Nappin’ Ain’t Easy 4
Being the Captain ain’t easy
Editor’s note: I’ve shared before that I am not a sports fan. However, I played a lot of NHLPA ‘94 as a kid and so have room in my heart and mind for this post. You might wonder where this fits into the Nappin’ Ain’t Easy series, but trust me — I’ve seen Hen’s next post, and this one sets it up phenomenally well. Wanted to provide a little context (as opposed to subtext) for the non-sports fans among us.
In the history of hockey, there is only one person known as “The Captain,” Mark Messier. In 1994, Messier delivered the New York Rangers their first Stanley Cup in 54 years (still waiting 29 years later, thanks James Dolan). Per Wikipedia, Messier was “a fierce, tough competitor whose intense leadership in the dressing room was as important as the goals he scored on the ice.” The only player to have captained two Stanley Cup championship teams, winner of 6 Stanley Cups, 2 league MVPs, he ranks 3rd on the all time scoring list in league history.
He also awards the NHL's Mark Messier Leadership Award, given to a player that exemplified on-ice leadership, and leadership within their communities. In short, this is a man with the physical gifts to play hockey at the very highest level of the game for and yet the mental fortitude to lead multiple teams over many years through the legendary grind of 25 NHL regular seasons and the gauntlet of the Stanley Cup playoffs 19 times.
In his book No One Wins Alone, Messier writes something that resonated deeply (p. 160):
I’d had the sense at times while playing sports of being filled with a powerful energy — a sense that I could do anything. I felt invincible and like nothing could stop me. I knew the source of this feeling was ultimately in the mind, but that only made me more in awe of how powerful and mysterious the mind really is.