“Revenge of the Dreamer” a brand by Shakespeare Louis
In 2010, at 9 years old, following an earthquake in Haiti: Shakespeare Louis moved from his home country to Ottawa, Canada.
In Ottawa, he and his older sister reunited with their parents, and began a new life. When he was 15 years old, Louis began playing football and it was soon after where that new life revolved around football.
Playing football in Ottawa, not only did he fall in love with the sport, but he also started to dominate it as well. Meeting Coach Jean Guillaume and Iseah Montgiraud really changed his path for the better. It was when he began training and focusing on being a great football player on and off of the field, and ultimately it opened doors for him beyond just the city of Ottawa. After already adapting to Canada, and the differences between Canada and his original country of Haiti, it became time for him to adapt to the American culture, playing football at Clearwater Academy International in Florida.
He played there for two seasons, gaining experience, exposure and development as a football player prior to playing at the division one level where he is now with Robert Morris University in Moon, Pennsylvania.
At Robert Morris, Louis has been taking advantage of each and every opportunity that has come his way, not only on the field as a playmaker in the defensive backfield but also off of the field. This off-season he announced the launch of his clothing brand; Revenge of the Dreamer.
JZ Media and Psychletes’ Jordan Zlomislic visited Louis during spring ball to go behind the clothing brand. Watch the Psychletes episode with Shakespeare Louis to learn about his brand and his journey from Haiti.
Episode 3 of “The Grind” out now featuring B.C Lions’ Dominique “Mr. Headtop” Rhymes
On episode 3 of “The Grind”, host, and star receiver and kick returner of the Ottawa Redblacks, DeVonte Dedmon is joined by former Redblacks’ teammate and current B.C Lions superstar Dominique “Mr. Headtop” Rhymes.
Be sure to tune in to episode 3 now on YouTube on JZ Media’s channel, and if you haven’t already, go check out episodes 0,1 and 2 which are all available on YouTube as well featuring both Nate Behar and Alonzo Addae as guests alongside some special guests on the field from across the CFL.
Episode 2 of “The Grind” out now featuring Alonzo Addae and his brand “Daily Deposits”
Earlier this month, Ottawa Redblacks’ receiver and returner DeVonte Dedmon launched a series called “The Grind”.
JZ Media’s press release on the series with Dedmon
He has had an introductory episode where he went into detail on his journey to Ottawa and told his audience more about himself off of the football field, and another episode with teammate Nate Behar. This episode, episode two, will be a takeover by one of his Redblacks teammates, Alonzo Addae.
Addae takes over the series in this episode, taking the audience through his first annual football camp in his hometown of Pickering, Ontario, and tells the audience about his brand that made the day possible, “Daily Deposits”.
Watch episode two of “The Grind” and learn more about Alonzo Addae and his brand, “Daily Deposits” now.
“I’m very proud of myself,” Syracuse’s Devaughn Cooper shows out for NFL teams at Pro Day
On March 20th, 31 of the 32 NFL teams had scouts in Syracuse, New York for Syracuse University’s annual pro day. 9 Syracuse Orange players took part in the pro day; Matthew Bergeron, Aaron Bolinsky, Chris Elmore, C.J Hayes, Mikel Jones, Andre Szmyt, Sean Tucker, Garrett Williams and Devaughn Cooper. Of the players a part of this draft class from Syracuse, it’s names like Matthew Bergeron, Garrett Williams and Sean Tucker that stick out the most. Bergeron has high draft grades not only because of a great regular season with Syracuse, but also a successful Senior Bowl week and combine performance. It seemed as if the day was built around the Montreal, Quebec native, and he took full advantage of the opportunity in front of him on the 20th, but so did his teammates.
Devaughn Cooper’s performance at the pro day was a perfect way to close out a long college football career, and looked to have opened doors for his next chapters of life on and off of the football field.
Cooper, from South Central Los Angeles, California, finished his seventh college football season in 2022 with the Syracuse Orange. He completed his collegiate career with 1,367 receiving yards and four touchdowns on 98 catches with the University of Arizona, the University of Texas El Paso and Syracuse University. On the field, a little undersized at right around 5-foot-10, he always played with great speed and agility, running smooth and crisp routes while having the ability to run with the ball after the catch, all things he put on display at the pro day last Monday.
He finished the pro day with a 40 yard dash time of 4.53, 3 cone of 6.96, shuttle of 4.25, vertical jump of 31 inches, broad jump of 9.5 feet and benched 10 reps of 225 pounds.
With 31 of 32 NFL teams in attendance, Cooper was extremely happy with his performance at the pro day, and is excited for the next steps of not only his football career but his life outside of football. As for football, the NFL Draft will take place at the end of April, deciding whether or not he will spend time in the NFL in 2023, but outside of football, the next steps have already begun for Devaughn Cooper. He launched his very own clothing brand a few years ago called The Ganders, and is very focused on making it a world renown brand. “It started when me and my friends were young. We came up with the word Ganders in the slang way meaning hustle, and I transformed that into a clothing brand to inspire people to work hard and be proud of their work, no matter what they are working towards.
Episode one of “The Grind” a series with DeVonte Dedmon by JZ Media out now featuring Nate Behar
Group of Canadians headline 2023 NFL Draft; “it’s a blessing. It’s been a journey.”
From April 27th through April 29th, there will be 259 names called at the 2023 NFL Draft in Kansas City, Missouri. Lives will forever be changed for many young men, NFL teams will improve, and there is a record ready to be broken. That record being the amount of Canadians drafted in a single NFL Draft. The record right now sits at 4 Canadians, and has been done twice, in 2014 and 2021.
The Canadians you may see get drafted this year, breaking that record would include running back Chase Brown, receiver Jared Wayne, offensive lineman Matthew Bergeron and Sidy Sow, defensive linemen Lwal Uguak and Tavius Robinson as well as defensive backs Sydney Brown and Jonathan Sutherland.
Of the 8 players, 5 took part in the 2023 NFL Scouting Combine, and four of them played in the highly scouted Reese’s Senior Bowl. Those that played in the Reese’s Senior Bowl in Mobile, Alabama, Chase and Sydney Brown, Tavius Robinson and Matthew Bergeron, spoke with JZ Media’s Jordan Zlomislic about the draft process as well as their individual journeys to the NFL.
The Brown twins, from London, Ontario, Canada are coming off of great careers at Illinois where running back Chase Brown ran for 3,206 yards and 18 touchdowns with the Fighting Illini and defensive back Sydney Brown made 319 tackles, 10 tackles for loss, 26 pass breakups, 10 interceptions, 2 sacks, 4 forced fumbles and one fumble recovery over their time together in Illinois. Whether they were on offence or defence, Illinois could count on one of the Brown brothers to make a play, and that is set to continue on the professional stage.
They played on the same team at the Reese’s Senior Bowl where Chase Brown was named a practice player of the week, and they both put on good performances. Talking about being there together, Chase Brown told Zlomislic, “it’s a blessing. It’s been a journey. You think back at high school, or even earlier when I was watching guys go through this process, it is pretty surreal to be here together, competing at such a high level.” That journey that Chase is referring to was a long one, and it is where they came from that has kept them grounded throughout this NFL Draft process. Sydney Brown talked about his and Chase’s background, “we grew up in Canada for our first 16 years. Had a great family and support system, raised by a single mother who had us young at 18, had my grandma as my rock and my uncle and grandfather as our father figures going up, so it was good. We didn’t have much, but we were fortunate to have what we had. When we were 16, our mom had some issues after having our little sister which led to illnesses where she was unable to work. The situation left us homeless at one point, where we spent time in the shelter and with some decisions to make for our futures, whether we’d stay in Canada and work a trade, or cross the border and chase our dreams in football.”
The rest is history for the Brown brothers’ stories. They completed high school in Florida, and then dominated the college football landscape, on their ways to having successful NFL careers.
Also on their way to having a successful career in the NFL, and ready to hear his name called in late April is defensive end Tavius Robinson.
Tavius Robinson took a unique route to get to where he is today, preparing for his call from an NFL team. He actually kicked off his university career at home with the University of Guelph. The 6-foot-6 edge rusher put up great numbers with the Gryphons, having made 13.5 sacks in his two seasons with the school prior to getting a lot of buzz from schools down south, including the University of Mississippi where, in three seasons, has had plenty of success. In 34 games with the Rebels, Robinson made 90 tackles, 11.5 sacks, 14 tackles for loss, forced 5 fumbles and recovered 2 fumbles. As a senior, he had two in-conference games with two sacks made, one against Auburn, and the other against Mississippi State, really putting him on the radar of many teams in the NFL.
While that route to the NFL, having gone to university in two countries, and having to prove himself on every level he’s been on, may sound difficult, and a long route, it has ultimately made Robinson who he is today. “It’s been a real blessing to be on this journey.” Robinson told JZ Media, “having the opportunity to transfer from Guelph was great. I had a good time there, and it prepared me pretty well for division one football. I’m hoping to continue to help pave the way for more Canadians to go a similar route.”
A fairly similar route was actually taken by Matthew Bergeron who also took part in the Reese’s Senior Bowl and NFL Combine like Robinson. The difference between Bergeron and Robinson’s routes, was Bergeron went through CEGEP instead of University.
Coming from Quebec, Victoriaville to be exact, once Matthew Bergeron graduated high school, he went on to CEGEP at CEGEP de Thetford, which for those that don’t know, is like a mix between the Junior college and prep school level of football south of the border. Bergeron played to the best of his ability in CEGEP, not only getting him named the 2nd best recruit from Canada in his class, but he was also ranked across the border by 247, Rivals and ESPN, leading him to an excellent career with the Syracuse Orangemen. With the Orangemen, he started in 39 games and just completed an outstanding senior season, capping it off with great performances at the Senior Bowl and Combine.
His success recently, whether it be throughout his senior year with Syracuse or the stages of his pre-draft process, has been because of the constant effort he is giving.
“I have been giving everything I do 100%. I know how important everything I am doing is right now.” Bergeron said in his interview with JZ Media, “I know how much I’ve done, and how much it took to get to this point, so I can’t take my foot off the gas now. I’m not done yet.”
Bergeron is not done yet, and neither are all of the Canadians around him.
With the NFL Draft now approaching, be on the lookout for the group of Canadians set to take their next steps of their football careers.
“It’s bigger than sport.” Alonzo Addae hosts first annual Daily Deposits Youth Camp
Alonzo Addae is fresh off of a solid rookie season with the CFL’s Ottawa Redblacks where he played in each of the Redblacks’ 18 regular season games, making just shy of 30 tackles on the year, well on his way to having a great professional career, but his journey wasn’t that easy to get to this stage of his life. From Pickering, Ontario, Canada, Addae, as a football player had to work extra hard to get to where he wanted to be, and continues to work hard.
He kicked off his football career at St. Mary Catholic Secondary School in Pickering, continued it with the Pickering Dolphins in the OVFL, and crossed the Canada-USA border to play with Peddie School in New Jersey where he got the coaching and exposure to play in the NCAA. In the NCAA, he began playing at the University of New Hampshire, then transferred to play power five football with West Virginia University where he was coached by his cousin Jahmile Addae who played in the NFL. With West Virginia, Alonzo Addae became a name that everyone in the BIG 12 would be familiar with. Over just 23 games played as a Mountaineer, he made 139 tackles, 5 tackles for loss, 10 pass deflections, 1 sack and forced 4 turnovers (2 interceptions, 1 forced fumble, 1 fumble recovery). He had the opportunity to try out in the NFL with the Arizona Cardinals prior to reporting to Ottawa Redblacks training camp.
Just taking a look at the career Addae has had thus far, with stops at around 7 football teams from St. Mary to the Redblacks, there is a lot of knowledge, on and off of the football field that he has to share, and he wants to do exactly that for the next generation of athletes.
During 2020 he launched a company called “Daily Deposits”, which, in his case as an athlete, goes into detail of all of the work he puts in on a daily basis to be the football player you see on the field on game day, but goes much beyond just football and sports. He has goals of helping mentor kids of all different talents, giving them the leadership and resources they need to be successful. One of his first ways of doing that was hosting a first annual Daily Deposits Youth Football Camp on March 13th.
Addae held the camp close to home, in Oshawa, Ontario, where upwards of 30 young football players had the ability to spend the day with Addae and get hands on mentorship from himself and other coaches. The event was a great success and was the first of many.
When talking about his company Daily Deposits to the kids at the camp, Addae gave the message, “Daily Deposits is all about investing in yourselves. You guys are at a very young age right now, you can do anything you want to in this life. Regardless of sport, I’m not even just talking about sport right now, I’m talking about what ever you want to be, what ever you are passionate about, whatever your heart desires, you can go get it but it is going to take work and consistent work. If you put in the work daily it will lead to bigger and better things.”
Introducing “The Grind” a JZ Media series with Ottawa Redblacks’ DeVonte Dedmon
Since DeVonte Dedmon came to Ottawa in 2019, he has always been making his presence felt on the football field. Playing in 22 games over the span of 3 CFL seasons, he’s gained an all-purpose 3,674 and scored 6 total touchdowns. His success on the field has put his name in the record books, won him awards, and most importantly gave him a platform.
This off-season, leading into the 2023 CFL season Dedmon wants to take full advantage of that platform he has built for himself, starting a series with JZ Media and Psychletes called “The Grind”. “The Grind to me is for me to use my platform, not really to raise awareness but more to show what athletes do outside of their sports.” he told Jordan Zlomislic, “I want this not only to be about me, but I want to give my teammates and people around me a voice off of the field and show that we are more than athletes. I hate the ‘shut up and dribble’ stuff, so I want to give people a look into the locker room, where we talk about more than sports. We talk about financial literacy, mental health, starting businesses, and all of these different aspects of life that aren’t really talked about in sports, so this is kind of that escape that we need as athletes in the media.”
Episode zero of Dedmon’s series, “The Grind” is out now through JZ Media and Psychletes, where he talks on his background from Williamsburg, Virginia, his journey to Ottawa and his current off-season grind in Ottawa.
Hard Work Pays Off; The Brandin Dandridge Story
Over the last few seasons, Ottawa Redblacks defensive back Brandin Dandridge has been taking the CFL by storm. In just a limited 18 games played since the 2019 season where he got his first opportunity with the Redblacks, Dandridge has made a total 38 tackles, 4 interceptions and has forced two fumbles. In the 2021 season he really made a name for himself when at one point he had four straight games with a takeaway.
Making play after play for the Redblacks defense, the name he has made for himself has been becoming a big name in the CFL. The name Brandin Dandridge is now known across the league, and as he continues to play into his prime years of his career, the name is only getting more popular. When fans across the CFL hear his name though, not many know what it took Dandridge to get to where he is with his football career, as well as his life.
Regarding his story, in an interview with JZ Media’s Jordan Zlomislic last off-season he explained, “A lot of young athletes need to hear about my story, and I want to tell more kids about the path I took, and to help them with their own paths.”
Dandridge’s story, and path began in Des Moines, Iowa where many would have thought the name Brandin Dandridge would have found its way into the MLB into the future. Dandridge spoke on his early baseball days, “there were people around the fences watching my tee ball games because I was the only kid there that could hit over the fence home runs.”With the ability to hit over the fence in tee ball, Brandin continued to play baseball right up to high school when he ended up moving close to Kansas City. He attended Blue Springs South High School where, despite playing football earlier in his childhood, his football career really took off in Blue Springs.
He began to have a lot of success on the football field, and ended up focusing on a future in football, quitting baseball in high school with plans to play football at the collegiate level. Getting that opportunity to play college football, Dandridge attended the University at Missouri Western, and you would think that playing at that level his eyes were on the NFL the entire time but it wasn’t really until his senior year at Missouri Western that he had realized the possibility of that NFL dream coming true. He finished his college career strong making 74 tackles, 35 pass deflections, and 8 interceptions in his final two seasons. NFL scouts were coming to the University to see him at practices and games, and things became very real for Dandridge’s chances at the league, but unfortunately dealing with an injury to close out his senior season those NFL possibilities were really up in the air. “I had a lot of interest going into the season from NFL teams” He said, “If I had another good year, I knew I would have high chances of making an NFL roster. I was coming off of an injury on my right knee in the spring, so the preparation for my senior season was going to be crucial to give me the best opportunity possible heading into the draft process. Unfortunately I suffered an injury to my left knee during the season which set back the draft process and it pretty much eliminated my chances to go to the NFL that off-season.”
The injuries that Dandridge suffered during his senior season did not stop him from working towards his dream of playing in the NFL. After 6 months of recovery, when he was healthy enough to get back on the football field, Dandridge took part in the XFL’s first showcase in 2019. “I was nervous, I hadn’t really done any football activities since the surgery. I ran a 4.5 40 yard dash. After that I was looking for a job, and was actually in an orientation at UPS when my agent called me about Ottawa.”
When Brandin Dandridge had the opportunity to come to Canada and play with the CFL’s Ottawa Redblacks, he didn’t know where Ottawa was. In fact, he didn’t even know Ottawa was a city. “I said, ‘what is Ottawa?’ as soon as I got the news. I heard of the CFL, and knew some teams in it and stuff but I didn’t know the Redblacks so it was all so new to me and I was actually off to Ottawa the next day.”
Since he arrived to Ottawa, as mentioned earlier, he has had quite the success on the field with the CFL’s Ottawa Redblacks. He’s had a great stat line over the last three seasons, and the plays he has made got his foot in the door in the NFL, gaining the experience of an NFL training camp with the Kansas City Chiefs in 2022, but Dandridge has also reached some milestones and goals off of the field as well. Brandin and his girlfriend Jaelyn had a son together during the off-season leading up to the 2021 CFL season.”becoming a father was amazing.” he said, “growing up I looked up to my dad in many ways. Having a son, I want him to be able to look up to me the same way I looked up to my dad. I hope he can look at me and be like ‘wow, that’s my dad.’ At the end of the day I want to leave a legacy for him, and give him something that he can build on to. I love being a dad, and really I cannot describe the feeling I have being around him.”
Recently, having an opportunity with the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs as well as becoming a father, Dandridge has grown a focus on his personal brand, and telling his story.
He has a platform as a professional athlete with the CFL’s Ottawa Redblacks which he’d like to grow and use to his advantage during his football career and beyond it. As he looks to grow his brand and create opportunities for himself off of the football field, stay tuned for some content regarding Brandin Dandridge, his story and his future on and off of the football field.
JZ MEDIA 