News Article: "Not so crazy now, am I?" (Eric Lindros ESPN)

[Hollywood Cannon]

Not sure if it's been posted anywhere but always nice to read about Lindros.

http://espn.go.com/nhl/story/_/page...ed-nhl-culture-playing-injuries-espn-magazine

ONLY ONCE since his retirement in 2007 has Eric Lindros worried about the damage that a lifetime of hockey may have inflicted upon his brain.

It was late last summer, and he and then-fiancée Kina Lamarche had flown to Halifax, Nova Scotia, where they turned off their cellphones and motored 1,250 miles around the coast in a 34-foot rented RV they nicknamed Peggy.

The trip was very much what it seemed: an adorable, old-fashioned premarital test-drive to gauge just how well the couple would fare while roughing it at $18-a-night oceanfront campsites, where the biggest decision each day was who had to connect Peggy's nasty blue hose to the toilet pump-out station.

On the second day of the adventure, the couple were in a rented canoe in the middle of breathtaking Kejimkujik Lake when a thunderstorm rolled in off the coast. In an instant, the skies darkened and torrents of rain began filling up the canoe. Lightning crackled just overhead. Lindros glanced at Kina in the front of the boat, then down at the metal-lined canoe underfoot and the metal paddle in his hands. Are we freaking nuts? he wondered. For a moment, Lindros feared that his decision-making skills had indeed been dulled.

Just then, Kina turned around, lifted the soaked brim of her baseball cap and, through the rain, yelled back to him the classic line from Caddyshack: "Oh, I don't think the heavy stuff's gonna come down for quite a while."

The tension left Lindros' body, and he lifted his paddle out of the water. For maybe the first time in his life, he didn't feel the need to battle tooth and nail against the forces of nature.

Click to read more...

 

[Beef Invictus]

Thanks for sharing, that was a good read

 

[usurp]

I'm really happy that Lindros is able to live a normal life after the countless concussions he had over the years.

 

[swflyers93]

Just read the article in the magazine. Very good article, I'm happy that he has a normal and happy life.

 

[BackToTheBrierePatch]

very good read.
good to hear that Lindros is doing well.

 

[Appleyard]

Really nice article, awesome to know how well he is doing.

I definitely think that him moving to the wing (for periods of time) circa 02-03, and later full time, and from then on not playing half as physical a game and not pissing people off as much, saved a lot of brain cells and probably gave him the chance to live a normal life... even if it limited his point production, definitely worth it!

I always thought (up until his wrist was ruined in Toronto) that while he could be nowhere near the old Lindros after the Stevens hit, he could still be a close to a PPG player if he played the same style at centre as he used to... as he showed in 01-02, and when he was put at 1st line centre in Toronto for 10-15 games when Sundin was injured in 05-06, I watched a lot of those games and he showed at times just how fantastic a player he could still be... then he got his wrist injured and could not even begin to shoot in his last year.

 

[Mgkibbles]

Lindros got me into hockey, and Brian Boucher's awesome rookie year is what set the hook. I'll always love those two guys. Especially Big E. He was a bonafide badass. Great to hear he has no ill-effects, despite Bobby Clarke's best efforts.

 

[kicksave27]

I hope that when I'm his age I will no longer be suffer from my bouts with PCS.

 

[CanadianFlyer88]

Great article; thanks for posting it.

 

[Curufinwe]

Lindros was why I became a Flyers fan in 93. Thanks for posting the article.

 

[RJ8812*]

They'll never be a player in the NHL like Lindros....ever

also, I've been saying for years that the league needs a bigger ice surface. Maybe not longer, but definitely wider.

 

[flybynite77]

When Lindros came back last year for the alumni stuff I said that If you could somehow take his career and move everything 10 years forward the reactions would be entirely different.

The amount of what we know (or in some cases acknowledgement of what is NOT known) when it comes to concussions is so drastically different from when Lindros played.

The home team fan reaction to a player encountering what Lindros did would be extremely different and I think even the organization view would be different.

 

[Appleyard]

They'll never be a player in the NHL like Lindros....ever

also, I've been saying for years that the league needs a bigger ice surface. Maybe not longer, but definitely wider.

Most of the ideas Lindros says about hockey I agree with...

Wider ice, red line preventing more injuries (though it may slow down game to its detriment tbh), removing the trapezoid so keepers can play pucks in the corner instead of D racing in there (though it probably has gave us a few points per year due to Brodeur!) also his idea for a three person panel on the disciplinary board I read a few years back.

 

[Zod]

Seeing Lindros in playoff hockey live when I was a kid was what got me hooked into hockey, and the Flyers.

Very glad to hear how he's doing.

 

[Flyerfan4life]

easily top 3 Flyer of all time for me..

def. miss seeing him play.

 

[Brayden Fattison]

Great read, thanks for posting. Was I the only one a little put off by Bettman's stooge basically blaming Eric for not only his own, but all other concussions as well?

 

[SchennSational1022*]

Bob Clarke is such a ****** bag post retirement

 

[flountown]

It was a great read, my only issue with it is the toss in about fighting. Anytime someone writing a good concussion related article brings that up, it drops the credibility. It has been proven that you are less likely to sustain a concussion in a fight than in the normal course of play. Now if you take the heavyweight/goon style fighters, then yes, the sheer number is eventually going to affect them. Luckily the game is getting away from those types of guys.

Source for my claim of fighting causing fewer injuries: http://health.usnews.com/health-new...fistfights-rarely-cause-injuries-study-claims

 

[FLYguy3911]

The man. I used to watch this same highlight video of Lindros pretty much every day of my childhood. The most physically dominating player to ever play the game. Big, strong, fast, sniper, playmaker, and heavy weight fighter all packaged into one.

 

[RJ8812*]

anyone know what his brother is upto? I remember after he retired, he hosted a TV show, NHL: Be a Player. Then in the early 2000s, he got into a serious snowmobile accident, but recovered. That's the last I heard about him

 

[MiamiScreamingEagles]

anyone know what his brother is upto? I remember after he retired, he hosted a TV show, NHL: Be a Player. Then in the early 2000s, he got into a serious snowmobile accident, but recovered. That's the last I heard about him

IIRC, Eric mentioned at the outdoor Alumni Game that his brother was recently married a few months earlier. I'm not sure about anything else.

 

[Brayden Fattison]

http://www.thestar.com/sports/footb...second_career_is_a_must_for_pro_athletes.html

“The transition from the hockey bubble world can be difficult to some players,†said Lindros, 36, who took the Canadian securities course after his stint as a host on the hockey show Be A Player ended. “I wanted to learn more about finance so I would be able to manage my own investments.â€

As it turned out, he wound up working with a company that he had invested in and has now been there for just over two years.

Radiant Capital's the company.

 

[TheDrizzle81]

I hope that when I'm his age I will no longer be suffer from my bouts with PCS.

same.


long live 88

 

[MrHockey1982]

Awesome article. He would have been one of the greatest to ever play the game. Such a shame. Glad that he's doing well.

 

[tytech]

There's been a lot of debate about Lindros and the hockey hall of fame. I personally think that he should be there based on his hockey play alone. Once they start letting guys like Neely and Bure in, you have to let a game changer like Eric Lindros in.

However, he changed the game in two ways.
1) The big hulking power forward that could (and did) do it all.
2) He also went against all the internal and external pressure to play through injury and shed a lot of light on the dangers of concussions. It's because of Lindros that the league has any knowledge on concussions and how detrimental it can be to a players health and well being. It's because of Lindros guys like Crosby can have their bell rung and take the proper amount of time to recover and play again once they are symptom free.

Lindros changed the game and changed it for the better. We all hate to see our teams superstars sitting for a long period of time however deep down it's selfish of us to want them back before they are ready. It's just a sport/business and the players long term health is much more important than the game. Despite all the flack, the suffering and the ridicule that Lindros went through, the sport owes him. He did lots for the sport on the ice and did lots for the sport off the ice as a sort of unofficial ambassador for concussion research.

To me, not playing for Quebec was a dumb move and the only validated red mark on his file. Not reason enough to keep him out of the Hall.