Subject:  Re: Probert |
Author:
slej
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Date Posted: 17:04:31 02/07/03 Fri
In reply to:
Lisa
's message, "Probert" on 22:57:17 02/06/03 Thu
[here's an article from faceoff.com]
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February 6, 2003
Win, lose, booze
Eight years of sobriety could not save Bob Probert from harmful behaviour. What role, if any, did his on-ice job contribute to the problem?
By MARK SPECTOR
National Post
Fred Jewell, The Associated Press
Chicago Blackhawks' Bob Probert has made his living as an enforcer since his NHL career began. He continues to battle substance abuse.
The fighting ended for Bob Probert when he quit hockey in November. He couldn't peel it away like a bloodied sweater, however, and on Tuesday Probert re-entered the NHL and NHLPA's Substance Abuse and Behavioural Health program.
"You've got to remember, Probie had eight years of sobriety. You can't take that away from him," said the Providence Bruins' Brantt Myhres, a friend and fellow heavyweight. "I don't know what avenue he went down, but obviously one that led him back into rehab."
Myhres, 28, back this season after a one-year suspension spent in counselling and rehab, is in the minors trying to get back to the NHL. He roomed with Probert in California this past summer, at a retreat attended by all players current and retired who are still participants in the rehab program.
The roster reads like the Table of Contents on a bootleg hockey fights video: Probert, Myhres, Billy Tibbetts, and a few others in the fighter's union, active and retired.
"There were quite a few of the guys down there," Myhres admits. "The guys" being part of the brethren of NHL heavyweights.
"When someone says they really, really enjoy that part of the job, well, I don't think there's a very high percentage who really do."
We'll likely never know how much Probert's chosen trade had to do with his litany of off-ice cocaine and alcohol problems. After 935 NHL games, and 3,300 penalty minutes, the 37-year-old spent this season as an in-studio radio analyst, making observations between periods and during the pre- and post-game shows. The Blackhawks continued to pay him his US$600,000 salary.
Somehow, Probert's demons pulled him back into a life he had struggled with since the late '80s, when he was the baddest, meanest fighter in the league. That is, if they ever let go at all.
"It surprised me in the sense that every time he showed up for work he was alert and professional and didn't seem to have any problems," radio colleague Jesse Rogers told the Chicago Tribune. "I really didn't notice anything that would indicate that he had the problem. It didn't affect his work, which leads me to believe that he realized he had to do something before it became a much more serious problem."
The roster of NHL heavyweights with alcohol or drug problems has always been alarmingly long.
Dave Semenko, the best of the best in his day, had to conquer alcohol addiction before he could go on with life after hockey.
John Kordic never did pull his life together in time, and they are only two of the many.
Luckily for Georges Laraque, the Edmonton Oilers winger who was named the NHL's toughest heavyweight in a recent Sports Illustrated poll of NHL head coaches, doesn't like to drink. "It's not a problem I would have," he said.
For a younger fighter, Laraque says, there is a mountain of stress in every confrontation. "It took me two years before I could breathe normally the night before a game, or on the afternoon of a game."
Later, however, when you've been through the league a few times and become established, there are self-esteem issues. That's why parents waiting in an examination room at the University of Alberta hospital's pediatric ward will see a poster of a shirtless Laraque on the wall, cradling a tiny baby in his massive arms and smiling.
"If all they see is that I fight on the ice, what are they going to assume? It's not the perception that I want to give to kids, or to the community," he said. "The only thing that makes me feel good about what I do on the ice is to be able to give back to the community and show what kind of person I am."
Players like Donald Brashear and Chris Simon -- once young, game fighters who begin to contribute offensively and abandon their old role with age -- happen for a reason: fighting is no fun. It is a means to an end -- in this case, a bloated NHL paycheque.
"I don't even like talking about fighting. It's not an honour," said Laraque, who shuns the SI title. "You know, when I was a kid, I was Wayne Gretzky, I was Mario Lemieux, I was all those guys. I loved scoring goals. I never fought guys and stuff, and as a kid I was always the top scorer on my team.
"Would I rather have a good fight or a goal?" he asks. "I celebrate every goal like it's my last. I jump up on the glass every time I score, I get so excited.
"It's funny," Laraque notes. "The best part of hockey is playoff hockey. Is there fighting in the playoffs? No. Tough guys don't even play in the playoffs."
Win, lose, booze -- it's a three-word hockey proverb that speaks volumes about the game and its players. But it can take on a new meaning when a loss or win involves a broken orbital bone, or another concussion.
"When I broke into the league, I was a 20-year-old fighting 30- and 35-year-old men," Myhres said. "And if you lost three in a row, you were going down [to the minors].
"What [alcohol] does is, it doesn't allow you to think about the next night. Guys get together [in the bar], and they don't talk about fighting. Instead of sitting in your hotel room in Philly, thinking: 'I've got this guy tomorrow night, and maybe that guy.' It's a way to meditate.
"I can't blame it [his drinking] on anything," Myhres said. "But if I look at all the issues, fighting was definitely a factor."
In a 17-year career, Probert missed two seasons while suspended for substance abuse.
This season, his skills waning, he played just three pre-season games, then later traded his stick for a microphone.
"If things go well in the media field, it may be for a lot longer than the rest of the year," Probert said at the time. "I'll take an assessment at the end of the year and see what happens. I won't be skating, but I'm going to try to stay in shape.
"It's a way of life for me."
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