Thread: Good SI article from the eyes of an enforcer

Brent Severyn: My life as an NHL enforcer - NHL - SI.com

Thought it was a good read.

It really was a very interesting article. Just imagine yourself being in a position like that, knowing the only reason you're on a team is to beat or get beaten up all the time.

Enforcers dont get nearly enough respect... that includes our own. Might be time for a Kevin Westgarth appreciation thread.

Great article, I'm 33 and I played a lot of hockey games, mostly pick-up, some organized, from the age of 14-26 (in the real world and digital world) and as a big guy who all my friends/teammates knew practiced thai boxing and judo, I was expected to drop them if some douche decided to do something retarded. For instance, in a pick-up game one of the kids (literally, he was like 13) got knocked over by some drunk d-bag who was much older and much larger, and started laughing. Couple of the younger guys on my side looked at me and I charged in off the park bench (parking lot hockey, good times) and squared off. He got me a couple times at first but being drunk and unbalanced, I got the better of him with a couple of left hooks. and he went down, and right on top of my left hand dislocating my ring finger. My band had a show later that night, and I was the lead guitar player. Really hard to play Abba without all your fingers you know?

This really screwed with me because I was a pretty decent skill player with size and speed. I loved hitting but not as much as making a great play, I always tried to make myself into a complete player but being 5'11 and around 230 (Im stocky, I held it well...not so much now), a loud mouth and fighting skills off the ice/asphalt I was expected to do something I didn't really focus on while I played the game.

Almost every time some drunk (yes lots of drunks showed up) and started acting the fool, whoever I was with, if they were familiar with me would look at me and say with their eyes "Hey handsome man, go beat that guy who is bigger than you up, you can do it Jackie Chan." My first thought usually was "I'm only 1/8th Chinese!", and second thought was "Goshdarnit to heck, hope I don't get my sexy broken."

Luckily my training helped me out tremendously when fighting larger guys (never used elbows though, always fought with "the code"), but it was a constant mental drain when someone just expects you to step up against someone you've never seen fight before or someone a few inches larger and 20 pounds heavier than you and with me being a beer drinking, church's fried chicken loving, buffet devouring Flip, I was never in the best shape, and some of the guys I fought with played organized hockey for a living. But my determination and my mind being slower to realize that I'm actually tired kept me going. That and the fact that growing up with 3 sisters just naturally makes me into the big brother who will defend others who can't defend themselves...like Batman, without the weird pedobear tendencies. As much as I have no problem defending someone physically, there will always be those thoughts in the back of my head thinking about me failing, which is the worst feeling of all for me.

After the short time of hockey and fighting guys with helmets, face shields, beer cans, my right eye still a tiny bit blurry compared to my left, my pinky and ring finger knuckles on my left hand are always sore, and I have a constant urge to punch a drunk redneck in the face.