Dan O’Toole opens up about sobriety and life after TSN
Dan O’Toole is back on the airwaves.
Just under a year after being laid off from TSN, O’Toole is now three episodes deep into Boomsies!, the podcast he’s hosting from his Orono, Ontario, basement.
O’Toole and co-host Jay Onrait became household names for their unique sportscasting style of late-night highlights — first on TSN’s SportsCentre, then with a stint on American network Fox Sports 1, and then back at TSN on the newly named Jay and Dan show.
O’Toole doesn’t necessarily want to discuss his departure from TSN.
But he finds himself inevitably talking about it.
“I admit it was a kick in the balls,” O’Toole said in the show’s first episode. “We had something, Jay and I.”
O’Toole documented that he had more than just a hard time finding work in the broadcast industry following his dismissal.
“There are two employers for my position in this country,” O’Toole added on the inaugural Boomsies’ show, referencing TSN and Sportsnet. “I was fired by one of them. [I’ve had] zero calls… it’s a very specialized job.”
So O’Toole launched Boomsies!, which is put out via a contract with US Sportsbook BetRivers Network on Wednesday of each week.
I FINALLY GOT A JOB. Sure it’s in my basement, but hey, it’s something. It’s Boomsies. A podcast. Teaser episode is up now. Spotify: https://t.co/9iEd8Qc0av Apple: https://t.co/e1Fr0E0TBf Youtube: https://t.co/Ck6rJXeeW6 pic.twitter.com/anPoikNA8n
— Dan O'Toole (@dangotoole) January 11, 2022
“When you get ousted from a job you’ve had your entire life, you kind of sit back and reflect and say, what do you do from here?” O’Toole said in an interview with Daily Hive.
That reflection period led O’Toole to enter himself voluntarily into a treatment centre last February, which he called a “complete overhaul of my lifestyle.”
O’Toole will be coming up on one year of sobriety on February 9.
“I’m taking out all of that stuff, even like a glass of wine or smoking a joint here and there,” he said. “I’ve got the focus on what I needed it to be on and what I needed to change.”
And O’Toole feels that he’s come out the better for it.
“It took me 46 years to be the most present I’ve ever been,” O’Toole said. “I mentally and physically feel the best I’ve ever probably felt in my life.”
O’Toole describes Boomsies!, which got its name from a saying of one of O’Toole’s old producers, as catering towards the casual sports fan.
“My prepping for the show is just living life and watching a game that I might stumble upon or watching a game that everyone’s talking about,” O’Toole added. “I can have a sports conversation with you any day of the week. But do we really need to be that invested in it? It’s there for entertainment, and that’s how I treat it. It doesn’t consume my life.”
In the show’s early going, O’Toole said he’s enjoyed the “little community” of his audience, which has hit the #2 ranking among sports podcasts via Apple.
“They aren’t going to have scorching hot takes where I’m going to bash their team or something like that,” O’Toole said. “We’re just there to hang out and laugh about stupid shit and be part of a conversation that we’re all having together.”
What’s the name of the podcast? Gooooood question.
Apple: https://t.co/5970h7pWVT
Spotify: https://t.co/7ZE7d778BY
Youtube: https://t.co/h5zqCtpG27 pic.twitter.com/QiKA6dp19k
— Dan O'Toole (@dangotoole) January 23, 2022
O’Toole says that he’s still learning what appeals to podcast listeners compared to national highlight shows.
“I spent more time prepping for this and going through emails and setting stuff up and writing stupid things that come to my mind than I ever did in 25 years of broadcasting,” O’Toole said. “I have complete creative control on what I put out there. I’ve never had that in my life.”
And while he was on national television five nights a week, O’Toole admits the grind of his old job wore him down.
“For 20-plus years, the earliest I ever got home — not to bed, but got home — was 2 am,” he said. “I didn’t think people got up till noon. Having not to catch up on sleep makes a huge difference with regards to brain function.”
The past year also offered O’Toole a chance to change how he viewed his relationship with sports.
“I became a fan again,” O’Toole said. “When you go to work every night and your job is to get the highlights or watch as many games as you can see, all the games blend into one another.”
And O’Toole is focusing on the positives of what he’s learned in the last year.
“In the grand scheme of things, sometimes the worst stuff that happens to you in life, may made you a stronger person and a better person,” O’Toole said. “And with regards to myself, I think that’s the case here.”
O’Toole added that he’s loved living in Orono, which has a listed population of just over 1,100 residents.
“There’s not a lot to do,” he said. “But in my mind, it’s the perfect place to grow up, to raise a family, and to be part of a community, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.“
Whether it’s picking up his mail at the post office, hitting the general store in town, or not letting his latest car trouble ruin his day, O’Toole said small town life has been “pretty darn cool.”
“Boy, life is a lot more fun when you are in the moment,” O’Toole added. “My kids are healthy, my family is healthy. Today is going to be a good day. This moment, right now, is a good moment. And I never really fully enjoyed those moments until now.”
One of those moments for O’Toole was watching the 2021 NHL playoffs, cheering for his childhood team, the Montreal Canadiens, during their run to the Stanley Cup Final.
“It was almost like being a kid again. When they made it to the Cup Final, I would go to my buddy’s house who was a huge Habs fan. He would come [to my house],” O’Toole said. “I was jumping up and down when the Habs scored. I can’t remember the last time I did that.”
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