dan, John Cola, John Cola working on that man, working on that. You did a good job. You did good. You did good. Shout out to Anthony Petrucci at Palma Pasta. So let's get serious for a moment here. So is it, does your career end when you're cut by the BC Lions? Is that it for you in professional football?

No, no, no. So after that I got taken, so I went 2001, I got signed back in Toronto and Jacob, I went against Jacob Marini and, but that's a whole other story about what happened there. And so I got cut and Jacob Marini took over. Uh, pinball was the coach. Pinball told me a clutch if he falters, I'm not going to even hesitate to bring you back. I said, okay.

I'm not going to even hesitate to bring you back. I said, okay. Um, so from there, uh, I sat out for, I think four or five weeks. But that was not a great season. The 2001 or it goes. No, it wasn't because it was a mind, you know what? I mean, I don't want to say that word, but it was, it was, um, it, it screwed with your mind, something fierce, right? You know, because I out kicked him in, in training camp and this political again. Um, maybe I think so. I, I really do. And you know, like I said, it was, uh, and I, it's in the book. And like I said,

I was very, as honest as I honest capacity to be, um, I just felt, I really felt like I was cheated, you know, and that I was the better kicker. But at the end of the day, there's no point in complaining about it. You go home, you train and hopefully somebody else, you know, picks you up and signs you. And it just ended up that Jacob, uh, had a bad few games in a row. Uh, he had a bad gaming category and they called me back and me back and I come back and I kicked the lights out.

I kicked the lights out and they brought me back for the last part of the season. Didn't have the greatest season. I think I kicked 76% field goal, something like that, 72%. It wasn't a 1999 season, that's for sure. Right. Well, that was one for the ages here. Okay. So you said it's in the book a couple of times and Perry Lefkoe has written a few books, not just doing the 10% mop up at the very end of Be That One.

I got to get the full title. Be That One. Why does it have to be someone else? Why not me? So that's your book. You wrote 90% of it. Then Perry came and dotted some I's and crossed some T's. You've literally written as many books as you've read. Do you realize that? Yeah. Do you think there's, do you think there's another human, serious question, on this planet of 8 billion people or whatever, is there another human who can say in all honesty, they have read the same number of books they have written? I think you're the one, one in 8 billion. I mean, I, yeah, like, I mean, I, I had no choice. I had, because Perry kept bringing back, like it's such a process, man. I mean, you, you, like, I mean, I, I had no choice. I had, because Perry kept bringing back, like there, it's such a process, man. I mean,

you, you're, you write the chapter and then he's like, okay, listen, how does this sound? And then he goes in there and he tweaks it and like, okay. And he's easy to work with, right? Well, when he's not listening to when in Rome, rolling his eyes. Absolutely. I wish he was here. I mean, because he almost came by, he was going to come by. I didn't even come by. I don't know. He just texted me, said, he can't make it, but he was going to come by. I think he comes by for the palma pasta, but so before, cause we're going to get serious before

we wrap up, like there's some serious life stuff I want to talk to you about. But I feel like you've said it's in the book twice and I need to play a super cut of Nick Kiprio's on Toronto. Mike Nick Kiprio's wrote a book, but I don't think it was a 90 10 split with Perry. I think I'll have Perry tell me what the real split was, but Perry Lefkoe helped Nick Kiprio wrote a book, but I don't think it was a 90-10 split with Perry. I think I'll have Perry tell me what the real split was. But Perry Lefkoe helped Nick Kiprios with his book. You want to hear the super cut? And then we'll get back to your story. You ready?

Yeah. Okay, here we go. Mike, you can get all of those stories and more in a book that I wrote that will come out in October. Simon and Schuster were kind enough to offer me a book deal. Yeah, yeah and that's in the book too. And you know it's well documented in my book coming up. Yeah, yeah and that's in the book too. So it's a good it's a a good read in my book coming up on how I was able to turn it around.

It's a pretty good ride in my book. I think readers will enjoy it. Well that's another one in my book buddy. That's another one in my book. So there you go. There's the super in my book, buddy. That's another one in my book. So there you go. There's the super cut. Nick Caprio. Every time I'd ask him something interesting, oh, you dated Joan London in New York.

It's in the book. So now whenever a guest hides, goes, you know, in the book, it's my least favorite response. Now you've been very good. You have not just said, Hey, go read it. I read it. It's in the book. You've been telling me these great stories, but that's the Nick Caprio read it. It's in the book. You've been telling me these great stories, but that's the Nick Caprio super cut it's in the book.

So there you go. Yeah, that's fantastic. Now back to our regularly scheduled podcast, which is. So after this Argo season, is that it for you in professional football? Um, so then from there, 2002, I got taste taken into this personal draft to Ottawa, right. With the red, red, black got taken into this personal draft to Ottawa. Right. With the Renegades.

Red, black. Oh, the Renegades. Yeah. Hard to keep track of all the reds. Yeah, no, I know. I know. And they took me second overall. So that there, that season, that was another heartbreaker. That's when my father-in-law's dad passed away. Wait, wait, wait I, uh, my father-in-law's dad passed away. Wait, wait, wait, wait. So your father-in-law's dad, dad. So my, my wife's grandfather passed away.

And he was, he was my biggest fan. Okay. And, um, my father-in-law was really, uh, took it really hard. He was balling. He, and he said, you know, and I just remember I went to Tellman and I said, listen, we have a death in the family. And he says, listen, Danny, Joe just remember I went to Tellman and I said, listen, we have a death in the family. And he says, listen, Danny, Joe Pau Pau was the head coach.

And I had him also in BC. And he said, listen, family comes first, go home, go for a couple of days and go do whatever. So I go home and next thing, you know, I come back, I get to practice and I get this another brutal pull in my groin. I botched my, I think it was on a kickoff and I couldn't kick. So for three days I'm in, I'm in treatment. I get a phone call from my wife and my wife says to me, honey, I'm so sorry. She says, Skylar, my daughter is in the hospital. She's got a bad case of croup and you gotta appreciate she was only one you could diagnose

that illness over the phone by the way yes yeah absolutely and I guess it was really bad and uh so I go she goes I know you can't come home I says if even if they say no I'm coming home I'll get my own plane so I go straight up to Eric and I tell him the situation and you know, God bless him. Once again, just a pure gentleman just said to me, he said, Danny, go, go, go be with your family. Take care of your groin while you're there and take all the time you need. So I went there for home for about three or four days and Yeah, and next thing you know so I went there for home for about three or four days and Yeah, and next thing you know

There there were letting me go because my they're not letting me go because they can't release me Because of a groin because as a veteran I had an injury right? We got I don't know how many Games into it next thing. You know, I saw that I wasn't getting game checks anymore. And I was like, well, what's going on? Because I haven't been cleared yet. I'll be getting rehab. And called Gil Scott, my agent, and he, he called me and he says, Hey, it looks like they released you. He says, you may have to go to do an arbitration. So I went to arbitration. And long story short, I won.

I won my season's pay and never played 2002. 2003, I signed with the Montreal Owl Wets. And in training camp, the Olympic doctor, can't remember his name, diagnosed me with a triple hernia and figured that that was probably the issue I had from way back which playing with arena arena football trying out for John Gregory's Iowa Barnstormers right so that's probably something happened then right so they took me to the shoulder ice clinic in Toronto they flew me home

had surgery that day and sat around at home. And next thing you know, my daughter and I get into this, this horrible car accident. Oh my gosh. Horrible car accident. A couple of days after that, my wife gets diagnosed with colon cancer. Oh no. So again, I don't want to scatter all, but I just want to kind of give you a feed of like what I was going through in those years. Yeah. So my dad got diagnosed with Parkinson's in 2000. My father-in-law got diagnosed with colon cancer, uh, terminal, uh, in 2002, right? 2003, my mother-in-law got diagnosed with a preventative colon cancer and got preventative surgery

to have her whole intestines removed. Then my wife got diagnosed with colon cancer and my mom had a major seizure and this all happened within four or five years. Wow. So after the 2003 season, I got called back to Toronto after my wife got diagnosed with colon cancer and was getting surgery. And we, my daughter and I got in a massive car accident. And I showed up and I played the game. After the game, we were in the field house the next day and I called Penner over, Mike Pinball. I said to him, listen, I said, I gotta talk to you for a minute.

And he says, okay. He says, Christina got diagnosed with cancer, colon cancer. Pinball is always a man if you know him, he's always a man of quite a few words. And then in that moment, he didn't say anything. He didn't say anything. He just looked at me and say, clutch, what are you doing here? And I said, I talked to her and she told me, give me a second. Yeah, take your time, buddy. She told me to go and play, that there was nothing I could do for her and she was good.

So, Penn had the whole team sign the football. And I presented, I remember walking in the hospital, trying to race there to get there, cause she had her surgery. And you don't want to talk about a Hollywood movie. I walk in there and I'm holding the ball behind my back and she was looking really weak. And I had my daughter in my,

in my other hand. And I asked her how she was, she goes, Did you do good? I say, I think real good. And I said, the team got you a ball. And I handed her the ball in my somebody, I don't know who was my family grabbed my daughter and pulled her out of the room. And as I'm holding the ball, I hugged her. And I said I love her and she said she loved me and the lights went out. And it was legitimately like a scene.

And we just sat there and we just held each other and then finally the nurse came in and said, Mr. Jinkola, I'm sorry, visiting hours is over. So I walked out and for the next couple of weeks, finishing the season was hard. Taking that drive to Toronto every day from Niagara Falls, you know, was always so pleasurable in my first year for my convertible Mustang and you know You're playing for a Ken and Rikki He is he is and you know, but that year I wasn't even listening to any music It was tough You realize that football is just a game yeah

How is Christina how's Christina doing now? Christina, thank God they found her her cancer early. So she didn't need radiation. She didn't need chemo chemotherapy. All they did was do the surgery. So they do what they call a resection and they pulled out a certain part of the colon. My father in law passed away 10 years later. My dad passed away from Parkinson's in 2020. My mother in law just passed away in February. I'm sorry for all your losses here, man. This is

Yeah, so that's, that's what makes the book so special. It's so, I'm not trying to sell the book. I'm just saying that's what made the book so special. It's just very, well, it's an inspiring story. Like you chased your dreams. You never gave up hope, like all these challenges. I mean, now you're a 29 year old grocery clerk

and you're still not giving up on your dream. And look at what you accomplished. And it's such an inspiring story. I hope everybody checks it out, but I need to talk about your health for a moment. Sure. But a couple of, since it was a heavy moment there, and I appreciate you being so comfortable that you could, you could have that moment with me. But you were talking about living with a hernia and I was thinking about how earlier today in

this conversation, we talked about Rocky four. Yeah. You with me? Okay. Yeah. I got you. James Brown performed. Yes. Living in America before that fight. And weird Al Yankovic's parody was called living with a hernia. I never seen it. Are you kidding? Living with the, well, it's a,. Are you kidding? Living with a hernia. You can probably find the video on YouTube. It was a single from WeirdoYankovic. Living with a hernia. My mind is doing this.

I'm like, Mike, shut the fuck up because Dan's crying. It's all good, man. The lights are going out in a hospital. He's hugging his wife who's been diagnosed with cancer. Just had surgery. Leave James Brown out of this. But then another thing you mentioned, the Scholdish clinic, is how you say it? That's a tough word for me to say. Scholdish clinic. There's a recent, this is way inside

baseball man, but there's a recent FOTM cast where we recap the previous quarter of Toronto Mike stuff, the TMU we call it, Toronto Mike universe and Cam Gordon and Tyler Campbell come by and we talk about what happened the previous and Tyler Campbell. No, it was Cam Gordon. Sorry. Sorry, Tyler for thinking it was you. Cam Gordon. Last time we did an FOTM cast goes into like all the famous people who have had hernia

surgeries at the shoal dice clinic and I went at him for how boring it was, like how, who cares? But now you got, you had, you had your hernia, is it surgery? What is it called when you, uh, yeah, so it's easier of some sort. Yeah. So I had what they call an inguinal. So it's like right in the groin and, um, they specialize. So in Toronto, Scholdeis Dice, John Travolta was actually in there when I was in there. And... That's amazing. Yeah, it was, it wasn't crazy. Vincent Vega.

Yeah, right. From Pulp Fiction. Right? He was like literally one room over from me. And they were, I hate to use this word because I still to this day, I cannot stand it. But they had like a award part like for celebrities kind of thing so that people weren't bothered.

Another tier or something. Yeah. You know what I mean? And I'm Travolta. You don't have to be of the normies. Yeah. So I overhear the doctor saying to him, okay, so you're going to be in bed for a couple days, you know, yada yada yada yada.

And then, so I'm thinking, okay, I'm going to be here for a couple of days. And next thing you know, he walks in and he says to me, okay, so you're gonna go on the bike When a couple days now I'm not lying to you. But you didn't say do you know who I am second most points I mean because that's what ultimately that's what got me, you know, on the bike and, uh, right, you know, and ready to go. Right. So, um, we were right at it. They pulled, uh, 25 stitches out by night's day. And then the next day they pulled out the last 25 and the glue was kind of

holding it together. Wow. And then, um, I, it's supposed to be six weeks of healing. I was back on the field with the Argos in three weeks. Wow. Okay, listen, so you're 54 years old as I look at you now. Yes. And you look to me like you're in great shape, like you own a gym, right?

Yeah. You do a lot of lifting, you're in good shape here. But now this is gonna be a shock to the listenership, okay? Yeah. I'm only, I mean, I've had my own health scare, but I this is going to be a shock to the listenership. Okay. I'm only, I mean, I've had my own health scare, but I feel really good right now. And I had a really good appointment with my hematologist yesterday and was told basically to keep doing what I'm doing because they don't, they don't, I get blood clots, but they don't know why I get them. So they just, now I pop this pill twice a day that thins my blood. And that's just where we're at because

I have to take these pills indefinitely. I got another year subscription prescription yesterday. So enough about my health problems. Am I right that at the age of 50, you suffered a near fatal heart attack? I was in my fitness studio. It was during COVID. And that's when we were in lockdown. Right. And again, make a real long story short, people's mental health was going for a shit. Yeah. And the amount of people that were messaging me saying that they were becoming alcoholics, they were feeling suicidal.

It just went on and on and on. So I just finally said to my wife, I said, well, the government's not gonna have us back anytime soon. Because we're the first people they took out, fitness industry, and we were the last ones we brought back with restrictions. So I was teaching a online class. It was, it was blowing up. I was getting 5,000 people on Facebook following.

Well, they heard about this guy doing these free body weight training for all ages, you know, yada, yada, yada, yada, yada. And, um, next thing I know I was 10 to 11 and all of a sudden I felt like I had the flu. And when I say to you the flu, it came on like a tsunami. Did you feel nauseous? I'm talking because I off sometimes I think I'm having a heart attack. I really am interested in your symptoms. Are you were you were you in pain?

Because when I was nauseous, I felt like I ate a whole bunch of raw shit that was, was spoiled. But where did you feel the pain? Nope. So the pain came. Okay. So I was legitimately sick. I felt like I had to throw up. Right. So at that point I'm having a heart attack. I don't know that yet. Right. From there, I finished my, I finished the class. I said, I got to finish this. I got 5,000 people on your trooper. I go outside to get a breath of fresh air.

Yeah. All of a sudden I felt like I had the dry heave. I run to the bathroom and I start dry heaving and instantly my back starts. Okay. So this pain started off about a seven. Now I just finished telling you about the beer situation made because of my gallbladder. So gallbladders right here. So what happens with me is it squeezes and then I get pain, sharp pain in my back, usually on the right side. This pain was central right in the middle of my back. Okay. So I'm like, okay. So I call my wife right away. I said, Hey, babe, she works on a doctor's office. This is honey. I got a sprain

center on my back. I got this horrible pain. I'm nauseous. I feel sick like a dog. It says, All right, do you feel okay? She goes, No, she goes, What did you eat last night? I don't remember what I ate. She called me food poisoning. I said, okay. When I talked to the media, when I talked to TSN and all them, I told them this, this next action that I did was the best and the worst thing. I grabbed a medicine ball and I went to lay my back down and I went to go roll it out because when I do that for my gallbladder, for some reason, it subsides the pain. Mike, when I say this to you,

bro, the pain shot through the center of my chest. You can't even if you had a knife right now, and you grabbed it and we pushed it right through I can guarantee you 150% I would take that It was a 20 out of 10 so next thing I know I Get up I get in my car. I shut down the studio. I start driving back home to Thorough to Niagara Falls I call my wife. I said, to Niagara Falls. I called my wife. I said, babe, I think I'm having a heart attack. I think, and you're driving yourself. I'm

driving myself because I'm terrible. You sound as dumb as I am. Absolutely. No, absolutely. I'm I once biked to the hospital thinking I was having a heart attack. Yeah. Well, but I think yours is dumber. No, no. Mine's way, well's way gets better. So anyway, I turn I turn around and pick up my phone, call my wife. She says get to the hospital right now. Smart. So I spin around. I drive myself to St. Catharines Hospital. As I'm making my way around the bend where the Meridian Center is where the ice dogs

play and all that. I had my hand underhanding the wheel like this and I was legitimately underneath the steering wheel. I couldn't see I was in so much pain. Right. And I remember honestly, honestly, God, I remember praying to God and I said to God, God, if this is my time, thank you. I've had a beautiful life. Please just take care of my wife and my daughter. By the grace of God, I got all green lights. I pull into emerge. And next thing you know, it took 25 minutes to be seen because it was during COVID. Because you get two screenings. five minutes to be seen because it was during COVID because you get two screenings.

Then once you do that, then they sit you in station a, which apparently is a little more, um, uh, serious urgent. Yeah. Next thing you know, nurse pulls me in. So here you have a heart attack. I says, I think so. What's your pain at right now? I said, right now it's about a seven. It seems to be calming down a little bit. It's okay. So as my blood pressure, I'm 171 over 110. Now really at the end. I said, right now it's about a seven. It seems to be calming down a little bit. Okay, so as my blood pressure on 171 over 110. Now really, at the end of the day, I had high got high had high blood pressure prior to that. And I get white coat coat syndrome. She was okay, let's run an ECG on you. She puts the ECG on me. Next thing you know, stone face, she grabs a paper off. She goes, okay, Mr.

Jinkola, I'll be right back. And that's when, how, that's when how broke loose. Nine nurses came in, three doctors. Next thing I know, they asked me if my wife and my daughter were here. And I said, yes, they're in the parking lot. They drive a blue escape. I appreciate this during COVID. The only people that were allowed in that place was you, the sick person.

Two seconds later, my wife and my daughter are standing beside me. Doctor says to me, Mr. Giancola, you're having what we call an acute heart attack. Time is of the essence. We need to get you to Hamilton. They get me in the ambulance. I say bye to my wife and my daughter. They were bawling I'm looking up at the ceiling and next thing you know, she tears my shirt off and she puts a patch on

Now being knowing what I've done for a living my whole life. I know exactly what she's doing And I said to her, you know, why are you putting me on this? She was mr. Jinkola Just in case and That's when it hit me I'm having a heart attack They take me to the hospital They rip all my clothes off it literally as we're flying through yeah, and we get in a room Obviously bigger than this but the big monitor and They roll it up and he said mr. Chicago, please don't talk. Time is of the essence. So I

said, Okay, no problem. I'm bawling. I'm bawling. I got one of the nurses holding my hand. And other ones doing my blood pressure. And it was about 4545 minutes 55 minutes. Next thing I know, I hear, we got it. I'm thinking, you got what? What did you get? Then my cuff blows on my arm, blood pressure cuff. I guess the cuff was too, there's pictures in Google and all that there.

The nurse is holding up the cuff, I kept the cuff. And that kind of broke the craziness. Next thing you know, he says, we're going in to get the other one I'm like what the hell what are you getting? Anyway, long story short first doctor when they're done says to me mr. Jancola. We saved your life by ten minutes After ten minutes you had what we call the widow maker. It was a complete blockage 100% block my god of your main artery. And adjacent to that, the other one was 80% blocked. Wow. You shouldn't have,

you should not have survived this. And I was just like, wow, man, wow, the reality hit. And, um, so from there, the recovery is way harder, way harder than the actual heart attack itself. It's not right. Your mental health goes for a shit. Here I am Dan Jin Cole, a professional athlete, his whole life, you know, high level. I'm a personal trainer, I'm supposed to be the pillar of health. I'm embarrassed. I'm ashamed. I went on I went on Facebook that night even against everybody's

wish. I'm in the ICU. I'm all hooked up. And the pictures are in the book. You'll see them in there. And I'm in the ICU and I'm going live and we had like 1000 people on in seconds. And I was crying telling everybody how ashamed I was. And so for the next couple years, the recovery was, was tough. It was it was all mental. The physical part was hard when the doctors say to you that, you know, you should have died and you can no longer lift heavy, you get you get read, you get read the riot act of all the things that you know you should have died and you can no longer lift heavy you get you get read you get read the riot act of all the things that you're not allowed

to do finally after two years I bought in I bought in and I believe that the doctors what they said to me that my heart is strong and I feel good now. August 17 2022. I have a massive stroke in my studio at the end of the day. I collapsed on the floor. The only way to describe a stroke is in my situation, I was nonverbal, which is brutal. I became tunnel vision. So see, see your ring? Yeah. So if you were to stare at that long enough and put your eyes in between there sooner or later, everything around it outside of it is a blur. That's the way it was for me. It's tunnel vision. Nonverbal so you couldn't speak. Couldn't speak. And at that point I was starting to go paralyzed now on my right side of my body. My right arm turned in, my right leg turned in and I was falling on my face. So the

pertinent perspective, the size of the stroke I had, a grade 10, a level 10 stroke is permanent disability and permanent damage, something to do with your, your mental cognitive. Cognitive, yeah, right. So my buddy walks in, I'm going to come back to that. My buddy walks in and I always, Mike, I always, I always lock my, my door at night. When I'm done the night, I clean up in there

and he walks in and he sees me laying on the floor. He grabs me by my face. And he starts calling my name. I could hear him. I couldn't respond. He calls 911. 911 got there fairly quick. I think he said they got there within five minutes. They got me to Niagara Falls General. And they shot me. I be lying to you. I have the top of my head. I don't remember the shot. It's something P PIA or I something like that. But it's a it's a heavy blood thinner. So from there, they said we, we got to take your at that point, my wife and my daughter were there. And he said, we got to take your, at that point my wife and my daughter were there

and they said we got to take him for brain surgery. He's got to go back to Hamilton where I had my heart attack stuff done. On my way there, we were five minutes from, in crazy part is I don't remember nothing. All of a sudden, my arm shot up. The picture in the book was my daughter who actually caught that. Is when that's my arm that was paralyzed.

That's my arm that was paralyzed. And yeah, yeah, so there you go, right? So there's all those lovely pictures. That's me in Niagara Falls recovering that there's the cuff. There's the cuff. They had a parade for me. Oh yeah, it was so many crazy things. But so I get in there. Yeah. And the doctor says to me, how are you, Dan? I said, I'm good. So you're talking. I hear you're moving. I said, Yes, sir. He says, Do me a favor, resist me. So puts his hand down on me and my right arm, the one

I had the stroke side on was actually stronger than my left. Go imagine this. Then he does it to my leg. He puts me in the CAT scan, I get out of the CAT scan. he says, Mr. Jinkola, do you know why you're here? I said, No, doctor, I don't. He said, you had a stroke, a massive stroke. And technically you should have died, you should have been brain dead within 90 minutes. So he goes over to my wife and I heard him and he said, I'll never forget it.

Mrs. Jinkola, your husband had what we call best case scenario. He came in as a 17. He was going to get brain surgery and he's leaving a two. How do they explain this? Does this sometimes blood thinner worked? The blood thinner, the blood thinner worked. So again, big fan of blood thinners here, right? So I'm on the, so I'm on that the rest of my life also.

So we have that to bond us. Yes, we definitely do bro. So that's, um, you know, so that's what ended up happening in by the grace of God, man, I am sitting in front of you. I'm processing all this, you know, so you're only 54 now, but again, honestly meeting you now, you look, so you're only 54 now, but again, honestly, meeting you now, you look fantastic. Thank you.

But at 50 years old, near fatal heart attack, and then two years later, which is only two years ago, if you're doing the math at home, this stroke that you're describing, dude, I'm glad you wrote a book because this story needs to be shared and it really does need to be a documentary. And if you have like a Toronto or a GTA premier of this documentary, I better get a ticket. I better be invited. Well, it's, like I said,

from what they're saying right now, the documentary is starting in November. It's gonna take up to a year. And then they talked about PBS, CBC, TSN and Netflix. And then there, we're hopefully we'll be in discussion PBS, CBC, TSN, and Netflix. And then there, we're hopefully we'll be in discussion with, I haven't personally met him yet,

but the gentleman who is working on me with, who is, I guess, the director of the documentary is the script writer of this Hollywood producer. So we're pretty sure that this is the way it's gonna go. So, but- What a story. Thank you. Okay sure that this is the way it's going to go. So, but what a story. Okay. The book is called be that one. Why does it have to be someone else? Why not me? Dan, I got to say, I'm so glad that you made the trek all the way from Niagara falls. Thank you. And I loved this chat and, uh, geez, don't beat me up with those big muscles of yours.

Okay. Rocky, slip the jab, Rocky. We're good, buddy. We're good. So before I do the extra, was there anything else that you wanted to share with everybody, but maybe I didn't prompt for it or I don't want you to be driving home and saying, oh shit. You know what? Mike, I wanted to really tell you might be that one story, but it would probably be about five minutes and I don't want to. Well, you know what? I'll bring this down. Listen, cause this is a long drive you made. And this is a fantastic 90 minutes we've captured here, but I'll bring this all the way down, buddy. Do the five minutes.

Be that one. Cause that's the name of the book. Be that one. Give me that story. Okay. So we go back to Saskatchewan where I was sent home and, um, I go back with, I, I go back to Saskatchewan where I was sent home and I go back with I Go back to semi-pro and the guys all give me a cold shoulder. This is 98 in 1998 yes, and I'll go back to Buffalo with my semi-pro team. They wished me well. They saw me off They thought it was the greatest thing. Oh my god. One of ours is going Next thing you know a couple of days later, I'm showing up at practice. Right. You're not in Regina, right? In the beautiful, uh, queen city there, uh, Buffalo. Exactly. Right. Over in the Harbor front. Although Regina means queen. Yes, I did. Yeah. Got that. So, you know, I get there

and I get the cold treatment from all the guys so I'm dejected from there. I Drive home I get home and my dad was on the phone and My my dad as soon as he heard the door open, you know, he knew it was me and he was talking to my cousin on the phone He changed his he changed it to a speaking Italian because we didn't grow up speaking Italian, but we understood it because my grandmother used to always speak Italian to us. And I overheard him say, he's 29 years old, he's got to grow up, he's got to get rid of this dream. He's really starting to embarrass me, especially at work, because I work with his girlfriend's

father. And it's starting to really embarrass me. That killed me, man. That killed me. It's one thing to hear your friends say it and abandon you, but when you hear your father say it and with that said, though, I completely understood because he wanted the best for me and I think at some point at 29 years old, and you're not giving up this dream, you know, there's worry there.

I went to back to Niagara college the next day. I went upstairs and went into the mezzanine where the gym is. And, um, I ended up working out five and a half hours that day. By the time I was done, it was dark out. I walked down the steps to go take a quick shower. And I noticed that, I think the guy's name was Phil Rylender and he was the athletic coordinator. And he was putting a poster up.

And for some reason, him putting up this poster really just gravitated to me. So when I came out from taking the shower, I walked around and I looked on the board and it says, one in 100,000 student athletes will ever play a professional sport. So stay in school. Now, when I go do my motivational speaking, and I've been traveling a lot lately doing my motivational speaking, and I've been traveling a lot lately doing my motivational speaking, one of the things I tell kids,

you know, it's a long shot, but like me you can do it. Study and stay in school. But this poster was shooting me the odds. One in a hundred thousand student-athlete, I'm not even a student-athlete, so 131 free agent camps 131 times. No. Oh my god Is it ever gonna happen? I Grabbed the poster. I rip it off a wall and put it in my gym bag and I jet I Go home. I Go upstairs in my bedroom And there's a poster that I had at the end of my bed that my girlfriend my wife bought me

entitled determination And it's it's not whether you get knocked down, but rather if you get back up again the end of my bed that my girlfriend, my wife bought me, entitled Determination. And it's not whether you get knocked down, but rather if you get back up again. And every time, those 131 times, I would sit there and I'd look at that thing, I'd read it and I'd say to myself, it's okay to feel the way I do today,

but tomorrow's a new day. But I wasn't feeling like that anymore. I finally, the poster did me in. I grabbed the poster, I put it up right beside that poster. And I read it again. One in a hundred thousand student athletes will ever play a professional sport, so stay in school. And then it came, it came over me and I thought to myself, why does it always have to be someone else?

Why not me? I walked over to the desk on the side where I did my homework in my bedroom. I grabbed the Sharpie. I stood right in front of the two posters and I thought to myself, why does it always have to be someone else? Why not me?

I grabbed the marker and I put a big X through one in 100,000 and I wrote be that one. And those were the three of the most powerful words I've ever spoke. That is what has pushed me through my heart attack, my stroke, my loss of my father-in-law, my mother-in-law, my dad. It has been my, what is it, motto? Your mantra? Mantra, thank you, of life for me. And that, I told Perry straight up.

I said, bro, this is one thing you, you can say whatever you want in the book and you can change whatever you want. But I'm telling you right now, be that one. Why does it always have to be someone else? Why not me? That's it. You're inspiring the fuck out of me, Dan.

Honestly, I'm going to run through a wall right now. Oh my God. Oh, that's good. I'm going to let the Argos know I can kick a rouse. Give me a chance. Give me a chance. Honestly, thanks so much. I hope it was worth the drive.

You are leaving with lasagna. You know what? You beheaded Doug Flutie here, but you know, I heard he's become quite the Trumpers. So maybe it's okay. Maybe it's just to be here with you, bro. And do this. It means a lot. I've, um, I've creeped you on all your stuff and you do amazing and I'm honored to be here. So thank you from the bottom of my heart for how I'm honored you came. And I'm, I'm, I really enjoyed the conversation. It's riveting and I'm glad you're speaking to people to inspire them because, uh, you should be, you've got a great story and I hope one day it's a great movie.

Me too man. And that brings us to the end of our 1540th show. You can follow me on Twitter and Blue Sky. I'm all over the place at Toronto Mike. Go to torontomike.com. Dan, where's the best place to follow you on your ongoing journey? Oh man, you can find me place to follow you on your ongoing journey? Oh man, you can find me on Facebook, you can find me on Instagram. I can shoot you all that information.

The top of the head, I don't even know. I'm gonna find you because I'm gonna, you know, this is live to tape, so I'm gonna drop it way before you get home. Okay. And I'll just tag you everywhere and people can find you because Dan, junkola. Junkola!

I'm working on it, I'm working on it. You got it. Much love to all who made this possible. That's Great Lakes Brewery. I thoroughly enjoyed my Burst IPA. Palma Pasta. You've got a lasagna coming to you. RecycleMyElectronics.ca.

The Toronto Maple Leafs baseball team. I can't wait to see some playoff action at Christie Pitts tomorrow night. I'll be at Christie Pitts not recording by the way just there as a fan so come by and I'll drop some fun facts and mind blows on you and you can be Jane Sibbery or not you be you and Ridley Funeral Home pillars of this community since 1921. See you all next week. You know what? I don't even know who my next... Oh yeah! I have the official Toronto historian Jeremy Hopkins coming by on Monday because he's going to talk about 10 famous movies or

famous films or television shows that were filmed in Toronto and we're gonna talk about the filming locations. More than just Short Circuit 2. It's gonna be awesome. Shout out to Police Academy. See you all then! Yeah, I wonder who Maybe the one who doesn't realize There's a thousand shades of gray Cause I know that's true, yes I do I know it's true, yeah