Headed in a new direction
Son's decision to choose hockey over wrestling is A-OK with the Hart clan
By BRET HART -- For SLAM! Wrestling
My dad came to see my son Blade, 11, play hockey the other day. He
had a big smile on his face, my dad, I mean. Then again, Blade did too.
Looks like Blade might be the Hart that breaks the chains with wrestling.
He wants to be a goalie. Well ... he IS a goalie now -- but you know what I
mean.
After the final Flames home game last season, Dave Lowry invited me and
Blade down to the locker room and was genuinely interested enough to talk with
Blade and find out that he wants to be a goalie.
Freddie Brathwaite thought that was the cat's pajamas and ceremoniously
signed his stick and presented it to Blade. It was the last stick he ever used
as a Flame.
Blade turned around and hung the stick on the wall of his bedroom, a prized
possession.
Blade played for Crowfoot last year but now he lives with me so, he plays
for Springbank. He looks at it like he's been traded. I often thought that,
just like in wrestling, there are heroes and bad guys in hockey and when the
Springbank Hitmen played the Crowfoot Blackhawks this year, Blade would have
good naturedly been their 'bad guy'. As it turned out, he missed the chance to
see what it's like to be a 'heel' because he was committed to participating in
a charity bowling event with me in California long before the hockey game was
even scheduled.
With no backup goalie, the coach's daughter, Alison Rop, (a great player,
by the way) bravely donned the goalie gear and stepped up to the net, having
never played goal before. Kudos to Alison for sheer guts, if nothing else!
I mentioned to Blade if he'd played against the Blackhawks, I bet he would
have felt a lot like Brathwaite when he came back to Calgary wearing a St.
Louis jersey last week, skating to a stalemate against new Flames star Roman
Turek.
Blade replied confidently, "Nah Dad, we would have won."
That's my boy!
You can say what you want about the Flames but I'm a guy who was on the
road for 20 years only hearing about the big feud between Calgary and
Edmonton. I was envious of every one of you fans who had your butts in the
seats. As soon as I retired, one of the first things I did was get season
tickets -- and then they didn't have such a great season. Hey, it happens.
While so many Flames fans were disappointed, I was happy to finally be able
to go to the games at all. It was Jarome Iginla who said to me at the end of
last season that he felt it in his gut that the team would turn things around
this year -- and now look at them. And Iginla is now the leading scorer in the
league. I'm really into this!
As we watched Blade play the other day, my dad remarked to me, "He'd make a
damn fine hockey player. Maybe we'll have a celebrity in the family, eh?"
See, in the Hart family, making it in wrestling wasn't a big deal -- it was
expected. But a hockey star, now that's special.
People ask me all the time, "but don't you want Blade to follow in your
footsteps and be a world champion?"
That'd be cool, if that's what he wants.
But not as cool as cheering for my son one day when he holds the Stanley
Cup up over his head!
