Geno Lewis: Scoring a touchdown for compassion (revisited)
https://www.cfl.ca/2026/08/02/redblacks-release-receiver-eugene-lewis/
Responding to the above press release of August 2, 2026
A letter to the editor of the Ottawa Citizen newspaper
The Ottawa Redblacks have certainly been experiencing a miserable season on the gridiron, but they’ve scored big points in so many other ways.
My wife Anne recently succumbed to glioblastoma, an incurable form of brain cancer. During the one-year period between her diagnosis and her death, while she was receiving home care, kind neighbours rallied to provide emergency support when she collapsed or was otherwise indisposed or de-railed. One such kind soul is Geno Lewis, the erstwhile star wide receiver for the Redblacks who received his walking papers yesterday. As it happens, Geno lives a couple of doors from our apartment. He embraced the opportunity to help care for my sorely afflicted loved one.
Geno clearly stands as a beacon of compassion and leadership both on and off the field. His humanitarian initiatives have touched countless lives throughout the Ottawa community and beyond, reflecting his genuine commitment to making a difference. Whether he’s volunteering at local shelters, championing youth mentorship programs, or spearheading fundraising efforts for vital causes, Geno consistently exemplifies the values of empathy, generosity, and social responsibility. His unwavering dedication to uplifting others transforms each initiative into an opportunity for hope, fostering unity and resilience across diverse groups. Geno Lewis’s efforts set a powerful example for athletes everywhere: that true greatness is measured by the positive impact one leaves on the world.
Geno has also lived through the harrowing ordeal of seeing close family members felled by cancer. So he was onside with Anne when it came to neighbourly caregiving.
Our elder son is a big Ottawa Redblacks fan and before Anne was devastated by cancer, he convinced her to attend a game. She couldn’t make heads or tails of the sport; in fact, she reported that she spotted a lot of tails but very few heads.
Yet she had a guardian football angel who helped intercept her before she hit the turf.
Robert McBryde
18 Hamilton Avenue North apt 311
Ottawa ON K1Y 1B6
613-612-3043
P.S.
To Anne, football – be it the American or Canadian version – seemed less a strategic sport and more a high-stakes ant colony experiment gone off the rails. For her, the moment the whistle blew, a cohort of hulking men in mismatched armour scattered helter-skelter across a vast green expanse, only to promptly converge in a tangled heap like toddlers fighting over the last Smartie at a birthday party. The ball, rarely visible, seemed to exist purely as a rumour, sometimes flung with dramatic flair, but mostly buried beneath a mountain of bodies that could rival the Rockies. Coaches on the sidelines barked indecipherable codes, referees tossed flags like confetti, and fans erupted as if the fate of the loonie itself hung in the balance. To Anne, football appeared to be a spectacle of organized mayhem, where the only obvious rule is that chaos reigns supreme, and the only clear winner is the beer vendor cashing in on all the induced hysteria.
Your friend,
Robert
https://robertmcbrydeauthor.com/
If you feel like reading more about Anne’s cancer journey, I’ve chronicled it in prose and poetry here:
https://robertmcbrydeauthor.com/news/
