Oh
you
you
my name is Adam Braidwood I was born on
June 1st 1984 in Richmond British
Columbia this talk is about my life the
things that I’ve been through the
adversity that I faced times where I’ve
been up and times that I’ve been down
the mistakes that I’ve made and how how
I crawled out of what was to be my own
grave and tried to make something of
myself
someday I could be proud of I was a
determined little boy I think some of
that I was just born with some of that
has to do with things that happen to me
as far back as I can remember I wanted
to be a professional football player I
point to magazines like Sports
Illustrated when I was walking in the
grocery store with my mom let’s say
that’s me mom that’s who I am I started
playing football when I was seven years
old I found my passion what I was meant
to do something that was going to take
me somewhere that’s where I was going
somewhere sometimes I would practice two
times a day have three games a week all
the while I’d head to the gym in between
desperately trying to get better
I’d eat healthy I’d keep protein shakes
in my locker if I broke a bone or
sprained an ankle
I just tape it tighter and keep going
this attitude got me so much evens
athletically I was selected to the team
BC was team BC defensive MVP I was
offered a full scholarship to Washington
State University in grade 11 I was
selected to the All pac-10 freshman team
I want a pac-10 championship played in a
Rose Bowl won a holiday Bowl and in 2006
I was selected first overall in the CFL
Draft to the Edmonton Eskimos
I had my sights set on getting into the
NFL I was a football player
it was everything it taught me about
life my coaches were my parents my
teammates my brothers problem is though
the surrogate family will let you down
this happened when I got hurt
in 20 years I don’t even remember
missing a practice let alone a game now
I’ve missed two seasons with surgery
after surgery I was stuck on my couch
barely able to walk more than a few
steps I was the star football player and
now I was nothing I felt empty I had
nothing I had nothing sustaining me so
drugs filled that void the sinking
feeling I had in my heart when I was
alone with my demons all day I had no
options in my mind on how to sustain my
drug habit so I turned to crime and
violence there’s one step after the
other down a dark road where things got
increasingly violent and dangerous one
thing leads to another and before you
know it you’re slamming a bottle of
pills to get out of bed and packing
around a nine-millimeter and wearing a
bulletproof vest crime gave me purpose
the reason to get out of bed every day
and I fed and it fed that insurmountable
craving for painkillers I thought I
needed these choices I made led me to
that fateful day in 2010 when during a
drug collection I hit a man with the
machete beat him up stuffed him into a
trunk of a car the police found out
shortly soon thereafter on a clandestine
stretch of highway leading to nowhere
luckily we all walked away that day I
was released on bail a few times I
screwed up twice
I was Realty pull gun charges domestic
violence and drug trafficking I’d done
every lowlife thing you could do and I
decided to end it all by taking a
handful of pills playing Russian
roulette
luckily the gun did not fire I played
actually several times of course it made
national newspapers this was during the
great cop mind you I was still playing
football at this time I managed to come
back and play one more season before all
this happened during my fall from grace
headlines grades in newspapers such as
hero to monster I lost everything I lost
my car my house my job my health my
freedom all of my money my reputation my
dream everything was gone but most of
all I hurt the people that I love I’m
not gonna lie
I thought that
I thought during the time my life is
over I stopped caring whether I lived
there died locked away in a jail cell
ruined I lay on a concrete floor and
like the scene out of the movie
Trainspotting I kicked opiate
painkillers
I can’t properly describe the misery I
went through over those three weeks
everything aches
you can’t hold down food or water you’re
always cold and sweaty you can’t sleep
you have racing anxiety thoughts all day
but slowly I got my strength back doing
push-ups shadowboxing pacing around back
and forth to my cell there’s at that
time I made the decision that this
wouldn’t kill me that this wasn’t the
end I keep fighting because that’s what
I do I’m a fighter I’ll get through this
that’s what I do I get through things
I’ll eat healthy I’ll exercise I’ll work
hard I’ll coach I’ll give back to the
community I’ll be better to my family I
went to treatment
I got counseling I got back in the gym I
needed to get better I said I used to
sit in my 4 by 7 room in the halfway
house that doubled as a homeless shelter
a place where you might walk by a
bathroom and see a dead body laying on
the bathroom floor and that happens that
happened I thought a victim of a drug
overdose
I’d sit there and I’d listen to
motivational videos on YouTube I’d say
to myself no matter what happens just
show up every day just go just keep
showing up take the bus go dig holes
pack material dispose of hazardous waste
it doesn’t matter you go everyday you do
your best then after all that you go to
the gym and train as hard as you can
because that’s what you do that’s the
only way out of this no one’s coming to
save you and even if there was you don’t
deserve it
the determination was tested five
minutes on to my first day the job site
as a carpenter my boss was where’s your
tools I said I don’t got any tools then
and I just took the bus here I got to do
this I’m on parole the enemy had
crowbars
peel off that piece of cedar you’re
gonna strip all these decks I was like
all right this is literally five minutes
and 7:05 a.m. wasps nests lands right in
front of me I’m four stories up on
scaffolding I’m like what do I do
so I’m certainly trying to scramble down
and they just swarm me they’re stuck in
my beard in my ear in my nose in my
pants everywhere I got stung about 50
times they thought and I’m running down
the scaffold it’s 7:00 in the morning
there’s people living there I’m yelling
and I’m cursin oh my god I’m ripping my
shirt off and I’m just losing my mind
and they’re like man you gotta go the
hospital you all right and I think I hit
another bees nest on the way and I was
just getting attacked like cuz I walked
by the same bees nest trying to figure
out the scaffolding never been up on
scaffolding and I sat there and they’re
like you got to go and go to the
hospital your swelling up you got to go
home I got knots all over my head I was
like no man if I leave if I leave now
I’ll never come back day one oh I walked
around that scaffolding I stripped those
decks I was a little bit dizzy from all
the poison I was sweating but you know I
stayed I worked the full day sure enough
I went home I ate my food I went to the
gym that night I was getting punched in
the head and I was like lost feels
really cool with bee stings all over my
head but I did it I sweat it out and I
went again the next day I did that you
know I made this mess for myself and I
did the best to pay what I owed and
within two years of my release I want a
world title and boxing all the while
living in that same halfway house that
was February of this year the only
reason I won that fight I was greatly
overmatched and received a three-inch
cut over my eye was that I wouldn’t quit
round after round
I just kept showing up I want to fight I
won that fight I was great greatly
favored to lose in something told me I
had to win I need to do this I used all
the hard lessons I learned through
addiction rehab jail prison hell they
just never quit move forward grow get
out of your comfort zone
did you set your mind to it and show up
every day and give you everything you
got and I’m not talking like the Beast
things I’m talking about getting your
teeth knocked out by rebar and concrete
and picking that up and stuffing them in
your pocket and going on cuz I know
that’s like – that kind of determination
you have to keep moving forward no
excuses this trust me I know I had to
get out of my comfort zone a lot I
needed to grow as a person I needed to
see value in things such as community
and public service things that I ignored
until now
things I ignored because I never needed
those things until now I’d set goals for
myself and not just athletically but
much more importantly in life there’s
your storybook ending right told you my
journey I rocketed up unstoppable struck
down lower than I could have ever
imagined and then through hard work
followed my way to the top again I’ve
redeemed myself right I should be on my
way to greater things wrong this is no
movie I’m no hero I didn’t win and ride
off into the sunset
no I fought again that’s what I do
that’s how I sustain my life this is
what saves me from going back to my evil
ways this is who I am I’m a pro boxer
I’m a fighter
that’s all I know how to do that’s how I
live it’s how I eat on June 16 2017
I killed my friend in the boxing ring
there’s a fight – Edmonton threw a right
hand left hook at the beginning of the
second round and I killed Tim Hague he
hit the canvas brain-dead and
unresponsive I took away a boy’s father
brother
a husband a son when I took him away on
Father’s Day there’s nothing I can do
you to bring him back I can’t go back on
anything I’ve done the mistakes that
I’ve made I will live with for the rest
of my life
what I can do is not slide back into my
old self do the best to keep fighting
learn to share my experience with others
to try to gain wisdom from it and so
there is a way to survive there is a way
to move forward you can gain strength
and never give up to overcome everything
and anything you go through try to lead
people better off than when you found
them so on that note I fight again here
in Victoria September 8th because that’s
what I do that’s who I am not fighter
I’d like to believe I can do it better
at this time I have new insights on
myself the steps that I took forward to
change how I live how I treat people I
find strength in knowing I can ask for
help and knowing I can be forgiving and
annoying I’m strong enough to pull
myself out of anything life’s a journey
that goes round and round with many
peaks many valleys and the only thing
you can count on is change that’s how
you respond to that change reinventing
yourself however you have to what’s
important
[Applause]
you
you
my name is Adam Braidwood I was born on
June 1st 1984 in Richmond British
Columbia this talk is about my life the
things that I’ve been through the
adversity that I faced times where I’ve
been up and times that I’ve been down
the mistakes that I’ve made and how how
I crawled out of what was to be my own
grave and tried to make something of
myself
someday I could be proud of I was a
determined little boy I think some of
that I was just born with some of that
has to do with things that happen to me
as far back as I can remember I wanted
to be a professional football player I
point to magazines like Sports
Illustrated when I was walking in the
grocery store with my mom let’s say
that’s me mom that’s who I am I started
playing football when I was seven years
old I found my passion what I was meant
to do something that was going to take
me somewhere that’s where I was going
somewhere sometimes I would practice two
times a day have three games a week all
the while I’d head to the gym in between
desperately trying to get better
I’d eat healthy I’d keep protein shakes
in my locker if I broke a bone or
sprained an ankle
I just tape it tighter and keep going
this attitude got me so much evens
athletically I was selected to the team
BC was team BC defensive MVP I was
offered a full scholarship to Washington
State University in grade 11 I was
selected to the All pac-10 freshman team
I want a pac-10 championship played in a
Rose Bowl won a holiday Bowl and in 2006
I was selected first overall in the CFL
Draft to the Edmonton Eskimos
I had my sights set on getting into the
NFL I was a football player
it was everything it taught me about
life my coaches were my parents my
teammates my brothers problem is though
the surrogate family will let you down
this happened when I got hurt
in 20 years I don’t even remember
missing a practice let alone a game now
I’ve missed two seasons with surgery
after surgery I was stuck on my couch
barely able to walk more than a few
steps I was the star football player and
now I was nothing I felt empty I had
nothing I had nothing sustaining me so
drugs filled that void the sinking
feeling I had in my heart when I was
alone with my demons all day I had no
options in my mind on how to sustain my
drug habit so I turned to crime and
violence there’s one step after the
other down a dark road where things got
increasingly violent and dangerous one
thing leads to another and before you
know it you’re slamming a bottle of
pills to get out of bed and packing
around a nine-millimeter and wearing a
bulletproof vest crime gave me purpose
the reason to get out of bed every day
and I fed and it fed that insurmountable
craving for painkillers I thought I
needed these choices I made led me to
that fateful day in 2010 when during a
drug collection I hit a man with the
machete beat him up stuffed him into a
trunk of a car the police found out
shortly soon thereafter on a clandestine
stretch of highway leading to nowhere
luckily we all walked away that day I
was released on bail a few times I
screwed up twice
I was Realty pull gun charges domestic
violence and drug trafficking I’d done
every lowlife thing you could do and I
decided to end it all by taking a
handful of pills playing Russian
roulette
luckily the gun did not fire I played
actually several times of course it made
national newspapers this was during the
great cop mind you I was still playing
football at this time I managed to come
back and play one more season before all
this happened during my fall from grace
headlines grades in newspapers such as
hero to monster I lost everything I lost
my car my house my job my health my
freedom all of my money my reputation my
dream everything was gone but most of
all I hurt the people that I love I’m
not gonna lie
I thought that
I thought during the time my life is
over I stopped caring whether I lived
there died locked away in a jail cell
ruined I lay on a concrete floor and
like the scene out of the movie
Trainspotting I kicked opiate
painkillers
I can’t properly describe the misery I
went through over those three weeks
everything aches
you can’t hold down food or water you’re
always cold and sweaty you can’t sleep
you have racing anxiety thoughts all day
but slowly I got my strength back doing
push-ups shadowboxing pacing around back
and forth to my cell there’s at that
time I made the decision that this
wouldn’t kill me that this wasn’t the
end I keep fighting because that’s what
I do I’m a fighter I’ll get through this
that’s what I do I get through things
I’ll eat healthy I’ll exercise I’ll work
hard I’ll coach I’ll give back to the
community I’ll be better to my family I
went to treatment
I got counseling I got back in the gym I
needed to get better I said I used to
sit in my 4 by 7 room in the halfway
house that doubled as a homeless shelter
a place where you might walk by a
bathroom and see a dead body laying on
the bathroom floor and that happens that
happened I thought a victim of a drug
overdose
I’d sit there and I’d listen to
motivational videos on YouTube I’d say
to myself no matter what happens just
show up every day just go just keep
showing up take the bus go dig holes
pack material dispose of hazardous waste
it doesn’t matter you go everyday you do
your best then after all that you go to
the gym and train as hard as you can
because that’s what you do that’s the
only way out of this no one’s coming to
save you and even if there was you don’t
deserve it
the determination was tested five
minutes on to my first day the job site
as a carpenter my boss was where’s your
tools I said I don’t got any tools then
and I just took the bus here I got to do
this I’m on parole the enemy had
crowbars
peel off that piece of cedar you’re
gonna strip all these decks I was like
all right this is literally five minutes
and 7:05 a.m. wasps nests lands right in
front of me I’m four stories up on
scaffolding I’m like what do I do
so I’m certainly trying to scramble down
and they just swarm me they’re stuck in
my beard in my ear in my nose in my
pants everywhere I got stung about 50
times they thought and I’m running down
the scaffold it’s 7:00 in the morning
there’s people living there I’m yelling
and I’m cursin oh my god I’m ripping my
shirt off and I’m just losing my mind
and they’re like man you gotta go the
hospital you all right and I think I hit
another bees nest on the way and I was
just getting attacked like cuz I walked
by the same bees nest trying to figure
out the scaffolding never been up on
scaffolding and I sat there and they’re
like you got to go and go to the
hospital your swelling up you got to go
home I got knots all over my head I was
like no man if I leave if I leave now
I’ll never come back day one oh I walked
around that scaffolding I stripped those
decks I was a little bit dizzy from all
the poison I was sweating but you know I
stayed I worked the full day sure enough
I went home I ate my food I went to the
gym that night I was getting punched in
the head and I was like lost feels
really cool with bee stings all over my
head but I did it I sweat it out and I
went again the next day I did that you
know I made this mess for myself and I
did the best to pay what I owed and
within two years of my release I want a
world title and boxing all the while
living in that same halfway house that
was February of this year the only
reason I won that fight I was greatly
overmatched and received a three-inch
cut over my eye was that I wouldn’t quit
round after round
I just kept showing up I want to fight I
won that fight I was great greatly
favored to lose in something told me I
had to win I need to do this I used all
the hard lessons I learned through
addiction rehab jail prison hell they
just never quit move forward grow get
out of your comfort zone
did you set your mind to it and show up
every day and give you everything you
got and I’m not talking like the Beast
things I’m talking about getting your
teeth knocked out by rebar and concrete
and picking that up and stuffing them in
your pocket and going on cuz I know
that’s like – that kind of determination
you have to keep moving forward no
excuses this trust me I know I had to
get out of my comfort zone a lot I
needed to grow as a person I needed to
see value in things such as community
and public service things that I ignored
until now
things I ignored because I never needed
those things until now I’d set goals for
myself and not just athletically but
much more importantly in life there’s
your storybook ending right told you my
journey I rocketed up unstoppable struck
down lower than I could have ever
imagined and then through hard work
followed my way to the top again I’ve
redeemed myself right I should be on my
way to greater things wrong this is no
movie I’m no hero I didn’t win and ride
off into the sunset
no I fought again that’s what I do
that’s how I sustain my life this is
what saves me from going back to my evil
ways this is who I am I’m a pro boxer
I’m a fighter
that’s all I know how to do that’s how I
live it’s how I eat on June 16 2017
I killed my friend in the boxing ring
there’s a fight – Edmonton threw a right
hand left hook at the beginning of the
second round and I killed Tim Hague he
hit the canvas brain-dead and
unresponsive I took away a boy’s father
brother
a husband a son when I took him away on
Father’s Day there’s nothing I can do
you to bring him back I can’t go back on
anything I’ve done the mistakes that
I’ve made I will live with for the rest
of my life
what I can do is not slide back into my
old self do the best to keep fighting
learn to share my experience with others
to try to gain wisdom from it and so
there is a way to survive there is a way
to move forward you can gain strength
and never give up to overcome everything
and anything you go through try to lead
people better off than when you found
them so on that note I fight again here
in Victoria September 8th because that’s
what I do that’s who I am not fighter
I’d like to believe I can do it better
at this time I have new insights on
myself the steps that I took forward to
change how I live how I treat people I
find strength in knowing I can ask for
help and knowing I can be forgiving and
annoying I’m strong enough to pull
myself out of anything life’s a journey
that goes round and round with many
peaks many valleys and the only thing
you can count on is change that’s how
you respond to that change reinventing
yourself however you have to what’s
important
[Applause]
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