As I write this week's blog, I am on a plane heading to Calgary for my son Patrick’s wedding. I am sitting in a middle seat -– 11B to be exact -- which isn't the most comfortable of arrangements for my 6-foot-3 body. It is cramped and tight and there is no elbow room.
Oh, and I am in exit row with a seat that can't recline. At least there's a little extra leg room, and, yes, I meet the exit row requirements and am willing and able to assist in case of emergency.
Don't you just love air travel?
Anyway, flying to Calgary today brings back a lot of memories of travel during my NHL career, especially the early days. When I first broke into the NHL with the Atlanta Flames in 1978, travel for NHL clubs wasn’t what it is today.
There were no charters, no special treatment. We arrived at the airport and waited in line like everyone else. If the plane was late or the the flight was otherwise delayed, we waited it out at the airport. Nowadays players will get a text telling them of the circumstances and to wait at home or the hotel until the plane was ready. Boring!
The modern athlete is missing out on so much. As a team, we often had a riot at the airport and quite often it is where we came together as a team. We bonded. We laughed. We talked about hockey issues, too. f there were problems, we often got them figured out.
If a forward line was struggling, they sat together in seats A, B, and C. It did not matter what row. The same held true for the defence. For the players that were not getting along for whatever reason, not a problem – put them together on the plane.
You have to remember this is before ipads (hell, even before Walkmans!), cell phones etc. We were forced to talk to each other.
My favourite airport was Chicago, simply because it was so big! This made it very easy to blend in and be anonymous. Many players took the opportunity to have a few drinks prior to take off or grab a bite to eat that would not pass muster under today's training regimens.
In Chicago's airport. there were several bars. Players never had more than one drink at any one bar. It was like a cat and mouse game between the coaches and the players. My teammates and I never got caught but I’m sure that the coaches knew what we were up to. They used to do the same sorts of things!
If the flight was delayed, the cat-and-mouse game continued. This is where the rookies came in handy. The rookies were assigned the role of messengers. It was their responsibility to always know the status of the plane.
After consuming whatever they consumed, they would have to be double back to the gate and find out the status or what time we were expected to be back at the gate. Once again remember there were no cell phones, so there no text messages to let you know the plane was ready. We had to work hard together for that cold beer! In a very dumbed down sort of way, this was a form of teamwork and communication.
Once back at the gate, this is where the real fun would begin. Standing around waiting to board was always a lot of fun.
One of the pranks that was done all the time was a classic Candid Camera prank, it was done with a dollar bill and a length of thread. A player would stand or lean on one of the many posts in and around the gate – he would casually drop a dollar bill on the ground, of course the dollar bill was attached to the thread.
As a team, we waited for someone to stop and bend over to pick up the money, as they bent down to scoop up the money – you guessed it - the player holding the thread would then pull on the thread. As you can imagine, we witnessed so many different reactions from various people as the money was being pulled away -- timing was always the key.
Many times, the person going for the money would be quicker the guy holding the thread – too bad for him, it was his money that he just lost. The thread went from player to player – most would put a single dollar bill on the thread but some of the cocky ones would use a $5, $10 or even a $20 dollar bill, which was huge money back then.
Of course, when the big money was on the line it got the attention of the entire team and many times the attention of all that were at the gate, it was quite an audience watching as we “performed”.
I can still remember the reaction of some of the people, some were downright irate, some were embarrassed, others were good sports and laughed once they realized they were pranked . Others were jubilant and I once literally saw a grown man dance for joy in the aisle when he "won" a $5 bill.
One prank that I witnessed and was quite surprised when I first saw it was "Hot News. " It was funny but really quite inappropriate. I can only imagine what the consequences would be today if someone were to do this today at an airport.
I’m not sure that anyone reading this can guess what “Hot News” is, so I will try and paint the picture for you. A teammate -- it has to be a teammate – stands up reading the newspaper. His arms would be partially stretched out therefore the paper is away from his body. The prankster would then walk by him with a lighter, stop briefly as if he were going to say something. I n the process of this “conversation,” he would take out a lighter and very casually light the bottom corner of the paper and the walk away. Well, it would not take long for the paper to go up in flames – hence “Hot News.”
The flames didn’t last long and were very easily put out, but it could create quite the momentary panic!
Once we boarded the plane, it was always amusing to sit back and watch the antics of some players. Travel at this time still was pretty innocent from a security precaution perspective, so you could bring pretty much anything on the plane. Shaving cream and scissors seemed to be on hand all the time. If you fell asleep there was a good chance that you would wake up with your tie cut in two pieces. Or else you would have shaving cream put on your head. We used to fall out laughing as a victim would rub his hair in his sleep.
Baggage claim time was a competition. All players would ante up a single dollar bill – usually Flames teammate Eric Vail collected the money, If everyone participated there would be $20-$25 dollars.
The game was simple the first bag off and onto to the baggage carousel won the money, which once again was huge at that time. I still think of this ritual every time I am waiting for my bags to come.
Simple actions, simple times not sure what era is better but I do know this – the definition of team togetherness is different. Yes, all of the players will say that they are a team, they work hard together etc, but because of all of the outside forces involved in the business of hockey today – in most cases they are only a team in the dressing room.
It wasn’t that way when I broke into the game. A team was a team pretty much 24/7 and it was quite often the road trips and the travel time that was the glue to any team. It is tough to put a finger on why or how this happened because I don’t think it was done on purpose.
Many people have their own opinions on this and I have read some good articles on it, it was one of those issues that there is no one thing – several factors are to blame.
Here is my two cents on what has changed: I blame the cell phone, the headsets, the electronic video games, etc. Nobody talks to anybody anymore. Nobody interacts with anybody anymore – simple old-fashioned and good-natured fun and conversation has been replaced by some sort of gadget that separates us as individuals from the real world.
By the way, as I type that, I am writing this blog on a new little gadget that I got. I am not sure what it is called, but it is about as big as the two palms of my hands when put together – my big fingers easily cover the width and height of the keyboard. I am quite a sight to see, I guess this qualifies as “old dog, new trick!”
Postscript: I just landed a little while ago. My bag was not the first on on the baggage carousel. I'd owe someone a dollar if we had money riding on it like the old days.
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