No One Wins Alone by Mark Messier & Jimmy Roberts

Author:Mark Messier & Jimmy Roberts
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Gallery Books
Published: 2021-10-26T00:00:00+00:00

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AFTER A YEAR OF CHALLENGES and changes, we’d accomplished our goal. The Sports Illustrated article was a distant memory. In the end, I think it was just another log on the fire to fuel our comeback. And instead of the 1986 Stanley Cup being how The Boys on the Bus came to a close, it became the story’s emotional fulcrum.

Looking back on it now, The Boys on the Bus has become something of a cult movie. My son Douglas, named of course for my father, is eighteen now, and he started watching it a few years ago.

When Tiger Woods came back to win the Masters in 2019 after not having claimed a major championship in eleven years, he was uncharacteristically emotional, he said, because his kids were finally able to be there and watch him do what they’d only read about or seen on the Internet. Mario Lemieux said he came back after he’d had cancer, in part, so his son could watch him play. Being able to share those experiences with your family is a very powerful thing for an athlete.

I am lucky that my son Lyon was there to see some of my playing days, but Douglas and Jacqueline weren’t old enough. It’s amazing how they can relive the experience thanks to all the footage out there. They’ve basically been able to experience my playing days through YouTube.

That’s not always a good thing. Sometimes Douglas will flip open his laptop and show me clips of me playing, and especially if it’s the big hits and fights, I’ll kinda cringe and say: “Aw, well—It was a different time back then.” His response: “Dad, you’d be in jail now.”

But then we talk about what it was like then, and how things have changed. That’s how kids really learn, from this kind of open dialogue around the kitchen table, about the successes as well as the mistakes. I’d like to think the mistakes I made and lessons I’ve learned have made me more empathetic, tolerant, and compassionate, especially toward my kids. I can try to help them without shoving a bunch of moral-high-ground stuff down their throats about what they have to be, what they should be. I’ve always told them they can’t do anything or tell me anything that is going to shock me, because I’ve been there, I’ve done it, I’ve seen it, so there’s no point in trying to hide it. Let’s just get it out on the table and talk about it. That’s how you become a good teammate and person, no matter what the context. It’s the way that I learned from my own father, and that’s how I’ve taught my children.

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