Home : Ice Hockey :The NHL Lockout
Ice BreakWith no end in sight, the NHL lockout has driven some players to take matters—and sausage—into their own hands.Less than a year ago, Detroit Red Wings defenseman Chris Chelios was getting paid $6 million a year to crush grown men against the boards in front of thousands of screaming fans. Today the 11-time all-star is wearing an apron and cooking chili for a dozen hungry customers in Dearborn, Michigan. At press time the NHL and its players have yet to ink a new collective bargaining agreement, and their negotiations so far have been like celebrity Jeopardy! with Jessica Simpson, Anna Nicole Smith, and Mike Tyson. Nobody has any answers, and it doesn’t look like anyone’s going to win. That leaves sports fans with one of three views: (1) The players are right. (2) The owners are right. (3) They still have that pro hockey league? Whatever your take on the biggest work stoppage in North American sports, 700 guys who make a living in skates have had to face a potentially terrifying prospect: winter vacation. More than half of them have found temp work with pro clubs overseas, but even that fun Eurotrip has an element of risk. In Russia, Tampa Bay Lightning center Brad Richards tore his abdominal wall and had to fly home for treatment. Peter Forsberg broke his hand in Sweden. And hard-luck Atlanta Thrashers right winger Dany Heatley (when he wasn’t negotiating a plea deal on the vehicular homicide charge he faced for accidentally killing his teammate Daniel Snyder) played in Switzerland—where he caught a puck in the eye, broke his orbital bone, and had to have reconstructive surgery. And then there are the guys who stayed home…
The ChefI’m not surprised to find Chelios at the rink slapping pucks around with a few other Wings. But while teammates Brendan Shanahan (campaigning for John Kerry, organizing a “state of hockey” summit) and Steve Yzerman (reading The Da Vinci Code, chauffeuring his three daughters) haven’t been slacking, this guy’s got more on his plate than Warren Sapp at a buffet. First there was bobsledding. While playing hockey for the U.S. at the 2002 Winter Olympics, Chelios ran into the Greek two-man bobsled team in a cafeteria. They told him they wanted to compete in four-man but lacked the talent and funds. So when the lockout struck, they invited Chelios, who has Greek blood, to train with them and compete for a bid in the 2006 Olympics. “I’d never done anything that fast and dangerous before,” he says. “It’s like when you’re about to fight on the ice, but this is a longer adrenaline rush, and you always have that danger of crashing. I did that twice.” In its first race the team finished ninth…out of nine. The squad’s only Stanley Cup winner was undaunted: “Our biggest guy was hurt, so we couldn’t go 100 percent at the start. We just wanted to get the runs in so we’d be eligible for the next race.” He continues to sponsor the team and hasn’t ruled out a fourth Olympic appearance—this time on sled runners instead of skates. But he also has a backup plan: Cheli’s Chili Bar. The thriving restaurant is a sports geek’s wet dream—plenty of TVs, athletic memorabilia, tasty food, and cold beer, plus a future Hall of Famer with plenty of free time to supervise it. Started in Chicago after a friend thought up the name and shared his grandma’s chili recipe, it moved to suburban Detroit in 2003 and has been a local favorite ever since. (Thanks to the Lions, Tigers, and Pistons, they still have games to show.) Stirring up a big chili bowl for me, Chelios beams. “We’ve gone retail,” he says. “You can even get it in grocery stores.” I could hang at the bar all evening, but my host needs to pack for a trip with his buddy Bobby, a fellow Detroiter most people know as Kid Rock. The pair visited Russia last winter, and now they’re heading to Costa Rica to meet up with Cameron Diaz and Kelly Slater to film a show for MTV. (A few weeks later, Chelios would sign up to play with the United Hockey League’s Motor City Mechanics, scoring a goal in his first game.) He sends me on my way with a packet of chili and some ominous words about the state of the NHL: “I wish Wayne Gretzky was running everything, and maybe Mario Lemieux could step in and they could get this settled. Because when it’s all said and done, I really do believe [NHL commissioner] Gary Bettman has to go.”
The Rap MogulIn Los Angeles, fresh off a tour of Europe with a team of barnstorming all-stars, free agent forward Anson Carter is switching from slap shots to hip-hop. “The lockout actually came at a pretty good time,” he admits. “It gave me a chance to work on my record company.” As the chairman and CEO of Big Up Entertainment, Carter aims to develop a stable of young rap artists to compete with labels like P. Diddy’s Bad Boy and Master P’s No Limit. That’s no easy thing. “We don’t have Neptunes money, so right now we’re trying to keep it with all cats that are on the come-up,” he explains. At his secluded mansion in Marina del Rey, CDs from aspiring MCs fill the hallways. His guest room has been converted to a preproduction area where Carter and his young artists experiment with beats and flows, looking for a hit. He plays me some tracks by his latest project, a young rap duo called Main and Merc. The sound is standard club-bangin’ beats, rolling rhymes, and a sampled chorus. “You can have all the gimmicks you want, but if your music sucks, it’s not gonna happen,” says the self-proclaimed NHL King of Hip Hop. “My initial focus is making sure the music sounds right, that it’s mixed properly.” Then it’s time to get singles on the radio; Carter’s currently pushing Main and Merc’s “Something” by sending it to program directors. “That single’s hot,” he says. “It definitely speaks to the ladies, but it’s one of those crossover songs that appeal to everyone.” Is he ready to trade the rink for the recording studio? “Definitely. That’s why I’m doing this. It’s something I want to pursue once the game is over.” And how does he feel about the game right now? “Disgusted,” he says. “Disappointed, but at the same time not really surprised.” The FarmerOne country and 1,700 miles away, Chicago Blackhawks coach Brian Sutter is hanging out with a bunch of cows. A three-time all-star who captained the St. Louis Blues in the ’80s, Sutter led five brothers into the NHL as part of hockey’s strongest family legacy. But many fans aren’t aware of the other big family tradition. Sutter, who grew up on a farm outside Viking, Alberta, has spent the lockout at his Sylvan Lake ranch, bonding with bovines. “We raise purebred Angus cattle and farm a pile of land,” he says. “We’ve got between 250 and 300 head, and we’re probably going to have about 175 calves this year.” With a lot more time on his hands, Sutter’s getting increasingly involved with the day-to-day farm operations. “Farming and ranching is a way of life,” he explains. “Hockey is a game.” Sutter misses that game, but the way he sees it, working with future steaks isn’t all that different from lecturing in the locker room. “Cows are like hockey players,” he says. “Sometimes you’ve got to push them; sometimes you’ve got to back off. They’re both about the same, except the cows don’t talk back—they just run me over when I get in trouble.” That, and the cows don’t raise nearly the same fuss over being milked by their owners. But even this coach isn’t thrilled with the current impasse. “I don’t like it, because I care for the fans,” Sutter says. “[The players and owners] do not understand what the fans mean to the game. The fans are the game.” The Sausage ManNot every guy has so many pucks in the air. In Livingston, New Jersey, just down the road from the Devils’ practice rink, Jamie Langenbrunner kills time appearing on behalf of Premio Italian sausages at his local ShopRite grocery store. “My neighbor owns Premio Foods, so he set it up for me,” Langenbrunner says. “I said, ‘Sure. Why not? I’m not doing anything.’ It’s good to feel I’m contributing to society, you know?” Rather than his jersey, the right wing wears a Premio shirt. Signs direct shoppers toward the big fella behind the table, who’s more than happy to sign autographs and take pictures with fans. “A few times there was somebody who had something rude to say about us not playing,” he shrugs. “But for the most part, it’s fun.” Did he ever imagine he’d be hanging out by the frozen food aisle at age 29? “I thought I had a bit longer before it came to that,” he laughs. “On the other hand, you want to pass the time with something, and this is what presented itself.” Langenbrunner plans to follow up his grocery store stint with an unpaid internship at the sausage company. “I’m kind of in a holding pattern now. If they’d just tell us one way or the other, I could figure out what I’m going to do.” The way things look, that means planning for summer vacation, too. Anyone want chili?
| ||||||||||
| ||||||||||
| Links & Recommended Sites | Oneliners, Stories, etc. |
| Questions? Anything Not Work? Not Look Right? My Policy Is To Blame The Computer. |
| About True Blues | Link To Us | Site Navigation | Site Map |