Hockey's Godfather Does The Hockey Sock Rock

Jim Jamieson of the Vancouver Province recently had a fun interview with Phil Esposito. The two talked about the speech in 1972, how the game has changed for the better and for the worse, and about being offered a role in the original Godfather movie:

I tested for that part and they said I could have it, but I'd have to take off February and March to do the filming and they wanted to pay me $10,000. Finally, I was making some money in those days. I said, ‘Are you crazy!' I'd just scored 152 points and I'd got to where I was making $100,000. I wasn't going to take two months off during the season. In fact, 1972 was the first summer that I didn't have to go home in the summer and work in the steel plant.

With a little more digging, it turns out Espo is quite the movie buff:

I love 'One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest.' And I any, I mean any, comedy. And I love the old movies on AMC. I like watching the Marx Brothers, W.C. Fields the Three Stooges, and Abbott & Costello. The more I watch them, there's always something that I miss--a line here, a line there."

He's even done a little acting on his own, appearing in movies Mystery, Alaska and something called Warbirds. He's also been on television shows Knots Landing, Rescue Me and Rent A Goalie.

Espo also thought of himself as a singer, apparently, as evidenced in this 1979 song with Espo as the lead singer. Ron Duguay, Dave Maloney and John Davidson with a wicked ketchup container solo provide back up vocals/comic relief.

The song was apparently written by Alan Thicke, and was sold with all profits going to the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation. There was a B-side on the album. LA's Triple Crown Line of Marcel Dionne, Charlie Simmer and Dave Taylor sang Forgive My Misconduct:



For what it is worth, Marcel Dionne is a way better front man than Phil Esposito in my books!