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As you know, Theo Fleury was our guest Friday night on Blueshirt Banter Radio, and Theo was very forthcoming with us when discussing his life then and now. Some of the highlights of the interview:
- Theo did say he is working with a lawyer to press charges against Graham James, his former juniors coach who abused Theo when he was a teenager. This was a bit of a revelation, most media outlets were reporting he was still undecided on whether or not to pursue action against James.
- Theo spoke of trying to kill himself, and having a gun in his mouth, and despite having read it in the book, and in numerous articles, hearing him say those words sent a chill down my spine.
- He spoke of his rough childhood, and how proud he was of the fact that his family had all found sobriety, and worked out all their differences.
- Theo talked very candidly about his time with the Rangers. He said he still feels very badly about how things went down in New York, and offered Ranger fans an apology for it.
- He also spoke of how defense wins championships, and players nowadays do not work hard enough at becoming complete hockey players. He also said guys like Sean Avery and Jarkko Ruutu would not have lasted 5 minutes in the league with their style of play.
- We also asked Theo about his relationship with Islander fans, and some of the players he played with on the Rangers.
Lastly, we encourage you to check out Theo's website, www.theofleury14.com, and you can see how he has turned his life around, and is now working to help as many as he can with similar situations. Also, Theo gave us a statistic that he said would "blow our mind", and it did: 1 in 6 men are the victim of sexual abuse, and Theo works closely with www.1in6.org in helping those men who need it.
All in all Theo was a fantastic guest, and even stayed on the line with Mouth and I for about five minutes after the show ended, which you can hear on the podcast. Theo is doing a book signing Tuesday night at Penn Station before the Rangers game against the Capitals, and you'll hear him talk about how excited he was to be around Ranger fans again.
If you would like to hear the whole interview, you can listen to it right here:
Here is a video about Theo's book "Playing with Fire"