Book Review: J.R. – My Life as the Most Outspoken, Fearless & Hard-Hitting Man in Hockey by Jeremy Roenick

Published: November 2012
Genre: Sport, Hockey, Autobiography

Kitch's Rating: 9/10

Roenick starts with a bang. Page One, Chapter One is home to one of the funniest moments in the entire book, one that perfectly sets up this all-time classic hockey memoir – and says a lot about why Jeremy Roenick is who he is and why he’s the outspoken guy fans have come to know and love:

When I was an eleven-year-old playing peewee hockey in the Washington D.C. area, I remember backing down from an encounter with an opponent and hearing a voice from the crowd yell, “Get off the ice, you pussy!”

Looking into the stands, I realised it was my mother.

Yep, one paragraph in, and I was already laughing. With a mother who sledged him from the stands when he was just eleven, it’s not hard to see how J.R. turned out like he did. Like mother, like son, apparently.

Jeremy Roenick writes like he played: quickly, fearlessly and animatedly. He doesn’t shy away from anything, and he doesn’t mind using all the swear words under the sun as he details his life as an NHL superstar – and one of the best American-born players ever – and certainly the game’s most outspoken star.  I like Roenick, and appreciate that some people think he’s too abrasive or perhaps playing for a headline. I disagree: the guy seems to have lived his life the same way, to this minute. On television, he’s refreshing. Finally, an analyst not afraid to have a controversial opinion!

To be honest, these hockey autobiographies are pretty much the same, in that they tell stories about locker rooms, minor-league hockey, famous people these guys know, coaches they liked/didn’t like, big and memorable games and it can become fairly monotonous, I guess, if the stories aren’t told well.

Roenick blasts ‘monotonous’ out of the water. It’s hard not to be dragged right in and along for the ride as he details life in Chicago with ‘Iron’ Mike Keenan in charge, his friendships with guys like Chris Chelios and former NBA star Charles Barkley, a career-long rivalry with a fellow USA hockey legend in Mike Modano, his on-ice animosity with Derian Hatcher, what it feels like to have your teeth smashed in by a hockey puck – not something I really want to have happen – the controversial 1998 Olympic tournament in Nagano, Japan, where the US team were billed for damage to their lodgings within the Olympic village, the pain of losing a Stanley Cup Final, how the San Jose Sharks allowed him to finish his career in style, his criticism of Sharks star Patrick Marleau and the truth behind a heated on-screen exchange between himself and fellow, controversial NBC analyst Mile Milbury.

I’ve probably missed a few things, but you get the gist of what Roenick will tell you, and he does it rapid-fire style, always crudely and sometimes laced with a string of profanities. It’s wildly entertaining because he doesn’t try to be someone he isn’t, and co-author, the excellent Kevin Allen of USA Today fame (who co-authored Chris Chelios' autobiography), has wisely let Roenick’s personality flow right to the fore.

Jeremy Roenick was definitely a major part of US hockey’s Golden Generation, and if you want an account of the life of an NHL superstar in the 1990s and 2000s, don’t go past J.R.’s work. It’s great!