Awful story, just awful.  Makes me sick when people abuse the kindness of people who genuinely want to help other people.

Posted by Heaton on 01/28/08 at 02:12 PM ET

Kids are people, they aren’t objects to be used to get something you want.

Makes me sick at heart - but it says a lot about a person that they won’t change who they are after one bad experience.  I know from experience it isn’t easy to trust after you’ve been had, but it says more about your character than theirs.

Posted by Baroque from Michigan on 01/28/08 at 02:15 PM ET

Wow…

Posted by Sp4r7an on 01/28/08 at 02:22 PM ET

weird…

i remember reading the original story, and thinking what a great story it was. i wonder what posesses people to be such ‘tards?

stuff like this could easily stop organisations reaching out, you can certainly be sure the Red Wings will be more ‘careful’ from now on…

Posted by Pharazon from England on 01/28/08 at 03:56 PM ET

The reporter for that article is a friend/mentor of mine and he just told me that the URL is down, but the article should be back up within a day or two at the latest.

The father, Brant, is a scam artist and it’s just sad that he used his kid to that degree.

Posted by Christy from Ann Arbor, MI on 01/28/08 at 07:20 PM ET

I posted the entire story on a temporary basis, so that those of you who haven’t read it yet may do so until ESPN The Magazine’s website comes back online.  At that point, I will delete the text.

Posted by George James Malik from South Lyon, MI on 01/28/08 at 08:05 PM ET

You know in Dante’s Inferno, there is a ring in hell for liars and thieves. 

But you know, Yzerman’s right.  It’s the kid he feels for not the dad.  I think he has to sometimes set up himself for scam artists so that perhaps explains why he is that kind of person.  And he’s right, too.  It would be easy to close off the world and stop caring.  He chose the harder path - to keep being there for those who truly want to meet him because there’s that many more of them then con artists and liars.

Posted by SYF from Las Vegas, NV on 01/29/08 at 12:50 AM ET

Eric, the reporter, passed along the correct URL to me this morning: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?id=3221862&sportCat=nhl

Posted by Christy from Ann Arbor, MI on 01/30/08 at 12:17 PM ET

Thanks Christy, I will change it in the post too.

Posted by Paul from Motown Area on 01/30/08 at 12:19 PM ET

I read this article on espn.com earlier and I was shocked, not just because this is an awful thing to do, but he is my current head coach for our renegades U-18 AA team.  He seemed really awesome the first half of the season but a whole lot of our team lost a lot of respect for him lately because we have seen all his lies and bullshit with our team.  He constantly is making up stories that we know aren’t true and giving us empty promises.  He always talks about how he has all these connections with the Red Wings, I wonder how they will receive him now lol.  what a Douche bag, I can’t wait to see if anyone else on our team has heard about this.

Posted by vk from Salt Lake City on 01/31/08 at 03:34 AM ET

WOW - this whole thing brings 2 things to mind if I don’t say so myself. What a parent would do and is willing to do for his child & how quick everyone else is to forget about there own personal closets that they have???? Make sure you keep that door locked tight OR you who pass judgement might be right next to this article with all your dirty laundry across the net
As for the kid on his team, wow, I would have thought that since he had the faith in picking you on the team you would have the BALLS to talk straight to him instead of the smear above - guess its back to Rec-League hockey for a dead end town boy in SLC like yourself…
Oh yeah who and who else besides me noticed that there was a divorced mentioned in this article? Oh yeah - all divorces are so, so squeaky clean - right… Nobody ever says anything that’s untrue right? Thought so - after all of this not saying I condone what was done BUT - dont throw stones if you live in a glass house - PIECE OUT FROM SLC....

Posted by SONOFAB from SLC on 02/02/08 at 01:05 PM ET

OH yeah sorry to forget the reporter as well - what kind of an REPORTER as so called throws a 12 year old to the wolves such as yourself and posts a picture of him on the article? That was cool - Not! That’s pretty pathetic - how when you have kids ERIC that no one gets caught taking pictures of them and posting them in bad, bad places… Good god - take some time and think about the kid - do as you want to the father but leave the kid out of it - thats pretty chickenshit and I think there should be some punishment for him for doing that as well as ESPN the parent for posting it - he is under age right - or do we still fry kids in america since everyone here seems to be fair game - what a great magazine article guess my subscription in now - like the author of this article should be CANCELED…
PIECE OUT FROM SLC

Posted by SONOFAB from SLC on 02/02/08 at 01:20 PM ET