"Anything anybody ever told me that I can't do, that's what I wanted to do. The first time that I started playing, my dad sneaked out and bought all my equipment. About a week later my mom found out. We had to tell her because she had to take me to practice. My mom, on the way there, said: 'Why are you playing this? You're not going to play past 13. You're going to play basketball or something, so why am I wasting all my money on you?' I just said, 'That's not true.' Part of it was to protect me. My dad was a really big thing on that. He grew up with it. He was born in 1936 and grew up with all that kind of stuff. He knew what kind of people were out there. He always tried to hide me from it. I found out when I was 13 when I got my first name-called. He said: 'Don't worry about it. There are just idiots out there. Now show them you can play hockey.'"
| A quote from Gerald Coleman in Steve Popper's New York Times article "Young Player Battled Some Old Notions on Way to N.H.L."
posted in articles on August 19, 2003 9:59 PM | t (0)
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