Fargo - There’s a certain way people see the father of Fargo Force captain and forward Michael Babcock.
“When most people see him, they see the mean-mugging guy, stern behind the bench,” Babcock said.
Michael’s dad is Detroit Red Wings coach Mike Babcock. On Wednesday, that mean mug became the face of mental health awareness.
In an interview he initiated with TSN, Mike Babcock talked about two families close to his lake house in Emma Lake in Saskatchewan losing loved ones to mental-health issues.
He spoke of Jordan Chartier, a couple weeks before his 24th birthday, stepping out of a moving vehicle going more than 68 mph and dying.
The other family was the Buckwolds and their son, Alvin, who stabbed his father, Ian, to death on July 14, 2013.
“When things happen right around you, I think sometimes it’s calling you to get involved,” Mike Babcock said in the interview.
The Force’s Michael Babcock can’t ignore the tragedies that surround him at the lake house.
“If you’re sitting at my cabin, you can look and you go 20 houses to the right and there’s the Chartiers’ house, and if you go across the lake and in the corner of the lake, you see the (Buckwolds’ house),” Michael Babcock said. “When it happens in your community, it’s a little bit more eye awakening.”
Mike Babcock, a coach since 1991, said in the interview only two players have ever come to him to talk about mental issues and both were completely different once they opened up.
“How is a man or woman supposed to be the best they can be if they have something bothering them and they can’t talk about it? That makes no sense,” Mike Babcock said in the interview. “As soon as they talk about it, it’s therapeutic.”
On Wednesday, #bellletstalk was all over Twitter in the hockey world, as part of the Bell Let’s Talk campaign. Bell, a telecommunication company in Montreal is donating 5 cents to Canadian mental programs for every text message, wireless and long-distance call made by Bell Canada and Bell Alliant customers and for every tweet using the hashtag.
Michael was on the phone with his dad when his dad asked if he could call him back because TSN wanted to do an interview on mental health awareness. Michael had no idea his dad was planning the interview, but he was happy he did.
“I was pretty impressed with it,” Michael Babcock said. “He’s a pretty tough guy. He doesn’t get choked up a lot, but you can tell he’s trying to find the right words to say, and he’s choking up in the beginning. Obviously, it’s something that’s hard to talk about, even for him.”
In a tough-guy sport like hockey, to see a man with the profile of Mike Babcock open up is not the norm. The world got to see the person Michael simply knows as dad.
“When you get to see how sensitive he is and how he cares it kind of catches people by surprise,” Michael Babcock said. “I know that side of my dad, so it doesn’t catch me by surprise. I’ve seen him in his best and worst times. I’ve seen how he reacts to certain things, so that part probably surprised more people than me.”
As for mental health awareness, Michael is on board with his dad.
“Mental health is kind of like cancer. It’s hard to find someone who hasn’t vicariously been affected by cancer or mental health,” Michael Babcock said. “As you get older, there’s a lot in high school and college and the stress level is getting up and even with professional athletes like we’re starting to see now. You see it more and more.
“I’ve known people who have depression or anxiety issues. Just for me personally, you try to help the best way you can and hopefully you find out before it’s too late.”
