Playing for your life

Sporting News, The, Nov 4, 1996 by Larry Wigge

Following what should have been a career-ending--even life-threatening--head injury, the Sharks' Tony Granato is back on the ice and feisty as ever

A youngster runs up to a main in a baseball cap in one of the runways of the Great Western Forum at a Kings game last April and asks for an autograph. "I'll never forget the check you threw in the Stanley Cup finals against Montreal in 1993," the kid says. "Or the goal you scored against Patrick Roy. Or the fight you had with Dough Gilmour."

As the fan walks away, Tony Granato is in tears. He lifts his cap and scratches his bald head, the hair loss a result of brain surgery in mid-February. "I didn't have the heart to tell him I didn't remember most of those things."

We often think of our sports heroes as invincible. Granato was that kind of player. But memory loss and massive headaches were commonplace for Granato after a violent collision with Whalers defenseman Jeff Brown behind the net last January 25 in Hartford. On the day, Granato was sent helplessly corkscrewing head-first into the boards. Forgetting a meaningless fact is one thing, but the injury actually prevented Granato from remembering Linda, his wife, or Michael, Dominic, Nicholas and Gabriella, his four children.

Still, competing in obvious pain, Granato shook off the cobwebs, adjusted his helmet and finished the game. Two days later, in Los Angeles, ignoring the headaches, he played another game. But the headaches got worse The night of a Super Bowl party at teammate Wayne Gretzky's house, when Granato was embarrassed that he couldn't remember some of his teammates, he decided to check into Centinela Hospital.

Doctors there prescribed medication that would dissolve the blood clot they found in Granato's brain. A week later, he checked into UCLA's medical center as the symptoms worsened. On February 14, Granato closed his eyes for surgery, knowing his hockey career was over and there was a chance his life might be, too.

"When I woke up, I was a new man," he says.

Eight months later, Granato was back at The Forum. Only this time, he was on the ice, against all odds, getting three goals and one assist in leading the Sharks to a 7-6 victory over the Kings.

"I saw him unconscious on the ice in the corner at Hartford, I saw him crying at Wayne Gretzky's party," Kings coach Larry Robinson says. "Tonight, I had to hold back the tears when I saw him score those goals. Sure, I hated to lose. But when you see a player--no, a man--with the courage of a Tony Granato fight his way back, that was a special, special moment."

Another reminder of how far he has come will take place November 14, when the Sharks host the Whalers. Only the reunion between Granato and Brown will have to wait for another year. Ironically, Brown is scheduled to have a spinal fusion and will face six to eight months of recovery. he was looking forward to the meeting, however, after talking to Granato on the phone.

"Tony and I have talked quite a few times since the accident," Brown says. "I'm really glad he was able to come back. No one would want a career-ending hit on his conscience.

"When it happened, I thought it was more like a two-man collision, but obviously he got the worst of it. In our conversations since then, he told me not to take it easy on him the next time we meet in the corner. Can you imagine that?

Lying in a hospital bed after four hours of brain surgery, Granato knew he would never play hockey again. He knew all that mattered now was that the haze had been removed from his thought processes, his memory was returning and he would be able to be a husband and father again. He knew he could live and think. Just not play hockey.

"It was kind of like a victory just to remember that I was a hockey player and that everything wasn't a haze anymore," he says, his voice noticeably shaking. "I guarantee I'll never take anything in life for granted anymore. Life is just too sacred to me now."

Weeks after the surgery, Granato was ecstatic to hear doctors telling him even the hard hits he might suffer in the world of hockey would not necessarily be too grueling. He began to see doctors. By his count, 12 of them. All expressed hope. But because the Kings determined that he was finished, or at least too risky to invest in, Granato says he felt like a teenage prospect with lots of hope--but no team.

"I completely understood," Granato says, dark eyes rolling. "But it certainly didn't help me in trying to convince other teams I could play again."

Especially at 32.

"I talked to Rangers G.M. Neil Smith, whom I had played for before I got traded to the Kings," Granato recalls. "He seemed interested, but he wanted proof I was OK. When word got out that the Rangers were thinking about signing me, I got a call from the Sharks. Then, I got calls from other teams, including the Kings."

In August, after Granato showed the Sharks an OK for him to play from doctors at the famed Mayo Clinic, G.M. Dean Lombardi agreed to give Granato a one-year contract, with provisions that all of the risks taken were by Granato.