ENCORE: Former NHL player Patrick O'Sullivan on living with an abusive father
Patrick O'Sullivan spent an entire childhood in pursuit of an NHL career. But his road to becoming a successful, professional hockey player was paved with abuse and suffering.
O'Sullivan spoke with The Current's Anna Maria Tremonti in October and shares his story of parental expectations that turned into abuse, most of it hidden in plain sight.
"He would give me hand signals — what exactly he was going to do as far as hitting me," says O'Sullivan.
"As a six, seven year old, he would kick me, he would slap me in the back of my head. A lot of it was extreme exercising. He would call me a fag, pretty much anything in the book."
Eventually, O'Sullivan walked away from professional hockey. He felt he had no other choice.
"If it didn't stop somebody was going to potentially die. I didn't know which one of us it was going to be but something real bad was going to happen."
O'Sullivan hopes his memoir, Breaking Away: A Harrowing True Story of Resilience, Courage and Triumph, will resonate as a cautionary tale with parents who strive for glory through their children.
"The reason kids make it is because they are willing to put in their own free time, it's within them. I made it because I love the game."
Listen to the full conversation at the top of this web post.
This segment was produced by The Current's Howard Goldenthal.