In honour of my good friend "Dr. Sport" Greg Douglas, we present you with our 2024 Christmas and Holiday Best Wishes to the following individuals!
* To Matt Baker, Nik Kowalski, Steven Chang and Liam Thomson from the B.C. Lions media relations and content team, thank you! All of you make covering our CFL team a blast and life on the road with you is always fun.
* Merry Christmas to the folks with the Vancouver Canucks - Craig MacEwen, Victoria Ulrich and Carl "The Gatekeeper" Chunta. Sometimes you don't have the easiest job in the world but you always deal with everyone in a first-class manner.
* To the Lions management team which includes Duane Vienneau, George Chayka, Tyler Gammon, Carolyn Cody, Neil McEvoy and Ryan Rigmaiden, through thick and thin you're always there to take that call or respond to that text. Oh yeah, can't forget "The Bossman" Amar Doman! Thanks for what you've done to make the Lions relevant again.
* Best of the holiday season to my friends at TSN. Thanks to Glen Suitor and Dustin Nielson for always saying 'yes' to doing our Lions pre-game show. And yes, I'll even wish Farhan Lalji a Merry Christmas too!
* To my old pals, "Donnie and Dhali", best of the holidays to you and yours. I still am campaigning for Sportsnet 650 to play "The Secret Dhaliwal Tapes" but I understand your trepidation Rick.
* Speaking of 650, wishing all the best to my former co-workers Mike Halford, Jason Brough and Andy Cole. It's always fun talking sports with you guys on Friday and the "Ask Us Anything" questions are always a highlight.
* A special thank you to the staff at Black Press is also warranted. Thank you to Ashley Wadwhani, Andrew Franklin, Lauren Collins, the recently-retired Randy Blair and the rest of the folks who take this column and somehow manage to make me look like I'm actually a journalist!
* Then there is a group of people that make broadcasting B.C. Lions games an absolute pleasure and put up with my rants which seem to occur more often as I get older. Merry Christmas to our executive producer Mike Whittingham. Mike is the world's best 'travelling secretary' and he was missed on the road this year. Mike, remember if I ever win the Lotto Max, you'll have a job setting up my travel. To Giulio Caravatta, I wish I could only be half as nice as you! I also want to extend the best of the season to our producer Trevor "T-Mart" Martins and our sideline reporter Rob Fai. And a best of the holiday to season to a couple of newbies - Harpreet Pandher and Taq Thindal - who called the Lions games on Sheer E Punjab radio this year and exposed the CFL to a brand-new audience.
* To my fellow media colleagues that include Ben Kuzma, Kevin Woodley, Gemma Karstens-Smith, Jeff Paterson, Thomas Drance, Patrick Johnston, Chris Faber, Lindsay Horsting, Wyatt Arndt, David Quadrelli, Harman Dayal, Dan Murphy, Dave Tomlinson, Steve Ewen, Jay Janower, Trevor Henderson, Brendan Batchelor, Randip Janda, Ray and Landon Ferraro, John Shorthouse, Brett Festerling, Sat Shah and J.J. Adams - Merry Christmas!
* Then there are our sponsors, many of whom are no longer considered clients but great friends. Merry Christmas to Tom Blaney from Northwest Tank Lines, who always steps up for our Super Bowl coverage and is a great friend. Big best of the season to Ron and Scott Jones at the West Coast Auto Group as our business relationship nears 25 years - a milestone I'm sure which will be celebrated at Swan-E-Set this summer over a John Daly. Then there is the Delaney family with OK Tire in Langley and now Aldergrove. Trevor, Brett and Clayton Delaney truly are special people. A big shout out to Mark Woodall and Chris Meyer who run Resurrection Spirits, Wayback Brew Co and Noble at the Hills - your support doesn't go unnoticed. Can't do this list without saying a big thank you and best of the season to Gary Mauris and Kate Brady from Dominion Lending Centres, Jeremy Dodd from Able Auctions, Kendall Payne from JM Media and Ron Patterson from ROKAPA.
* The last wishes go out to the person who is reading this. If this holiday season is one in which you'll be missing a loved for the very first time, we feel your pain as I've been there too. Try to remember the great times that you had with them and be thankful for those memories. If you are fortunate enough to have family and friends celebrating this holiday season with you - enjoy it, savour it, and don't ever take it for granted.
Merry Christmas and best of the holiday season to all.
Veteran B.C. sports personality Bob "the Moj" Marjanovich writes twice weekly for Black Press Media.