The odds were always stacked against Theo Fleury.
Those of us on the outside didn't realize how prohibitive those odds actually were beyond the comfortable little-guy-against-the-world storyline we helped him perpetuate.
Oh, we guessed, tiptoed around the edges. Everyone knew the stories of growing up in Russell, Manitoba, his father an alcoholic, his mother unstable. We knew the family was dirt poor and that sometimes neighbors would feed him or take him to the local rink for practices or games. His silence during the grisly Graham James sexual abuse scandal -- which netted the former Prince Albert junior coach 3½ years in prison for molesting players -- left a lot of people uneasy, wondering whether or not Fleury, too, had been a victim of the calculated predator.
"Theo," says former Flames' coach Brian Sutter, "has carried a lot of crosses in his life, some ever since he was a little boy. He's a brave, gutsy little guy. Those burdens ... well, they would've crushed other people.
"And this is coming from a good friend of his -- me. I care about him. A lot of people do. He had problems, we talked about them, and he played his butt off for me."
Somehow, though, Theo Fleury managed to keep all the pain and the frustration and loneliness -- which had not, as he'd hoped, been wiped away with the coming of success, money and fame -- bottled up inside him. It might be crib-notes Freud, of course, but it seemed he channeled all that anger, all that lashing out at the injustices suffered, into his game. In a cruelly twisted way, it fueled his engine.
"It seems like he's in his own little world out there," grumbled Doug Evans of the Winnipeg Jets following one particularly frenetic Fleury performance against his club many, many years ago.
Maybe he was.
A lot of people couldn't abide Theo Fleury. He was too cocksure for their liking, too mouthy. Consequently, he has invariably been a loner, an outsider, on the teams for which he's played. Independence, the flying in the face of authority or convention, the mindset required for someone of his physical stature to thrive (not merely survive) in the NHL, set him adrift from the group.
They also couldn't get past the stereotype of him as the snot-nosed urchin from the wrong side of the tracks who in their minds obviously couldn't be their equal.
So when you can't find friends you want, you take friends you can get. And sometimes they turn out to be bad choices.
If anyone had bothered to take the time and peek under the facade, though, it would have been apparent Theo Fleury wasn't a bad person; just a very troubled one. Something may have happened following the Rangers' home loss to Ottawa on Monday night that frightened him. He called Dr. Dave Lewis of the NHL Substance Abuse and Behavioral Program. He needed help.
The ticking time bomb had finally gone off. The clasp had been triggered on his own personal Pandora's Box. And the worst-kept secret in hockey was out:
Theo Fleury has a substance-abuse problem.
We were surprised at first; then all of a sudden, not surprised at all. So now he's trying to put the pieces of his life back together at a inpatient rehab center somewhere in Southern California. That all these festering demons hadn't funnelled into a meltdown long before this is a testament to his obstinacy and his resiliency. He was to play at such a high level despite them.
But, eventually, something had to give.
Fleury had reportedly visited a substance-abuse facility this summer for what he then termed "counselling" and addressed his ongoing problem and the need for support with his Rangers teammates prior to the season. That program, a joint venture by the NHL and NHLPA, is more important to him now.
"I think it's really important," Avalanche defenseman Ray Bourque said of the program. "You want to try and help people. You don't want to shut the door in their face. No matter what kind of work people are in, you see it happen in all walks of life. Nobody's immune.
Clearly, this battle will be an ongoing one for The Fleury. It's something he'll be forced to deal with long after his playing days, the buzz of the crowd and the adrenalin of the moment, are gone.
"He's a fighter," says Sutter. "One of the fiercest I've ever seen.
"That means a lot now; probably more than ever before."
George Johnson covers the NHL for the Calgary Herald. His NHL column appears every week during the season on ESPN.com. Send this story to a friend | Most sent stories
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