Hi this is Fred Wallace with ” Off the Wire “, brought to you by Auto Logic…..the Logical Choice !
The passing this week of former OHL & NHL player Steve Montador comes as a strange, and somewhat eerie, coincidence.
Thanks to Russ Fawcett, who gave me his copy of ” Boy On Ice ” by John Branch, I just, and I mean just, reading about the life & death of Derek Boogaard.
The book is a fascinating tale of the unlikely rise of a Western Canadian hockey player, Boogaard, who used his brawn to get to the very top of the enforcers circle in the National Hockey League before his life & lifestyle spiralled downwards and led to his death.
The star of the book isn’t Derek Boogaard, but rather his father, Len, a former RCMP officer who following the death of his son, painstakingly tracked medical records, pharmacy receipts and cell phone calls tracing the moves & connections prior to Derek Boogaard’s passing.
Truthfully, as compelling as the story was, it was hard for me to feel much empathy for Derek Boogaard, no matter how sad the story and the outcome was.
A hockey player, or a pro athlete, who comes from a less than modular family, rises through the ranks based on minimal skills, makes the big leagues for one purpose, gets caught up in the lifestyle, rejects the women who loves him, gets cozy with the woman who loves his money, falls in with a crowd that doesn’t necessarily have his best interests at heart, has issues with authority, abuses drugs, abuses alcohol and…………………….
It’s an old story, isn’t it ?
I’ve heard this all before, in one form or another, and based on the age of this tale, you’d like to think it would have served as a warning for Derek Boogaard and for others.
It didn’t, and while the circumstances with Steve Montador may be vastly difference, the timing and the similarities are bothersome.
I’m Fred Wallace