A few weeks ago, the National Hockey League held its press conference for the 2024 Stadium Series Games. Not only were the teams represented, but players from the NFL who played for the Giants and Jets were there as well. One of those players was New York Giants Football Legend Carl Banks.
In an exclusive with Full Press Hockey, Banks tells NHL Analyst Jim Biringer, when his love for the game first started and how his love for the game started at a young age and carried over through his playing days and until now.
Jim Biringer: When did your love of hockey first start?
Carl Banks: “Probably around age 10 or 11. I grew up in Original Six Country. So, you know Chicago and Detroit were the hockey teams. So Gordie Howe and Bobby Hull were my heroes. In Flint, Michigan, we had an IHL team, too, the Flint Generals, so hockey was always around, and then when we had real winters in the Midwest.
So that was kind of when my interest in hockey and then my love of hockey obviously, when you have you grew up watching Orr and Hull, you know it becomes an infatuation that just turns into full-blown love, man because it was just fun watching hockey.”
Biringer: “What was it like putting on a pair of skates for the first time?
Banks: “You know, the parks, they would freeze over and guys would grab skates and go. So, playing outside on skates, I couldn’t skate with them, but I tried. I literally face-planted. I could not master hockey skates when everybody else and I didn’t know the difference, but everybody else had regular skates and I went and grabbed these hockey skates and they’re like, No, those are the hardest ones to master. I finally learned how to do it. But cleats are better for me. I finally ended up learning how, but I gravitated toward basketball and football. Watching hockey has always been good.”
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Biringer: “When you were playing here at Giants did you get your chance to get over this Devils games?”
Banks: ” Yeah, we saw a lot of hockey at Brendan Byrne. And then, we saw a championship, but it was it was fun. I still enjoy watching the Devils play now. They had a nice run last year. Yeah. And, I am not shy by saying about saying I’m a Ranger fan, but I enjoy Devils hockey. I go to many games.”
Carl Banks remains a big hockey fan to this day. He is not shy about supporting the game and as the conversation wrapped up with Full Press Hockey, Banks is looking forward to when these rivals of the Devils and Flyers, Rangers and Islanders take to the ice at MetLife Stadium.
Banks: “It’s a really good series, though. Like you can get four teams and have two days of just great hockey in this environment, it’s just gonna be rocking. It’s gonna be rocking. And then the thing is, hockey fans are as rabid as they come. So that’s the other thing that I’m looking forward to seeing how they do in this environment.”
Banks is planning on being at both games and hopes to be in Toronto for the 2024 NHL All-Star Game, repping his new Starter jacket that he proudly displayed during the Stadium Series press conference. And, oh, by the way, his favourite Starter Jacket of all time is the Hartford Whalers.
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