Larry Brooks left a lasting legacy on hockey and sports journalism | Up in the Blue Seats - video Dailymotion

New York Post

Watch Larry Brooks left a lasting legacy on hockey and sports journalism | Up in the Blue Seats - New York Post on Dailymotion

Transcript

00:00it's a it's a full life that larry brooks led even though he was taken rather suddenly and

00:09cancer is something that has never been fair and what it's done to families and

00:16communities and the rangers community and the hockey world

00:21someone was taken from us and i think the respect that larry earned none of it was given to him

00:33the respect that he earned and the toughness he showed throughout his hall of fame career

00:40and the grit he showed throughout his hall of fame career and in his battle

00:45um i'll never forget just how poor he felt the last time i saw him and that was at

00:54that was at the dinner that the post had for us prior to the season to kick off the season which was

01:01you know lovely i had to work so i had to had to leave a little bit early but yeah he you know he

01:09he gutted it out man that's what he did with everything he earned every single thing that

01:15he accomplished and his the outpouring of of love and the people that showed up is uh just a true sign

01:27of a life worth living he he accomplished something he he can't take much with you i think well you

01:34can't take anything with you when you go but you can leave a mark you can be thought of in a certain

01:40way and he certainly did that and it's not it's not what you accomplish it's how you make people feel

01:51and just seeing trying to put myself in in your shoes just seeing what he's done for you and how

02:02he's brought you along and helped you that's that's what living life is about how you make people feel

02:11because we're all you know we all have an expiration date and you can teach your kids and grandkids

02:20lessons as he did which was he was so proud showing me videos of his grandson scott playing hockey

02:29i would follow along i'd ask him about it you know we were very much aligned in that and youth hockey

02:35and just the game itself i i i couldn't believe it i was i was shocked i maybe because we just know how

02:44tough larry is he yeah he's he's uh he's gonna be missed and he is missed but he left

02:54an indelible mark that's it's a high standard for you molly and you're gonna work your ass off

03:02every day to try and get up to that standard i know it yeah i definitely will yeah i always i always

03:09wanted to ask a player how the rangers prepared the team for larry i know you guys go through media

03:20training and i'm sure they make a point to tell the players who the beat writers are and you know

03:26who they're gonna be around every day but i always envisioned rangers pr putting larry's picture up on

03:32a projector board and being like this this is the guy you need to know what do you remember about

03:40not only what the organization told you about him before you dealt with him but what his reputation was

03:46in the locker room when you first got there uh it's you know it can be like going into the lion's den

03:55because think think about it and this is always this is this is a huge compliment to him but

04:04larry's not a physically imposing man

04:08and he's in an nhl locker room and so there's some there's some big tough men in this room

04:18and you know it might be a little archaic or neandrosal whatever you want to call it but that's

04:25what we did it's it's that's the locker room not in our regular lives but we come to the locker room

04:30and it's you know it's caveman type stuff and uh he's in there but his little corner of the locker

04:38room when he's there that's the lion's den like you want to go in there you're going to the corner

04:44with chris pronger all right you want to go to the corner of the locker room with larry it's the lion's

04:49den so you better be you know head on a swivel yeah and and he's not trying to gotcha it wasn't

04:54any of that but he would he's he was just a brilliant man and i was warned by my agent

05:00before i got to new york and i had to remind my agent like i don't read dude like i don't read the

05:07paper i don't read anything i'm gonna read the four check in the video i'm not reading words on a page

05:14i got older i started i do read a little bit more now but 23 years old like what why do i need to

05:22know about this guy and my agent made a point to tell me that and my agent knew me since i was 16

05:27like he he knows i don't read but he's like dude listen this guy this guy will like chew you up and

05:34spit you out if you're you don't have your head on a swivel so and it was man right to the point no fear

05:40there every single day and my memories of him because you know i was an afterthought my first year my

05:52and i think i earned his respect in a way and we would talk more my memories of him or him and

06:00torch going toe to toe and it was like and you heard what torch said about him after his passing as

06:07well he he had so much respect for larry and you can if you can earn that guy's respect

06:14you earned everybody's respect he was he was difficult we did have that media training we sat down

06:20they're going to lead you on with questions they're going to make a comment and put the mic in

06:24your face they taught us well like don't don't finish a reporter's sentence all these different

06:31things finish a reporter's sentence that's gold you've seen you've seen some of these clips where

06:37they're like yeah you want somewhere won't ask you really a question and put the mic in your face

06:42and some of them it didn't always make us look great because you'd be looking at them on camera

06:46be like is there a question there and then you look like the ass but that's what we were taught

06:50and i thought it was a very good lesson he would figure out a way around that and get an answer

06:55because he's he's like you know this brilliant man in here with a bunch of dummies and he's like i'm

07:03going to figure out a way to get an answer there and um you know we all we all had a lot we all had a

07:09lot of respect for him because again he didn't miss a day he was there every day yeah and he would

07:14write something he could write a scathing article he was there he could write a nice article and he'd

07:20be there the next day after a bad game ripping you apart again what happened there he expected

07:25i think he expected from the national hockey league players a consistency that he actually brought

07:33and again like you can't ask somebody to do something you're not doing and he did it every day

07:38so he was fair in that assessment and there were others that came and went that i wasn't as fond of

07:45um every year after every year since the first year i i gained a new respect for larry i guess

07:53which was i mean the best compliment i can give him

07:56you

08:00you

08:02you

08:04you

08:06you

08:10you

08:12you

08:14you

08:16you

Larry Brooks left a lasting legacy on hockey and sports journalism | Up in the Blue Seats

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended