Ex-argo moves on from painful past
Police altercation led to end of career
TORONTO On a night he had every reason to live, Orlando Bowen believed he was going to die.
In March 2004, Bowen was planning to celebrate signing a contract extension with the Hamilton TigerCats. The six-foot-two, 238-pound linebacker was waiting in his car for friends in a Mississauga, Ont., parking lot when he was approached by two men asking if he had drugs.
After Bowen dismissed the question, the men identified themselves as Peel Regional police officers. Bowen says he was pulled from his car and an altercation ensued.
Bowen was charged with cocaine possession and assault; he alleged that the drugs had been planted. The case went to trial in 2005 and Bowen was acquitted after one of the officers was arrested on drug offences.
“I really thought I was going to die that night,” Bowen said. “The fact I’m here means there has to be purpose, there has to be a reason why I didn’t.
“My wife was pregnant and we had a one-year-old. I dreamed of holding my son in one arm and the Grey Cup in the other and couldn’t believe this was how I was going to die ... how could this be possible?”
Bowen later filed a $14-million lawsuit against Peel police, which was settled out of court. But while Bowen was exonerated, his football career was over because of a concussion he suffered during the altercation.
He’ll be honoured at BMO Field on Saturday afternoon as part of the CFL’S Diversity is Strength program. He will perform the coin flip prior to the Toronto Argonauts-b.c. Lions game with his wife, Skye, and sons Dante, 15, Justice, who turns 14 next month, and Marcus, 12, in attendance.
Bowen isn’t bitter that his pro career ended so abruptly because he looked at football as a platform to serve others and his community. After all, Bowen left a solid job in Chicago as an IT consultant following his college career at Northern Illinois to join the Argos in 2000.
“I played football so I could give back,” he said. “I remember having the opportunity to play football and thinking, ‘Man, I could maybe impact more lives through this.’
“I felt like there was a shift in the next step, but I wouldn’t have scripted it like that, there could’ve been easier ways to come to that. When the assault happened and the charges came, I thought, ‘Now not only could I not play the game that helped me take care of my family, I couldn’t do the things that brought me back to Canada and that was to serve.’”
In 2014, Bowen received the Harry Jerome Award for community service and said he had moved on from the incident.
“I’ve been good for a long time,” Bowen said. “I know some people are sometimes uncomfortable when I share my story because of some of the realities it speaks to but for me, it just is what it is and we can’t allow our circumstances to define us or how we see ourselves.
“Pain is a part of the journey, but misery is a choice and if you choose to keep revisiting the things that have given you pain you’ll actually miss out on some of the most beautiful things that are right in front ofyou.”