You're going to say 'what about other kids?' They get hurt in other sports but I think it would have to be hockey and I know at least five or six other guys that it would just help the families so much.

[It's worth repeating a quote from Garber that appeared in my recent Sports Illustrated story on Johnson.] We want kids to dream of playing for FC Dallas and being like Eddie, and the only way that happens is if he's playing in our league, ... Our future is going to have us looking to these special players as the foundations for the sport, and we need to find ways to provide salaries that are competitive with other parts of the world. More important than that, we need them to believe in the league and their role in building the sport.

I'm not so mean. I wouldn't ever go out to hurt anybody deliberately - unless it was, you know, important, like a league game or something.

It's like being given a powerful sports car. When they finally get a high-performance knife, they hurt themselves.

If he had continued, there was a good chance Mike could have been hurt. He knew he was done.

Sports keep kids really involved in a good place.