David Backes gets a lot of attention for being the captain of one of the best teams in the National Hockey League. He works his butt off, night in and night out to help the St. Louis Blues get closer and closer to the playoffs. He has always been the type of player who you love to have on your team, and hate to play against, but one thing is for sure, David Backes is more than just a hockey player.
David Backes, and his wife Kelly Backes also have a passion outside of hockey, and that is rescuing animals. The Backes family has four dogs and two cats of their own, and in Backes' own words, "That's about as much as we can handle. That's another lesson on being responsible, knowing when enough's enough."
After the violent video posted of a North County teenager abusing a pit bull, Backes tweeted out and said, "That video almost made me vomit. It is the pit bulls that get a bad name. Should ban the kids, not the pits."
There is no doubt that Backes is 100% correct regarding the pit bulls. They continuously get a bad reputation for being "bad dogs" yet it's not that dogs that are bad, it's the owners who raised them. It was that tweet that prompted this interview. I hope you all enjoy it.
Randall Ritchey : In Sochi, you rescued a couple of dogs yourself and helped set up other athletes with dogs as well. I'm curious, how many dogs were rescued total in Sochi? David Backes : That number is still to be determined. There are a couple that are still being processed. I know Gus Kenworthy (Olympics freestyle skier) is still waiting for his and a couple of the women's hockey player are also waiting on theirs. It's not without red tape and bureaucracy to try and get an animal out of there."
RR : What has been your and Kelly's passion for rescuing these animals? DB : It's one of those things where they are voiceless and if we wont stand up for them, who's going to? We've got four rescued dogs and two rescued cats ourselves and we know how much they have taught us and how much they have brought to our lives. They have shown us resiliency and the ability to overcome certain things, and we want other people to have that experience. We feel for the struggles and strife that humans are inflicting on these animals and we want to help in any way we can.
RR : Does your charity branch out to other animals besides dogs and cats? DB : It's strictly companion animals, so just dogs and cats. We try to pair athletes and try to encourage them to use their platform they are given as a celebrity to try and leverage that to the animal world.
RR : With your travels with the Blues, how difficult is it juggling hockey with your charity, Backes' Buddies? Is it difficult keeping up with both? DB : Not really. My wife is in a full-time volunteer position to take care of the charity and when I can make appearances either at home or on the road to help support, I love to do so. We've got a lot of downtime on the plane or in the hotel to answer emails and take care of the social media platforms. We also have a small board of directors with a group of people who have really helped us out, and it all seems to work out.
RR : Getting away from the charity side and a little towards hockey side, going into the playoffs the last two years you've had a strong team that has been ousted by the Los Angeles Kings. I know the trade deadline is still a few days away so things can change, but how do you like the team the way it is now? DB : I think we've progressed and have learned lessons over those playoff runs and the expectations are high, as they should be. We've had a lot of success, it's not all been perfectly smooth, but it's a long season. We learned some lessons the hard way but as a group, we've matured, and the hunger for winning as increased. We're expecting big things.
RR : I have to throw this out there to you. Say it's the end of the playoffs and you've won the Stanley Cup, who is the first person you hand it to? DB : *laughs* I haven't gotten that far, but if it's that's a decision I get to make, then I'd love to make it. Probably a older guy like Brendan Morrow.
It's no question that he's passionate about hockey, and now there should be no question that the captain of the St. Louis Blues, is also passionate about his charity work.
I'd like to thank David for taking the time out of his busy schedule to talk about something he's passionate about and I'm thankful he doesn't mind sharing it either.
For more information on Backes' Buddies, click the link here, to learn more.
For any questions, email me at randallritchey@gmail.com or follow me on twitter @Blues_Buzz.