Red Wings play-by-play announcer Ken Daniels gave a superb interview to the Oakland Press’s Paula Pasche, discussing his work with the Jamie Daniels Foundation as Ken continues to fight the battle against opioid addiction:
“I think I’ve spoken publicly now at least 75 times since September of ’17, whether it be radio, podcasts, public speaking engagements, whatever. The more we talk about his story, it gives me purpose, it gives me hope that we can save lives,’’ Daniels said. “It gives me a mission. Jamie always said to me, ‘Dad you really need a summer job.’ I wasn’t getting much better at golf. Unfortunately, he gave me one.
“But I’ve had a lot of people — and I mean a lot — come up to me and say I know you’ve saved lives. I know from people we know personally. That’s the thing people don’t talk about it. If it’s not happening in your home the numbers show that it’s probably happening three doors down from you,’’ Daniels said.
Rather than shy away from the difficult talk about drug addiction, Daniels has become somewhat of an expert on it.
He’s created the Jamie Daniels Foundation (jamiedanielsfoundation.org) to raise money and awareness of the widespread problem.
The first big fundraiser will be a roast of Mickey Redmond on Sept. 7 at Soundboard at the Motor City Casino. Tickets for $150 are still available.
“In April (2018) I was working for NBC in the playoffs. I was sitting with Darren Pang, former NHL goalie and commentator with the St. Louis Blues. We were working the NBC series Columbus-Washington. Panger had just been roasted in St. Louis, came back and he was talking about it,’’ Daniels said. “I said, ‘I have to do something.’ He said everybody does golf tournaments, so why don’t you do a roast? My first thought was to call Doc Emrick, the voice of NBC, and so I called Doc a year ago and said I was thinking of doing a roast.
“He immediately said, ‘Would your first roastee be a former 50-goal right winger?’ He knew. I talked to him about it, I had just spoken to Mickey about it. Mickey said, ‘I’ve got big shoulders I can handle it.’ So God bless him. He was willing to take it on and have fun with it.’’
