The most extreme professional sport

Soccer, basketball, boxing, and baseball were the sports that I faithfully participated in from a child to adulthood. I was lucky enough to compete in soccer and boxing at a professional level. Other activities like wrestling, track, handball, racquetball, and lacrosse helped prepare me for soccer and boxing. Each of these complements the other to improve skills and increase your talent. You can never be too good at any sport and someone will be there to overtake you when you relax. You can take that to the bank with you.

Hockey was not a sport that many people were interested in when I was growing up. There were no known tracks that I knew of in the New York City where I was staying and the local sports heroes came from baseball, basketball and football in that order. Even when he was in college in the early 1970s, he had no interest in watching hockey. I learned more about the sport in college because Buffalo students loved the Sabers and the first televised superstars involved a hockey player named Rod Gilbert. The fact that his physique was of average height and he didn’t do very well in the different competitions did nothing to spark my interest in chaos on ice.

This all changed in 1983 when I became a New York City firefighter. My fire station was located on Coney Island and I watched the engine race the truck at Abe Stark’s track. Although none of the people competing were fantastic skaters, I had found a new respect for the skill it takes to speed across the ice on blades where I have trouble stopping and shooting a rock-like piece of rubber at a goal. While he is attempting this feat, there are people trying to pull him out of the ice at incredibly fast speed. I started following the sport while continuing my boxing career. Wayne Gretzsky scoring 92 goals in a season is a sports record that will never be broken. It was 100 if you count the playoffs and the numerous records he holds far exceed any other major professional athlete.

When you see a hockey game up close, there’s nothing quite like it. I always thought live fights were the most exciting until I went to a professional hockey game. They move on their skates at an average of 13 miles per hour and slap shots average 100 miles per hour. The hitting is brutal and you have less protection than a professional soccer player. Most hockey players have some teeth missing due to contact from pucks and fists, as fights are common after a brutal blow while traveling at breakneck speed. The way athletes can stop and go while changing direction while carrying a lethal weapon (the baton) is incredible and exciting. Blocking the puck with your body is another art form left only to the strongest-willed. Elbows, high sticks, cross checks on the back and pucks and gloves on the face make this sport only for the toughest of the tough.

Boxing and soccer are great and test each athlete’s strength and desire, but I must be honest and state that hockey is the most extreme of the major sports I have ever competed in and studied. Not a game for the faint of heart, but one where only the strong compete.