It’s not really fake news, he did say it, in fact he didn’t actually say “sissy” he said something else but it can’t be printed. Meh, quotes over time get changed, or misinterpreted. How many people on here have seen the Iafrate play a game or the interview? They just see the text, and judge it 30 years later. It happens.
I'm b. 1981 and a Euro so I didn't watch Iafrate play, in real time, though around 92–93 when he had his most productive season that's around when I started become entrenched, but they didn't televise a lot of games over here, and a 12-year old at that time didn't really stay up in the middle of the night to watch hockey, not even a guy who hated school as much as I did, though I did (stay up in the middle of the night) one year later when Bure made it to the finals.
It still feels like people wanted that to be the case though, that he missed it on purpose, because they want a wacky character, which is a human thing to want, so they pumped up the story more or less on purpose. I read a few articles on Iafrate now though and he didn't come across particularly strange or out there to me, but more like a guy who liked heavy metal and motorcycles (very normal here in the Swedish-Finnish cultural hemisphere, although I'm not a fan myself), liked to drink alcohol (also normal here, not a big fan myself though), liked to be noticed (a relatively normal human trait, though I'm pretty shy particularly in bigger groups of people) and was a sensitive guy (like me) who had a heartbreak (normal), and moved on, et cetera.
His self-consciousness regarding his balding was a funny read though.
But for a guy "who wanted to be noticed" he still didn't like it much in fishbowl Toronto, which goes to show there's a limit for most things I guess. In Washington DC he could fly a bit under the radar. He said in Toronto if you walked into a bar people would still chastise you for a play 5 years ago when Cam Neely made you look foolish in the d-zone.
I wonder how good he was defensively though, overall. One article says he learned to pick his pinches towards the o-zone, 2 or 3 per games, but I guess it could be some kind of light romanticism?