tibor75
Banned
Maybe now some of the morons on this board will learn to spell his name correctly. 
Grimson takes law into his own hands Stu Grimson has a new moniker.
"I've gone from being the Grim Reaper to being the Grim Reader," says the former NHL enforcer.
Grimson, 40, graduated from law school at the University of Memphis this month. It was a surprising feat only to those who didn't know the cerebral side that always existed within him.
"I think we're all guilty of doing this to some extent, we see someone play in a certain style or role and we project a whole set of characteristics to them," Grimson said this week from his Nashville home. "When we actually get to know them we find out they're actually someone quite contrary to those characteristics we kind of hung on them.
"So I guess some people are a little taken aback when they find out what I've been up to since I retired from playing."
Grimson stopped playing midway through the 2001-02 NHL season, his 12-year career cut short by a serious concussion suffered while fighting Georges Laraque in December 2001. Instead of moping around, Grimson got to work.
"I decided when it was kind of questionable whether I could get back on the ice or not, that I would finish off my undergraduate degree in economics," said Grimson, who piled up 2,113 penalty minutes in 729 regular-season NHL games.
He wrapped up his degree, which he first began in 1985 at the University of Manitoba, in May 2003. He did that with the help of an NHL Players' Association program called Life After Hockey, which helps players adjust after they quit playing.
"My experience with the Life After Hockey program, at least as far as the educational aspect goes, was they act more or less as an advisor and someone that cuts through the bureaucratic red tape for you," Grimson said. "I was living in Nashville but was midway through a degree that was on the other side of the border.
"So my concern was if I go back to finish off this degree, how would it all transfer here? Would I be obligated to go back to Manitoba? Life After Hockey took care of everything for me, recommended a program of study right here in Nashville and everything transferred back."
Then he set his sights on law school. Some his fellow students eventually learned of his identity.
"Some of my students say, 'Golly, we've seen video of him beating the heck out of someone.' That's difficult to believe," Donna Harkness, University of Memphis associate professor of clinical law, told the Commercial Appeal in Memphis earlier this month. "That was a shock. He just does not have that kind of an aura now at all."
Law degree in hand, Grimson is now contemplating his future path.
"I'm looking at two things specifically," Grimson said. "I've long had a relationship and a set of experiences with the NHL Players' Association and I've been talking to the PA a lot about going to work for them, which is a prospect that excites me a lot. I enjoy that side of the game. I'm also looking at an opportunity to work as a hockey agent.
"So over the next few months we're going to investigate each avenue as much as possible and make a decision sometime along that road."
Grimson, who had NHL stops in Calgary, Chicago, Anaheim, Detroit, Hartford, Carolina, Los Angeles and Nashville, was a vice president on the NHLPA's executive committee in the late 1990s.
He knows what's been going on at the union, with executive director Ted Saskin fighting off a small group of dissenting players, and feels he's just the guy to come in and help.
"I have kept in contact with a lot of folks there, with a lot of players, I've had a pretty good sense of what's gone on," said Grimson. "I think it's fair to say it has been a time of upheaval. But where a lot of people would shy away I'm inclined to think it's an opportune time for someone like me, now with a law degree and significant Players' Association experience, to come in and be a part of business going forward.
"I look forward to that opportunity if that is what actually ends up happening."
Whether he becomes an agent or joins the union, he'll need to leave Nashville. And that's not easy with a family of six -- his children aged 14, 12, 9 and 8.
"That's one of the issues we're dealing with right now," said Grimson, who played his junior hockey in Regina from 1982 to '85. "All my family has really ever known is being down here in different U.S. markets. So going back to Toronto would be a pretty significant upheaval for us. There's no question there would be a bit of a transition time for us.
"We just have to weigh everything together and I'm confident we'll end up in the place where we need to be, eventually."
Either way, Grimson has already achieved much, and perhaps helped change the stereotype of the NHL tough guy.
"Guys that play that role, perhaps they have physical limitations -- they're not 40-goal scorers, they're not goaltenders -- but they at least had the presence of mind to recognize that there's a niche for them and they filled that," said Grimson. "But in no way does that diminish any mental attributes or any intellectual, marketable skills they may have at the same time."
Copyright 2005 Canadian Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Grimson takes law into his own hands Stu Grimson has a new moniker.
"I've gone from being the Grim Reaper to being the Grim Reader," says the former NHL enforcer.
Grimson, 40, graduated from law school at the University of Memphis this month. It was a surprising feat only to those who didn't know the cerebral side that always existed within him.
"I think we're all guilty of doing this to some extent, we see someone play in a certain style or role and we project a whole set of characteristics to them," Grimson said this week from his Nashville home. "When we actually get to know them we find out they're actually someone quite contrary to those characteristics we kind of hung on them.
"So I guess some people are a little taken aback when they find out what I've been up to since I retired from playing."
Grimson stopped playing midway through the 2001-02 NHL season, his 12-year career cut short by a serious concussion suffered while fighting Georges Laraque in December 2001. Instead of moping around, Grimson got to work.
"I decided when it was kind of questionable whether I could get back on the ice or not, that I would finish off my undergraduate degree in economics," said Grimson, who piled up 2,113 penalty minutes in 729 regular-season NHL games.
He wrapped up his degree, which he first began in 1985 at the University of Manitoba, in May 2003. He did that with the help of an NHL Players' Association program called Life After Hockey, which helps players adjust after they quit playing.
"My experience with the Life After Hockey program, at least as far as the educational aspect goes, was they act more or less as an advisor and someone that cuts through the bureaucratic red tape for you," Grimson said. "I was living in Nashville but was midway through a degree that was on the other side of the border.
"So my concern was if I go back to finish off this degree, how would it all transfer here? Would I be obligated to go back to Manitoba? Life After Hockey took care of everything for me, recommended a program of study right here in Nashville and everything transferred back."
Then he set his sights on law school. Some his fellow students eventually learned of his identity.
"Some of my students say, 'Golly, we've seen video of him beating the heck out of someone.' That's difficult to believe," Donna Harkness, University of Memphis associate professor of clinical law, told the Commercial Appeal in Memphis earlier this month. "That was a shock. He just does not have that kind of an aura now at all."
Law degree in hand, Grimson is now contemplating his future path.
"I'm looking at two things specifically," Grimson said. "I've long had a relationship and a set of experiences with the NHL Players' Association and I've been talking to the PA a lot about going to work for them, which is a prospect that excites me a lot. I enjoy that side of the game. I'm also looking at an opportunity to work as a hockey agent.
"So over the next few months we're going to investigate each avenue as much as possible and make a decision sometime along that road."
Grimson, who had NHL stops in Calgary, Chicago, Anaheim, Detroit, Hartford, Carolina, Los Angeles and Nashville, was a vice president on the NHLPA's executive committee in the late 1990s.
He knows what's been going on at the union, with executive director Ted Saskin fighting off a small group of dissenting players, and feels he's just the guy to come in and help.
"I have kept in contact with a lot of folks there, with a lot of players, I've had a pretty good sense of what's gone on," said Grimson. "I think it's fair to say it has been a time of upheaval. But where a lot of people would shy away I'm inclined to think it's an opportune time for someone like me, now with a law degree and significant Players' Association experience, to come in and be a part of business going forward.
"I look forward to that opportunity if that is what actually ends up happening."
Whether he becomes an agent or joins the union, he'll need to leave Nashville. And that's not easy with a family of six -- his children aged 14, 12, 9 and 8.
"That's one of the issues we're dealing with right now," said Grimson, who played his junior hockey in Regina from 1982 to '85. "All my family has really ever known is being down here in different U.S. markets. So going back to Toronto would be a pretty significant upheaval for us. There's no question there would be a bit of a transition time for us.
"We just have to weigh everything together and I'm confident we'll end up in the place where we need to be, eventually."
Either way, Grimson has already achieved much, and perhaps helped change the stereotype of the NHL tough guy.
"Guys that play that role, perhaps they have physical limitations -- they're not 40-goal scorers, they're not goaltenders -- but they at least had the presence of mind to recognize that there's a niche for them and they filled that," said Grimson. "But in no way does that diminish any mental attributes or any intellectual, marketable skills they may have at the same time."
Copyright 2005 Canadian Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
