00:00To this day, I still love a good newspaper. Growing up, my dad on his way home from work, jump off the Long Island Railroad, grab all those New York City newspapers right off the train and bring them straight to me. I would devour the sports sections one by one with the New York Post always first, New York Rangers coverage always first, Larry Brooks always first. Larry passed away today at the age of 75. Cancer.
00:22The kinds of tributes that poured in today are normally reserved for superstar athletes, not someone who carried a pen and a pad merely covering those same superstar athletes.
00:33Brooks joined the Rangers beat in 1978. While he covered other sports early on, he made his name and his reputation in legacy riding pucks and specifically about the Broadway blue shirts.
00:44In 2018, the Hockey Hall of Fame presented Brooks with the Elmer Ferguson Memorial Award, which recognizes distinguished members of the newspaper profession, whose words have brought honor to journalism and hockey.
00:58He was considered the best, legendary, tireless, unafraid, unwilling to bend, competitive, with a soft side, and had a lot of respect.
01:05Larry Brooks covered 16 different Rangers head coaches, okay, starting with Freddie Shiro and ending with the current boss, Mike Sullivan.
01:13And in between, there was, of course, John Tortorella.
01:15That clip, the run-ins with Brooks were all over social media today, but they only represent a fraction of your relationship and towards people really want to hear from you what it was like then and what your thoughts are now on the man and the reporter that was Larry Brooks.
01:30Yeah, see, I don't even think of the clips.
01:31This is a man that just passed, Jordan, Joanna, two grandkids, 2018 Hall of Famer.
01:43He's an icon.
01:44We had our disagreements, right, along the way.
01:47But the thing I always respected about Larry is no matter what the day brought, him and I disagreed, and we had a lot of disagreements, but we disagree and we go at it, but he'd be there the next day, right, ready to ask another question.
02:03He'd be there face-to-face.
02:06I just had so much respect on how hard he worked at his job.
02:10We're both trying to do our business, right?
02:12I need to protect my hockey team sometimes.
02:14He needs to – he has information, and he has information.
02:19That's one thing.
02:19He worked at it to get information.
02:22And sometimes we butted heads, but it was never a personal thing.
02:27The accolades that he's receiving, the award in 18, is so well-deserved as far as – look at his resume.
02:35He grinded.
02:36He's a grinder and turned into an icon in this business.
02:40And he's a colleague, let's face it.
02:42Coaches, NHL, media, we're all colleagues.
02:45We're all working together here.
02:46And he's a colleague of mine.
02:48We struggled at certain times, but there was never any lack of respect as far as how he went about his business.
02:55And it's a big loss.
02:58I – you know, I get the – I get the stuff, the video of him and I.
03:03That doesn't fit here, though.
03:05That doesn't – he passed this morning.
03:07Yeah.
03:07I just – I feel for the family.
03:11I've had a number of conversations with Jordan here.
03:13Yeah, tell us about that.
03:14Yeah.
03:15Yeah, yeah.
03:16Aaron Portsline from Columbus texted me a few days ago and said, hey, Larry's struggling.
03:20I immediately text Larry.
03:24Jordan texted me back on a different number.
03:26Well, it was on Larry's phone.
03:27He says, Larry can't get to it.
03:28And he kind of explained to me what was going on.
03:32And this is five weeks ago this all came up with Larry, and it tore him apart.
03:37And so Jordan and I talked a little bit, and I just wanted to try to help out in any way possible that I could.
03:44And we've continued the discussion the past couple of days.
03:47We talked before the show here, before I came over here, and just want to send our condolences to the family, the grandkids, 14 and 12, Joanna, Jordan.
03:59That's what we have to remember here, not the crap that you see and get sensationalized, I think.
04:05It's the man.
04:06Right.
04:07He deserves that respect, and it's hard.
04:12It's sad.
04:1475, he looked great, right?
04:15Yeah, he did.
04:16He looked great.
04:17And this disease is just awful.
04:20And, yeah, tremendous amount of respect.
04:24Back and forth, him and I went, but it was a relationship that bonded because of that, I think.
04:29And the love of hockey that you both had.
04:31He's a lifer.
04:33Look at it.
04:33I can't go over it right now.
04:35But look what he did to grind to get where he went to.
04:38In the biggest media market in the world.
04:41The most popular team in all eyes.
04:44And Steve, he's face-to-face with you.
04:45That's what I loved about him.
04:46Because not everybody is.
04:48No, and that's what drives me crazy about the media.
04:50I think sometimes they just don't have enough guts to do it.
04:53Larry, no matter what the day happened with him and I, and a number of things happened, let's face it, with him and I,
04:58but he'd show up the next day just ready to go to business.
05:02He didn't hold any grudges.
05:03I didn't either.
05:04And we'd go about it again.
05:05But he was there.
05:06He was there.
05:07He wasn't on the outside writing stories and not showing up in the locker room or not showing up to the press conference.
05:13That's what I loved about him.
05:14He worked at it.
05:15And he wasn't afraid of anything.
05:17And he voiced his thoughts.
05:20And how can't you respect that?
05:22No matter if you agree with it or not, how can't you respect the man if he's going to put it out there?
05:25So, people, there it is, right?
05:26Don't get hung up on the 20-second clip.
05:28You just got the real stuff.
05:30The real stuff, the real story right there.
05:33Larry Brooks, he was a media icon, really.
05:36Before it was cool to be a media icon, right?
05:40Unbelievable writer and especially a hockey writer.
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