Ottawa media personality Shawn Simpson has passed away.
The cause of death was not immediately known, but the former goalie, hockey executive and broadcaster battled mental health issues.
“Simmer,” as he was affectionately called, was just 56.
“He had constant mental health struggles, and he was open and honest about it,” said John Rodenburg, the program director at TSN1200 who was a morning show co-host with Simpson for years. “I think that’s what made him so popular on the radio. He was himself, good and bad, and when he spoke about his struggles with mental health and the fact that he didn’t try to hide it, I think that really spoke to a lot of people.”
In a revealing piece written by Postmedia’s Tim Baines more than 12 years ago, Simpson explained how he was adopted in Vancouver and then moved to Chatham before settling at the Rockliffe Air Base when he was five years old. His parents Lyle and Shirley divorced when he was 10, his dad remarried and two families were merged, while his mother changed addresses maybe a dozen times until he was 16.
“It was a rollercoaster of instability and uncertainty,” Simpson told Baines.
Simpson played minor hockey in Rockcliffe, East Ottawa and Gloucester before joining the OHL’s Soo Greyhounds and becoming a third-round draft pick of the Washington Capitals in 1986.
“My first year of junior I was terrible,” Simpson said. “It was an absolute struggle. To be away from home, 16 turning 17, it was so overwhelming. I remember one of my first games up there getting booed by the local fans. We went to Sudbury and people were throwing stuff. I remember thinking how serious everybody was. I was used to parents cheering for me, even after letting in a lot of goals and everybody telling me how good I was. Looking back, I was too young.”
After getting his career back on track, Simpson signed with the Capitals and received a $100,000 bonus. He admitted he did not handle his small fortune responsibly.
“Money, girls, drinking, I did whatever I wanted,” he told Baines. “I had no structure. You’re on your own. I never thought I was great, but I wanted people to think I was great. I had a reputation for being wild. But I look back at it, and I was just immature.”
After three years in the minors with the AHL’s Baltimore Skipjacks, injuries forced him into early retirement.
Simpson turned his attention to broadcasting as a colour commentator on the Capitals television network.
From there, he became a scout with Washington and in 1997 was promoted to director of hockey operations. At the age of 29, was named Washington’s assistant GM. In a marriage and with two sons, life was good.
But in 2004, he lost his job and wound up taking another to scout with the Toronto Maple Leafs, and in 2009 he was hired to be the GM of Dinamo Minsk in Russia, a job he held for two years.
He returned to Boston homeless and unsure of himself.
“It was such a low point in my life,” Simpson said. “I was desperate. I had no idea what I was going to do. I was embarrassed. My whole life I’d known hockey, but I didn’t want to reach out to anybody.”
Simpson came home to Ottawa and joined Team 1200 (which became TSN 1200) in 2012.
“I’ve gotten myself physically and mentally more healthy,” he said at the time. “I always have a glass half full. I’ve had some low points, but my nature is to be happy. I’m in a good place. I can mentally pretend like everything’s been solved, but that’s not the case. It’s a work in progress.
“The radio show, I’ve never felt so natural about doing something. It’s eliminated travel. It’s stability. It’s a routine. It’s been a Godsend. When I walk into the station to do a show, that in itself is therapy for me. I’ll be down on Rideau St. and see some of the homeless people. You have an appreciation for how quickly things can turn on a dime.”
A victim of Bell Media cutbacks in 2023, Simpson most recently worked as a podcaster.
“I used to describe Jim Jerome as the most naturally talented guy I ever worked with, but I would say Simmer was the most energetic guy I ever worked with,” said Rodenburg. “It was crazy the amount of energy that he had. I don’t know where it all came from, at six in the morning, but he was a force of nature. Never short on opinions.
“The other part of it is that I’ve never met anyone who would watch a Senators call-up, or junior player, or whatever, and he’d make an immediate opinion on the guy’s attributes, his worth as a player, by watching him for one game or even one period. He’d come on the radio the next day and talk about him, like, ‘I don’t think this guy’s any good, or he’s not gonna make it or whatever’ and he’d be some hot shot prospect. I’d say it seems a little early to be making that assumption. And then over time, he was proven to be right 90 percent of the time. He really had an eye for it. I understand why he went as far as he did in the hockey evaluation part.”
Simpson also proved to have an impact on the lives of other people who were going through mental turmoil.
“We had a Bell ‘Let’s Talk Day’ and those were some of the best shows we ever did,” said Rodenburg. “It was because he really spoke from his heart because he’s lived it. We would hear from a ton of people, and I think that his legacy, at least that part of it, will be the amount of people that he helped, both those that we heard from, which was quite a few, but also the vast majority of people you’d never hear from. If somebody picked up a phone called a family member that they had, or called a friend and just said, ‘Hey, I need to talk. I’m struggling.’ I think that will be his legacy from his time on the radio.”
Also working with Simpson as co-host of “The Drive” on TSN1200 was Ian Mendes, who is now the Ottawa Senators vice president of communications.
In a heartfelt tribute on ‘X’, Mendes wrote about his relationship with Simpson.
“We started down a rocky road, with our four-hour shows filled with tension and constant arguing,” Mendes said “But we reached a breaking point and you opened up to me. You told me about your feelings of worthlessness that enveloped you since childhood. That you had trust issues that were deeply rooted and traced back to your adoption.
“From that moment forward, our relationship blossomed. We made radio magic each day and coming to work together was a pleasure, not a chore. And it’s because I took the time to see the world through your eyes, I now view the world with a much more emphatic lens and I have you to thank. The demons you wrestled with on a daily basis really only came to light for me about two years ago. My only wish is that you are now free from that pain and agony. You are a beautiful, kind soul who didn’t deserve the weight you carried. Nobody does.
“On Jackie Robinson’s tombstone, it simply reads, ‘A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.’ Your life was so important Simmer, because you impacted mine profoundly. I will cherish our memories and my only hope is that we’ll get to do another show together on the other side.”