Davis Schneider's brother died of an overdose. Blue Jays say naloxone can save others

To Davis Schneider, his older brother Steven was "kind of like a Superman."

"He worked as a nurse up until he died. He worked every single day to help people in need," the Toronto Blue Jays player said in an interview with The Canadian Press.

"He was kind of like the big popular guy who played a lot of sports and everyone kind of loved him and I looked up to him every single day. Still do."

But in November 2020, his brother died of an opioid overdose in a relative's home in New Jersey, where Schneider is from.

Steven was 26 and alone in a room in the house.

"During COVID, everyone was kind of dealing with some stuff. It was just [an] abnormal time," said Schneider.

"Mentally, he just wasn't in a really good spot. And I didn't know that. He never really kind of showed me he was kind of struggling .... And, you know, he fell into some drug stuff," he said.

Schneider didn't know about naloxone, the drug that can reverse opioid overdoses and save lives if administered in time.

"Probably the most devastating thing is that he was alone, he wasn't with anyone," he said.

Schneider now thinks if someone had been with his brother and had naloxone, his life could have been saved.

So, when Emergent BioSolutions, the manufacturer of naloxone's brand-name Narcan nasal spray, invited Schneider to become a paid spokesperson to raise awareness, the 27-year-old accepted, hoping to prevent other people from dying.

The company publicly announced the partnership on Wednesday.

More than 55,000 Canadians died in the opioid poisoning crisis between January 2016 and September 2025, according to Public Health Agency of Canada data.

The Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction says about 20 people die of opioid overdoses every