Bruce Dowbiggin
Manning The Broadcast Booth Proves A Winner

Call it other revenge of the little brother. Or “pipe down, I’m watching the game:” However you characterize it, the emergence of the Manning Brothers, Peyton and Eli, on Monday Night Football has breathed life into a stale broadcast format and shown that All In The Family doesn’t always mean Archie Bunker calling Mike Stivic a Meathead.
For some time IDLM has railed about the reticence of network TV sports executives in evolving the experience of watching football— most sports in fact— from the classic MNF 1970s booth formula of Howard Cosell (the scribe), Frank Gifford (the eloquent jock) and Don Meredith (the homespun jock) to something that fits today’s zeitgeist.
Along the way we’ve seen experiments ranging from comedian Dennis Miller, political guy Rush Limbaugh and future murderer O.J. Simpson— all lacking the chemistry of the original trio. Since ESPN took over the MNF slot the results have been progressively more irritating, culminating in the lamentable staccato of Joe Tessitore, Jason Witten and Booger McFarland.
The current trio of loud talkers— Tony Bruno, Brian Griese and Louis Riddick— is only slightly less concussive. The solution that escapes ESPN is that the Gifford/ Cosell/ Meredith trio treated the show as a conversation, not an oxygen-depletion exercise. You can see how this more subtle style works with NBC’s Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth. They massage the game, not wring its neck.
The talk-till-you’re-blue formula has invaded other sports, too. Again, ESPN has been a major transgressor here with the “Dickie V Wall of Noise” style being adopted by everyone in the trade. The “Yeeeah, baby” and “Posterized!!!” fit nicely into highlight packs later ,but in real time they are wearisome.
Not all sports are created equal. Hockey and basketball produce fewer pauses for conversation, while football and baseball have plenty of room to breathe. In none of these sports, however, does the fan want to be assaulted by hyperbolic chalk talks or battles for air time among the talking heads.
Which brings us to the emergence of Peyton and Eli. Originally ESPN wanted Peyton for a traditional role in the MNF booth. But the elder brother is a media savvy guy who managed to triumph as host on Saturday Night Live (before it became a Democratic Party PSA). He didn’t want the circus of trotting from city to city to be a stereotyped analyst. He had other things in mind.
Desperate to get Peyton, the Worldwide Woke Network allowed him to customize an entirely different broadcast. (Typically they wouldn’t put it on the main network for fear of offending whomever they see as their target audience these days.) Peyton wanted something more like his experience watching a game at home in his man cave.
He wanted a comfort zone and some guests to watch the game with him. He didn’t want to work every game. And he wanted Eli. What has emerged is a runaway success (TSN has finally picked up the alternate cast lately) with U.S. ratings through five shows hitting 1.6 million viewers. (The show is a partnership between ESPN and Peyton Manning’s Omaha Productions. This is the first of a three-year deal for them to do 10 games per season. )
What sells the format is the sibling chemistry. Five-time NFL MVP Peyton the tape wonk, the searing, candid reaction to boneheadedness and the unbreakable self confidence. Eli, meanwhile, the modest foil sniping at Peyton about everything from the size of his forehead to how he eats chicken without breathing.
Eli— who won two Super Bowls in NYC to Peyton’s one in Indy and one in Denver— explains that what you see is reality dating back to their boyhood with older brother Cooper. As he told USA Today: “I didn’t have time to tell the big, long story, to analyze everything. I could just give little jabs and bring them back down a little bit….
“That’s how we are in real life. He’s going to be the one in control, he’s going to be the one talking and be the one in charge, and it’s just my job for when he’s getting all the praise and he’s feeling on top of the mountain and he’s the best— I can get my little jabs and take my shots at him and bring him down just to make sure he’s in neutral.”
They spice the show with a steady stream of guests from football and the entertainment world. Comedian Jon Stewart came on to lament the awfulness of his New York Giants and Marshawn Lynch came on to swear like a rapper. “Marshawn, I probably should have … handled him,” explained Peyton. “We apologize for that. Anyway, let’s get back to some football here.”
The show has even generated its own curse: Every active NFL player who’s come on has lost the following week, Buffalo’s Josh Allen being the latest.
The success of the Mannings begs the question: Have they re-invented the gamely broadcast experience? Yes and no. They’ve shown a format that can draw more eyeballs than the cookie-cutter announce crews. But it takes the certain something of sibling sniping and insider humour to make it work.
So who could you see doing something similar? In hockey we’d like to see Kevin Bieksa and Ryan Kesler do the slash-and-burn version of HNIC. Baseball? How about Pedro Martinez and Curt Schilling. Basketball? Just take Shaq and Charles Barkley off the big set, stick them in a casino suite and let it rip.
Who will have the courage do do so? Don’t hold your breath.
Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the editor of Not The Public Broadcaster (http://www.notthepublicbroadcaster.com). The best-selling author of Cap In Hand has been nominated for the BBN Business Book award of 2020 for Personal Account with Tony Comper. A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada’s top television sports broadcaster, he’s also a regular contributor to Sirius XM Canada Talks Ch. 167. His new book with his son Evan is called InExact Science: The Six Most Compelling Draft Years In NHL History is now available on http://brucedowbigginbooks.ca/book-personalaccount.aspx
Bruce Dowbiggin
How Did PEI Become A Forward Branch Plant For Xi’s China?

scoopercooper DEA Busts Canadian Narco Whose Chinese Supplier Promised to Ship 100 Kilos of Fentanyl Precursors per Month From Vancouver to Los Angeles
https://x.com/scoopercooper/status/1945489327892365716
The Chinese Communist Party is flooding America with dirty pesticide marijuana disguised as THCa hemp flower and hemp-derived products sold in smoke shops.
Official Silence on Medical Waste From PRC-Linked Monasteries Must Be Broken .
We were talking very recently to a Toronto friend about the threat of drug trafficking—in particular fentanyl— to the U.S. as a threat to Canada’s sovereignty. This businessman, who does considerable international trade, shrugged and said it’s no big deal. He’d heard the Yanks had only caught 59 pounds at the border between 2022-2024. To his eye, things were under control.
This statistic was, of course, the Liberals’ standard talking point in the 2025 election— part of Mark Carney’s What, Me Worry? appeal about China to anxious Boomers. My friend still repeating this twaddle is a tribute to the staying power of the Liberal’s media stranglehold in the face of evidence that has been out there courtesy of reporters such Sam Cooper and Garry Clement since 2015.
As the above stories illustrate drug trafficking and money laundering are believed to be rampant in Carney’s Canada— with the Chinese in the forefront and immigrant students-turned-truckers hauling the narcotics across the border. The fentanyl version of El Chapo and other confederates live openly in the Toronto area. As the recent bust promising 100 kilos a month to L.A. makes clear, the 59-pound fentanyl deflection insults the work of those who have been labouring under dangerous conditions to highlight the Liberals’ lassitude on crime.
As we wrote when Justin Trudeau was still swanning around as PM: “The sitting Canadian prime minister, who praised the Chinese form of governing before he reached the PM post, has been seen in photos with underground Asian gang figures. As were previous Liberal leaders like Jean Chretien who made no secret of his lust for the Chinese market. Chinese money was used to build extensively in Chretien’s Shawinigan riding.
Donations to Trudeau from all across Canada constituted up to 80 percent of the riding’s contributions that year. In May 2016, one such fundraiser saw Trudeau hosted by Benson Wong, chair of the Chinese Business Chamber of Commerce, along with 32 other wealthy guests in a pay-for-access event. The patterns exposed by Cooper finally prompted a commission by Quebec justice Marie-Josée Hogue looking into Chinese interference in Trudeau’s successful 2019 and 2021 elections.
Hogue later reported that Chinese interference in those elections did undermine the rights of Canadian voters because it “tainted the process” and eroded public trust. So petrified was Trudeau of the full Hogue Report that he prorogued parliament for three months and handed in his resignation rather than test his 22 percent approval rating in a Canadian election.”
What the rest of the world knows— but Canadian officials refused to tell their citizens during the federal election campaign— is that Canada has been corrupted by openly approving of China’s method of controlling their citizens worldwide and placing operatives within Canada’s government.

The story of how Liberal candidate Paul Chiang told a Chinese-language media news conference that people could cash in if they turned in Conservative Joe Tay in to the Chinese consulate in Toronto is illustrative. At first Carney called it a “lapse in judgment”, but then he let Chiang continue as a candidate. After pushback, Peter Yuen, was appointed the Liberal party’s nominee in the Toronto-area riding. Yuen has ties to Chinese agencies that seek to control Chinese citizens in Canada. (He lost in the April vote.)
Equally concerning is how the CCP has turned peaceful PEI into a forward operating base. On a recent trip to PEI we were told by local sources about the Buddhist monasteries being allowed under the not-so-watchful eye of various layers of government and the paid-for Media Party. Using bags full of dirty cash, the Bliss & Wisdom Buddhists have bought up large tracts of PEI farmland and replaced it with a front for the CCP to launder dirty money and infiltrate its people into the community. (The Buddhists deny this.)
Meetings have drawn hundreds of concerned Islanders (but not, until recently, many politicians or media). The latest outrage was the discovery of medical waste left behind on a rural property. It is alleged that it stems from a tuberculosis outbreak among the monks, where still-infectious monks were quietly sent home to China on public airlines wearing masks. Fires that destroyed two buildings nearby are alleged to have been to protect against health officials finding evidence of TB on site.
Media attention from outside PEI is now pushing officials to investigate the attempt to plant “police” stations to monitor expatriate Chinese and affect elections. Former RCMP officer Garry Clement has done extensive research on this file with Michel Juneau-Katsuya and Dean Baxendale. For more detailed description on the infiltration and political manipulation read Canada Under Siege: How PEI Became A Forward Operating Base of the Chinese Communist Party.

These are dramatic times as its appears that Chairman Xi might be on his way out as the leader of China. Any changes in the regime are just rumours at the moment. But Xi has overseen this massive campaign to extend Chinese outreach globally. That it would include even tiny PEI is shocking. The hope there is that with the Chinese economy under strain a new ruling elite in Beijing might pull back on the worldwide network as an expensive gamble.

That the China cheering club in the Liberal party in involved is less surprising since the outreach by Trudeau’s father Pierre in the 1970s. But with tariff issues dominating the news it would do well for Canadians to sober up to how compromised they are by the Chinese. That— not Donald Trump— is their biggest challenge.
Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the editor of Not The Public Broadcaster A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada’s top television sports broadcaster, his new book Deal With It: The Trades That Stunned The NHL And Changed hockey is now available on Amazon. Inexact Science: The Six Most Compelling Draft Years In NHL History, his previous book with his son Evan, was voted the seventh-best professional hockey book of all time by bookauthority.org . His 2004 book Money Players was voted sixth best on the same list, and is available via brucedowbigginbooks.ca.
Bruce Dowbiggin
Eau Canada! Join Us In An Inclusive New National Anthem

This past week has seen (some) Canadians celebrating their heritage— now that Mike Myers has officially reinterpreted Canadian culture as a hockey sweater and Mr. Dressup. This quick-change was so popular that Canadian voters even forgot an entire decade of Justin Trudeau.
In the United States, the people who elected Donald Trump– and not Andrew Coyne– to run their nation celebrated Independence Day with stirring renditions off The Star Spangled Banner, although few could surpass the brilliant performance of the song by the late Whitney Houston at the 1991 Super Bowl.
The CDN equivalent is some flavour of the month changing the words to O Canada at the Grey Cup game. Canada’s national anthem has always been open to interpretation by people who may or may not have Canada in their hearts. At the 2023 NBA All Star Game Canadian chanteuse Jully Black became the latest singer to attempt a manicure to the English lyrics of O Canada, penned for the 1880 Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day ceremony ( Calixa Lavallée composed the music, after which words were written by the poet and judge Sir Adolphe-Basile Routhier. The English lyrics have “evolved” over the years, just like the dress code for the CDN PM..)

Black amended the first line from “our home and native land” to our home ON native land”. Because something-something. But this creative license is nothing new. Unlike Chris Stapleton, Marvin Gaye or Whitney Houston with the Star Spangled Banner, interpreters of O Canada have seen fit to amend the lyrics to their sensibilities. Roger Doucet, famed anthem singer of the Montreal Canadiens in the 1970-80s, tried to add the words “we stand on guard for truth and liberty” in place of the first “we stand on guard for thee”.
In 1990, having nothing better to do, Toronto City Council voted 12 to 7 in favour of recommending that the phrase “our home and native land” be changed to “our home and cherished land” and that “in all thy sons command” be partly reverted to “in all of us command”. (The latter was officially adapted.)
While those attempts had mixed outcomes it appears it’s just a matter of time till Ms. Black’s class-conscious culling of the words is accepted. Being generous we here at IDLM thought we’d short-circuit piecemeal attempts to create a throughly Woke version of the anthem that would last till the latest fad come along. Herewith our 2023 definitive O Canada that even— maybe only— Justin Trudeau could love:
“O Canada” (Ignores the French fact in our culture) Change to “Eau Canada”
“Our home on native land” (ignores indigenous land claims) Change to “Get off our land, settlers”
“True patriot love in all of us commands” (Only true patriot love? There were officially 78 kinds of relationships in Trudeaupia. And commanding love?) Change to “Love the one you’re with”.
“With glowing hearts we see thee rise” (rise suggests triumph of white triumphalist dogma) Change to “Non judgementally we oppose the crushing impacts of Euro-based autocracy”
“The true north strong and free” (How can anyone be strong or free when we support America’s killing fields?) Change to “Heteronormative thinking must be stamped out at our borders. If we even have borders anymore.”
“From far and wide” (Body shaming) Change to “Obesity is a disease that is not helped by putting it in the national anthem.”
“O Canada” (biased against A, B, AB blood types) change to “Science Must Be Believed”
“We stand on guard for thee” (Spreads hate against the non ableist community) Change to “Please remain seated.”
“God keep our land” (God? God? What is this, the Reformation) “Change to “It’s your thing”
”Glorious and free” (Glorious harkens to the bourgeois subjugation of Indigenous thought processes by white Christian priests) Change to “A genocidal state if there ever was one”.
“O Canada we stand on guard for thee/
O Canada we stand on guard for thee” The denial of trans rights is used twice here to emphasize the intolerable burdens faced by people of the LGBTQ2R community as they seek respect and compensation for the evils of the founding oppressors.) Change to “Eau Canada, after 6.5 hours of intensive lectures on the gender, race and dissociative application of class war on your citizens you may someday come to understand that this song is a manifestation of your bigotry and exploitation of minorities— and why rhyming lines like “thee and free” is the work of the devil or J.K. Rowling, whomever comes to mind first.”

There. That wasn’t so tough, was it? Flows trippingly off the tongue like Mark Carney refusing a special inquiry into China buying the electoral process. Or perhaps we should simply accept a literal translation of the original French lyrics:
“O Canada!
Land of our ancestors
Glorious deeds circle your brow
For your arm knows how to wield the sword
Your arm knows how to carry the cross;
Your history is an epic
Of brilliant deeds
And your valour steeped in faith
Will protect our homes and our rights.”
Yikes. That’s downright fascistic. But it’s Quebec, and we have to allow them their peccadilloes. So circle your brow with glorious deeds, grab a cross and a sword and valour steeped in faith. And remember we must be adaptable in the new era.
Unless it’s Alberta using the adapting to fuel its CO2-belching machines. In which case it’s man the battlements and follow Mike Myers into the fight.
Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the editor of Not The Public Broadcaster A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada’s top television sports broadcaster, his new book Deal With It: The Trades That Stunned The NHL And Changed hockey is now available on Amazon. Inexact Science: The Six Most Compelling Draft Years In NHL History, his previous book with his son Evan, was voted the seventh-best professional hockey book of all time by bookauthority.org . His 2004 book Money Players was voted sixth best on the same list, and is available via brucedowbigginbooks.ca.
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