The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz XX
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[12] you who lost their lives last night in an accident where they were on bikes and were struck by a drunk driver.
[13] That video and sound was courtesy of Sportsnet.
[14] That was his series winning goal against the Dallas Stars in 2022 and overtime.
[15] And this is just a heartbreaking story and really should not have happened.
[16] Dave, this is, this is, this is, a tragedy no it's it's tough we woke up to this awful awful news today um not really sure you know all the details but anytime you know a young man 31 years old way too young young father uh you know two young two young men a family i'm just struggling right now we've talked we've been talking about this all morning we've been talking about we're going to do this show and we're going to talk about johnny and matthew and what happened.
[17] And I'm just struggling to come up with the words in the moment.
[18] It's hard to fathom.
[19] I mean, I've got young kids.
[20] You've got a daughter.
[21] It's just devastating.
[22] It's devastating.
[23] Don Bergeras is also a father.
[24] He works for ESPN.
[25] He does NHRO coverage.
[26] And he's followed his career since he was in Boston College, really.
[27] And Johnny Goodrow's career in Boston College was, like, won for the record books, the National Championship, Hobie Baker Award.
[28] John, why don't you tell us a bit about Johnny's career before we get into the details of what happened last night?
[29] Yeah, just a sweet kid, grew up in South Jersey, always incredibly tiny and small.
[30] Goes to Boston College after a good year at the USA.
[31] Again, despite his tiny stature producing, goes to Boston College in 2012, as you just mentioned.
[32] That was his freshman year, 18 years old.
[33] He is an August birthday, so he was an 18 -year -old for his entire freshman year.
[34] They win the national championship.
[35] He scores probably one of the greatest goals in college hockey history.
[36] Would have been one of the best plays of the year to clinch the national championship against Ferris State in Tampa.
[37] They were up two to one late third.
[38] It's one of those cool goals that is highlight, incredible, you laugh at it.
[39] It's so amazing.
[40] You know, there's some amazing plays in sports where your teammates, your peers, because they know how ridiculous it is, and they could never do that laugh.
[41] It's kind of like the response.
[42] So to clinch the championship, to have three minutes to soak it in while you're enjoying this amazing play that only this freak can do, it's really something.
[43] You know, I'd met Johnny for the first time during those college years.
[44] years and you just look at him in person and it's like this kid was 125 pounds when he went to bc he might have been 150 when he left three years later and i'll never forget looking at kevin hayes uh who was his teammate and really great friend of course kevin lost his brother a couple years ago so again this tragedy just extends there's so many tributaries and tentacles involving in a tragedy like this.
[45] And so when you think of Kevin and you think of people like that, it's difficult.
[46] So, you know, Johnny has, I look at Kevin, I go, Kevin, can he play in the NHL?
[47] I mean, he's like 140 pounds.
[48] Yeah.
[49] And the look that Kevin gave me was like, dude, you have no idea.
[50] This guy is a wizard.
[51] And player see it in practice before we in games, right?
[52] Yeah.
[53] And that's what happened here.
[54] He was just a freak of a player who burst onto the scene that freshman year at BC.
[55] And won a national championship, came back another year, could have turned pro after his second year, but his brother Matthew wanted to go to Boston College and play with him.
[56] And Johnny's like, absolutely, I'm staying another year.
[57] You know, not many kids would do that.
[58] They would have more self -interest than that.
[59] So Matthew comes for another year, and they make the Frozen Four.
[60] I was in Philadelphia.
[61] I called that one with Barry Malrose.
[62] My first one was 2013.
[63] And he got 80 points in 40 games.
[64] It was Connor McDavid stuff, two points a game, easily the best player in the nation.
[65] And then he turned pro from there in Calgary.
[66] Fourth round draft pick, because of his size, that's why he was a fourth round pick because they saw the wizardry of the artistry.
[67] He was first round talent that way.
[68] But obviously, Scouts did not believe he could play in the NHL.
[69] It was a long shot.
[70] That's why he was a fourth round pick.
[71] Butchi, it seems like Johnny had to play bigger than his size, right?
[72] I mean, like I said, I just can't believe.
[73] That's why I asked Kevin that question back in it was at the Frozen 4 in 2013.
[74] He's like, can he play in the league?
[75] I mean, this kid is tiny, you know?
[76] We're talking 140 pounds here.
[77] And it really did remind me if I covered before I got to ESPN, I worked in Providence, Rhode Island for two years, 94 to 96.
[78] And that's when obviously Providence, the biggest, thing in Providence is Providence College Basketball, Friars.
[79] And so I went to those games all the time, cover them, highlights, reaction after the game.
[80] And that obviously meant I got to see Alan Iverson come and play for Georgetown.
[81] And it's the same thing.
[82] And that's when people ask me who Johnny Goddrow's comp is, it's Alan Iverson.
[83] It's not another hockey player.
[84] Iverson, like Goddrow, was impossibly small, impossibly skinny.
[85] And to see him amongst these players in person, like I did with Goodrow, with Iverson court side there, watching him in person against a good Providence team.
[86] And just how he went in there with fearlessness and how fast his brain worked, how fast his feet and hands worked to, you know, you had to when you're that little.
[87] And I remember I had to vote for the Wooden Award that year and certainly voted Alan Iverson easily.
[88] And that's who Goodrow was, this impossibly small person who somehow was a freak on the Court.
[89] It's, it's, you just don't see that very much where the guy's the best player at that size.
[90] Very rare.
[91] There's funky stories and whether it's Dustin Bedroia or Mugsy Bogues and they're very effective players, you know, I mean, Detroit won an MVP.
[92] But he was never the best, like you look at him as like the most, like almost talented player.
[93] He did it through other ways and baseball does that.
[94] But to see Goddreau and Iverson at that size dominate, it was something else.
[95] It almost kind of reminds you of the line from the movie Rudy.
[96] Like, you're five feet nothing, a hundred and nothing.
[97] Yeah.
[98] One of the things, aside from his skill on the ice, was just his personality.
[99] Like, yeah, you talked to a lot of people and they just talked about how Johnny had this infectious smile, how he was just always, you know, he'd light up a room, he was always a very happy guy, very positive guy.
[100] Just in your interactions with him, how much did you kind of get that feel off of him?
[101] Yeah, you know, it comes from a big, Jersey family, married into a Jersey family, just, you know, one of those old school, you know, let's face it, people just don't have a lot of kids anymore.
[102] They didn't have one or two.
[103] They don't have four or five.
[104] And then when you start adding another four or five, and then another three or four, you know, he has, he had two young children kind of quickly.
[105] So maybe he was going to have four or five.
[106] And you just picture this beautiful, loving, gigantic family every summer on the beach in South Jersey, just loving life and enjoying each other.
[107] And, You know, the sister was going to get married.
[108] And this is on the eve of the, you know, there's two boys and two girls.
[109] And his parents, and that's what they, he had as siblings, you know, the brother and two sisters, family of four.
[110] That's what I had.
[111] Family of four, I had.
[112] We were two and two as well.
[113] I was talking about that with my mom this morning when I broke the news to her.
[114] And so, yeah, just he just pictures of this big family.
[115] And he was part of that.
[116] And he was always smiling, always very quiet.
[117] I remember the 2016 World Cup up in Toronto.
[118] And I was at a hotel and, and just.
[119] this figure, as I was walking into the hotel, one was walking out, just in front of the revolving doors, actually.
[120] He was outside, probably waiting for an Uber or a friend to pick him up and had a baseball had on a small figure.
[121] And he goes, hey, Bucci, hey, how you doing?
[122] You know, I'm occasionally recognized when I'm out in public, especially around hockey events.
[123] And so I thought this was this little American kid just maybe flew up to watch the game because I don't really get recognized in Canada too much occasionally.
[124] It was Johnny Goddrow.
[125] I mean, he literally looked like he was 14 years old.
[126] At this point, he's a, you know, he's an established player in the league, a couple years.
[127] in Calgary and and there he was just kind of with a baseball hat and you know like you know dark clothes on and it was you know kind of at night and it was like hey boochie what's up he's like hey you good to see johnny it was just very unassuming but his own man you know when he was a free agent everyone thought he was going to go back and sign with the flyers signed with new jersey nope he felt like Columbus was the place for him you know and uh that's where that's where and that's where he's been the last couple years well yeah i mean we mentioned that um his wife and and her family are Jersey bred, Jersey born.
[128] He didn't sign with New Jersey.
[129] He decided to sign with Columbus.
[130] Then he took less money to sign with Columbus, but to be as close as possible to his wife's family, right?
[131] Yeah, you know, but maybe he felt like that was too close, right?
[132] He could have signed with the Devils, really good team.
[133] They had offers.
[134] They're like, you know, out of the flyers, they weren't really prepared.
[135] They were mismanaged, and they probably weren't ready to take them on.
[136] And he probably felt like that situation didn't look great.
[137] Maybe he felt like Columbus was a little more, you know, with prospects and stuff where maybe a better shop.
[138] But maybe he felt like that was too close to be home, right?
[139] Maybe he felt like he would have been smothered.
[140] And once they kind of get the space of Ohio and have some space and just have his family, they can come visit, but then they go home.
[141] They're not coming over every day.
[142] And who knows if that went into his thinking.
[143] Again, a quiet guy, obviously incredibly smart by how you see him on the ice.
[144] and now he was one step ahead of everybody.
[145] Again, he had to be one step ahead of everybody.
[146] When you're that small, you have to be the smartest guy on the field or on the ice or on the court.
[147] You have to be smart.
[148] You're up against it at that size.
[149] And again, the speed and quickness, but you have to have a fast brain as well.
[150] And that's what he had.
[151] So, yeah, so that was a big shocker.
[152] It shocked the hockey world when he signed in Columbus.
[153] That was a crazy day.
[154] And that's something I wonder, you know, to find out exactly what was.
[155] the biggest reason you always want to protect yourself and protect your decision at the time it's you know people don't have to know everything when you make a family decision like that but it was interesting and here he was in columbus the last couple of years a tough couple of years you know trying another new era in columbus this year shot you know monahan was coming on his buddy and you just wondered if they were then going to start to turn the corner and he was kind of going to have a big decade in his 30s that would have got him to the hall of fame you know he you kind of look at him, he probably would have been a 1 ,200 game played, 1 ,200 point guy as Columbus got good again.
[156] And those are Hall of Fame numbers.
[157] And you couple that with a college career because, you know, hockey Hall of Fame takes in account your entire career, not just your NHL career.
[158] Most points amongst American -born players at world championships.
[159] So this is an international.
[160] He would have been on the Olympic team, you know, a college player, international in NHL, looking at a Hall of Fame type of player.
[161] So, again, that's the least important thing today, but just to give people an idea the trajectory that he was probably on and what he was in the game, how he was looked upon and what his state was in a station in the game.
[162] I want to get into the journalism aspect of reporting a story like this.
[163] Last night, there were rumors circulating around what eventually happened.
[164] Right.
[165] And the medical examiner apparently took pictures of his notes and sent it into a group chat and then all of a sudden, boom, is circulating on social media.
[166] Tim Peel was the first major name who reported that this happened.
[167] And I'm obviously willing to give a 15 -year NHO referee the benefit of the doubt as a source on that situation.
[168] and um but that was it that that i mean outside of that it was just speculation it was just rumors so as a journalist how do you weigh through those waters yeah i got a text last night at 1130 um from someone who i know and uh we're on the phone and i had yet to hear from it i had i had gone you know i went to bed about 11 15 eastern time and i was like you know i was tired had a long day and And so I jumped into bed and read my Thomas Jefferson biography by John Meacham that I've been reading at night before I fall asleep and just have to look at my phone one more time.
[169] I'd been doing the good habit recently.
[170] I put the phone over on my dresser.
[171] Keep it there.
[172] Let's fall.
[173] It's got a good night's sleep.
[174] Don't keep it in bed with you.
[175] And so I, but this time is I was low and my battery was low.
[176] So I put it and plugged in next to me. So I had it underneath my pillow, the other pillow on the bed.
[177] And I'm reading.
[178] And I was about to go to sleep.
[179] I look at my phone one more time.
[180] And it was, and the text was, are you up?
[181] I go, okay.
[182] Yeah, I am.
[183] And they called me. And that's when I heard about, yeah, there's these rumors.
[184] And someone tweeted out that Johnny Goddrow was involved in an action.
[185] He and his brother are dead.
[186] And we're just, and we're talking.
[187] And then while we're talking, you know, we're texting people.
[188] And then he got a text from a former player who said, yeah, it's true.
[189] So I knew last night about 1140.
[190] And like you said, and I went on Twitter and there's nothing there.
[191] Some, you know, and obviously people were just a delicate time.
[192] And then I saw, You mentioned Peel's tweet, but again, it's just at that point, you don't know when the family's been notified.
[193] You don't know what's going on.
[194] Again, I didn't know about the wedding plans with his sister.
[195] So you can imagine people might be all over the place, might have gone to bed early that night.
[196] You just don't know.
[197] And so the family has to know first.
[198] So that's what I, you know, certainly by before midnight last night, I had known the news.
[199] But again, you just, you got to respect the family in that situation.
[200] It's just not worth it.
[201] And so I went to bed knowing that when I woke up.
[202] this morning, there would be this obviously avalanche of news and that's certainly what happened.
[203] And that's the thing.
[204] The family I mean, TMZ did that with the Kobe Bryant stuff.
[205] I mean, they reported that thing as soon as they found out from what, the police pictures that got circulated around and Vanessa Bryant didn't find out until she read that report.
[206] And that sort of thing is bad.
[207] You know, that's very unethical.
[208] Yeah, the journalism, you know, again, When people want to get a story out, they want to be first.
[209] They feel like there's, I understand that balance of responsibility to information and news, especially now more than ever, but also sensitivity to the family.
[210] What is that line?
[211] I'm always going to lean towards when in doubt it's not worth the pain of someone else not finding out in a proper fashion.
[212] Although in the end, you know, when he's gone and maybe in the end that doesn't matter, I don't know, but it probably kind of does.
[213] you want that in respect but in the end the loss is the loss and all they do is want that person back right away because at first it's unbelievable to me I still don't really believe it like you know it takes a while to process that so maybe in the end it doesn't matter but still yeah when in doubt in those situations that just becomes self -serving and little self -absorbed if you want to throw something out there but again that's what you know the thing about Twitter X one of the positives I think there's many positives to it is there is that kind of community collaboration that a lot of times we don't have in real life anymore.
[214] So we get it digitally.
[215] And sometimes that can be a good thing.
[216] You share your thoughts.
[217] You're kind of you're communicating with people.
[218] You're getting through this in real time.
[219] It's different, obviously, than when we were younger and before the age of social media.
[220] But in some ways, it probably helps people cope.
[221] It helps them connect and share their feelings, get their feelings out, prepare for tragedies.
[222] I remember as a young father, I thought about these things every now and then thinking, well, maybe if I think about it once in a while of losing my kids, if it does happen, I'll be better prepared, which of course is folly as well.
[223] But you do anything to protect yourself.
[224] And when you think about loss, especially when you have children, because there's not a bigger loss than that once you start having children.
[225] And that's the thing, too, about Johnny that kind of hits me. He's a child of the 90s.
[226] He was born in 1993.
[227] My kids were born in 92, 94, 99.
[228] So NHL players, his age, I almost look at my third son.
[229] Like, I really do, it's kind of strange on my career now as I've gone into it deeply.
[230] I look at these players like Johnny as, you know, they're my sons.
[231] And I want the best for them.
[232] I want to somewhat protect them.
[233] I want to push them.
[234] I want to, you know, do all the things that a father would do.
[235] So I try to cover them almost like a father.
[236] And in terms of the things we do as a good father, we have to push our kid.
[237] We have to have guidelines, but we have to have affection.
[238] We have to have forgiveness.
[239] We have to love them.
[240] And, of course, ultimately we want the best for them.
[241] And that's how I look at people like Johnny.
[242] And because like I said, he's right between my oldest son, Brett, and my, and my daughter, Mallory.
[243] Like he's right in the middle, 93, born.
[244] And so that's why, like I said, I just can't believe every time they come up and see me, you know, that college connection that I had with these college kids, this is extra, you know, hurtful for me. Because like I said, I've seen him since he was 18 growing up.
[245] And here he is a man now, 31, a wife, two little babies, just building his own life.
[246] And that's just, again, what we want for our children and what we worry about them, you know, our kids, sometimes you can't picture them.
[247] They're going to be an adult Sunday and they're going to have children.
[248] They're going to have a mortgage and they're going to have a car payment.
[249] And when that kind of happens, you get, you're so proud.
[250] I'm sure his parents were the same feeling I get now with my look at my adult children as they emerge and evolve.
[251] John, talking about the hockey community at a time like this, how you kind of alluded to it there, but how people take.
[252] tend to come together, whether it's the, you know, share stories, grieve together.
[253] It's something that when times like this come, which it's inevitable, right?
[254] But it's always a little bit of solace, knowing that there's this big community of caring people that just know how to embrace one another.
[255] How important is that going to be right now is we're about to start a new season and something like this happens?
[256] Just the idea of everybody just kind of needing to lean on each other right now to make it through these very hard times.
[257] Yeah, especially the young men, his peer.
[258] and the wives of these young men as well who see this young woman losing her husband like that.
[259] And that's a young person thing, sports or not, right?
[260] I remember when, you know, Brendan Burke died, the son of Brian Burke in a car accident coming home on a snowy road trip back to Miami University in Oxford.
[261] And I remember covering that funeral and writing about it.
[262] You know, he had just come out as gay a few months before.
[263] And at that time, that was a big story, especially being Brian Burke's son.
[264] That just added another layer to it.
[265] And it was a huge story at the time.
[266] And it was great how the hockey community came together and really did celebrate him in a majority of the way.
[267] And then, of course, he had this tragic death after, you know, this big story comes out three months later.
[268] And I remember going to the funeral there outside Boston and the whole Miami University hockey team was there in their sweaters.
[269] And, of course, the NHL community was there as well.
[270] And I just remember as the people walked out of the church there, a look on these boys' faces.
[271] Again, these are boys, 18, 19, 2021.
[272] Just they're scared.
[273] They're frightened.
[274] And that's what young people, you know, that's their first kind of emotional reaction to death like this, especially to appear, as you do realize, oh, my gosh, life is that precious.
[275] Someone, anybody could die any day.
[276] tomorrow, today, next week.
[277] You know, my nephew, my mom's oldest grandson, diagnosed with cancer this year in March, dead in June.
[278] Bam, three months later.
[279] Like, that can happen to any of us.
[280] And so what happens to young people like that, I just see that broken look on those boys' faces like, oh, my goodness, how scared they were.
[281] And they just hadn't been through.
[282] We've been, you know, in my age, I've been through.
[283] I've lost a parent.
[284] I've lost a brother.
[285] I've lost friends.
[286] I've been through death a lot.
[287] So you get better at it, right?
[288] that you get, you understand how it works and some things get better.
[289] Some things never get better.
[290] And that's okay understanding that too.
[291] Hey, you're going to hurt.
[292] That's okay to feel that way.
[293] It's not going to get better.
[294] That part's not going to get better.
[295] My mom's always going to miss my dad.
[296] Just that's it.
[297] Now she can function a little bit better as she goes on, but you're not going to miss them.
[298] So understand both of those things.
[299] And so that's what I think about today is Johnny's friends, the wives of Johnny's friends, that how shook and shaken they are.
[300] and to think that their kids will never know their dad.
[301] Parents lost two brothers or two sons, you know, not just even one.
[302] They lost half their family last night, the parents of Johnny and Matthew.
[303] You know, it's just, it's just unspeakable.
[304] That's the heaviness.
[305] It's hard to breathe.
[306] It's hard to your chest is tight.
[307] There's empathy.
[308] There's self interest as well.
[309] You think about, you know, you're losing your own kids, right?
[310] Or losing your own brother and sister.
[311] So it's all those emotions into one giant, you know, crock pot.
[312] And it's tough.
[313] But you just kind of keep going.
[314] You try to keep going.
[315] And so that's what I think about today.
[316] I think about the young people, you know, the hockey player, the family is 20 to 35.
[317] But you're right.
[318] There's nothing like the hockey community is something.
[319] It's why I've gravitated the sport more and more.
[320] I'm sure it's why you guys do.
[321] You understand there's a little secret sauce there of community because it's small, right?
[322] It's like seeing a concert in a 2000 seat venue instead of a football stadium.
[323] The 2000 seat venue is always better.
[324] It's more intimate.
[325] You share more.
[326] And that's what I always.
[327] said hockey is.
[328] It's that kind of community.
[329] It's a 2 ,500 seat concert community, not a football stadium community.
[330] And that's why I love it so much, and that's why I love the intimacy.
[331] And like you said, pulling together, as they always do.
[332] And Matthew Goddrow, who was playing in the East Coast Hockey League for the Worcester Railers, he was having a pretty decent non -league career as well coming out of Boston College.
[333] So...
[334] Again, like Johnny, yeah, he was tiny kid.
[335] He got into coaching recently, so I think that's probably It would have been his future, coaching a junior team in Jersey.
[336] And so obviously not quite Johnny's skill, but played Division I hockey at Boston College.
[337] You know, Johnny, again, Johnny stayed the extra year so he could play with them.
[338] And so, yeah, just, again, that was his guy, right?
[339] And that was those tight brothers just two years apart and out for a bike ride last night on a beautiful summer day.
[340] And before this, you know, just awful tragedy happens.
[341] And like I said, you see people driving around.
[342] recklessly sometimes.
[343] It just makes me angry whenever I see it.
[344] You know, just slow down a little bit.
[345] What are you doing?
[346] You don't save any time on short trips.
[347] You know, you just don't.
[348] And so that obviously, and that's the, again, that's part of the emotions that people process, right?
[349] The anger at that person.
[350] Like, what were you thinking?
[351] And that's part of this as well that people are dealing with.
[352] There's sadness.
[353] There's disbelief.
[354] And then there's a little bit of anger, too.
[355] So it's a lot.
[356] It's a process.
[357] The hockey community lost Johnny Godreau and his brother Matthew, and we are devastated about it.
[358] And we send our condolences to the Goodroo family.
[359] And we would like to thank John Bridgerald for helping us navigate through all this.
[360] John, thank you for joining us.
[361] Yeah, thank you for giving Johnny this much time, this much content, because a lot of people wouldn't do that.
[362] So I appreciate people who have been able to listen to get the full story about him and about his family and about grief.
[363] and so I appreciate you guys for doing this today.
[364] In the NFL, there is no margin for error.
[365] One mistake can change the outcome of the game.
[366] Science proves quality sleep can help boost reaction time, recovery time, and overall athletic performance.
[367] As the official sleep wellness partner of the NFL, sleep number's mission is to provide players with data and insights to optimize their sleep for the ultimate competitive edge.
[368] Sleep is essential for recovery, and we all have unique needs.
[369] That's why Sleep Number smart beds are perfect for couples, with individualized settings for each side.
[370] Since 2018, Sleep Number and the NFL have teamed up to bring quality sleep to elite athletes.
[371] Eight out of 10 NFL players, including 80 % of Kansas City Chiefs players trust Sleep Number for their best rest.
[372] And now, during Sleep Number's biggest sale of the year, say 50 % on the Sleep Number Limited Edition Smart Bed, plus special financing for a limited time, only at a Sleep Number Store or Sleep Number .com.
[373] Sleep number, official sleep and wellness partner of the NFL.
[374] See Store for details.