Former hockey great Theo Fleury told a Vancouver audience on Thursday that he was one pulled trigger away from ending it all.
“I went back home, sat at the table, did a couple more lines of coke, drank some more booze and kind of sat there, stared at the gun for a long time,” said Fleury at a luncheon auction for the Canadian National Institute for the Blind.
“Finally got the courage to load it up and I had it in my mouth, ready to pull the trigger.”
What happened next was what he called “the moment of truth.”
He chose life, and since that day in 2004, he has worked his way back to a sober life, even attempting a comeback with the Calgary Flames at the start of this season.
Fleury’s speech centred on his biography, Playing with Fire, which chronicles his addiction and alleged sexual abuse by his former coach, Graham James.
It was discovered last week that James, who was convicted of sexual abuse in 1997, has been pardoned. Fleury expressed his disappointment but said it’s now his mission to make sure children are protected.
“If the media, the law, the police, don’t want to protect the children, then that’s OK. I guess I just got nominated.”
