"Stop emailing my brother": Jeff O'Neill returns to TSN airwaves after leave

May 3 2023, 8:53 pm

Jeff O’Neill returned to TSN today with a clear message: he’s happy to be back on the air, but please leave his brother alone.

O’Neill tweeted earlier today that he’d be back on Overdrive and appeared on the show with regular cohosts Bryan Hayes and Jamie McLennan.

The popular radio host and television panellist didn’t directly address the reason behind his absence from TSN, which had kept him off the air for several Overdrive afternoon radio shows over the past week.

But he did address the fact that his brother Ryan — who is in his Twitter bio as a contact for business inquiries and appearances — has been bombarded by fans asking about his whereabouts during his time away from the radio.

“I do have to ask one thing, and it’s good to be back… please stop emailing my brother asking him where I am… it’s for business purposes or appearances,” O’Neill added. “[My brother said] ‘I don’t have time. These people are coming out of the woodwork and they’re bombarding me.’ He’s just like, ‘I don’t know what to say… I’ve had people’s emails; they’re 10 pages long!'”

O’Neill had missed multiple shows last week and was again not on the air on Tuesday afternoon.

“He is okay,” cohost Bryan Hayes said on Monday’s show. “All we can say is that we appreciate the messaging. We appreciate the concern. We wanted to let you know that the O-Dog is on leave, and that’s as far as we’re going to go with it. But the show’s going to continue.”

O’Neill has been with TSN since 2013 as a radio host and frequent television guest on its game night coverage.

He played 11 seasons for the Carolina Hurricanes and Toronto Maple Leafs from 1995 until he retired from professional hockey in 2007.

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