There was a saying in Philadelphia in the 1970s: “Only the Lord saves more than Bernie Parent.” The legendary goaltender won two consecutive Stanley Cups with the Flyers, and is now a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame.

We have no doubt that Parent understands all the intricacies of hockey rule known as “icing.” But what about the kind of icing you put on a cake?

Click the listen link above to see how he does.

PETER SAGAL, HOST:

And now the game where heroes join us to show us their secret vulnerabilities. It’s called Not My Job. So back in the ’70s, Philadelphia was a hockey-mad town. Everybody loved the Flyers. And on that team…

(APPLAUSE)

SAGAL: …Nobody was loved more than the goalie. As they say around Philly, only the Lord saves more than Bernie Parent.

(APPLAUSE)

SAGAL: He’s a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame and an ambassador for the Philadelphia Flyers. Bernie Parent, welcome to WAIT WAIT… DON’T TELL ME!

(APPLAUSE)

BERNIE PARENT: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

SAGAL: I’m going to say I don’t like to comment on people’s physical appearance, but you are a much more handsome man than I would expect from a guy who had a career as a hockey goalie.

PARENT: I was hoping you’d say that. Yes. Thank you.

SAGAL: I was particularly admiring your full set of teeth.

(LAUGHTER)

PARENT: Yeah, well, by the way, it cost me about $40,000.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: Now, you are Quebecois, right? You’re from Montreal.

PARENT: Yes, from Montreal. Yeah.

SAGAL: And then – and you came down to play hockey in America at a pretty young age, right?

PARENT: In 1967, quickly – first of all, before this I had played two years for Boston and there were only 6 teams in the league. Don’t hold this against me now. But now, the expansion came in ’67. And I was up in Montreal hitting some golf balls, and a friend of mine comes up to me and says, hey, you got drafted. I said, really. By whom? He said Philadelphia. At the time, I said, where’s Philly at?

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: Really?

PARENT: Yeah. And then they put us on the float. Twenty-four players got drafted, and we went through Broad Street to introduce us to this…

SAGAL: Right down the center of Philadelphia.

PARENT: And we had more people on the float than we had watching us.

(LAUGHTER)

PARENT: But, you know, it’s a good story because, seven years later, we won the Stanley Cup and we had 2 million people.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: So you’re acclaimed – and that’s why you’re in the Hall of Fame – as being one of the greatest goalies of all time. What is the secret to being a great hockey goalie?

PARENT: Have a good team in front of you.

SAGAL: Really?

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: One thing I’ve always loved is that – I don’t know much about hockey, but I know that when the shot goes between the legs, that’s called the five hole.

PARENT: Never happened to me.

PARENT: No, of course not.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: I’ve always wondered, is that terrifying to be there, knowing that that puck could be flying at your head at 100 miles an hour at any moment?

PARENT: (Laughter) It does. It does. But, you know, when you’re playing the game, and you have – you’re performing in front of 20, 22,000 people – you know, at that age, you’re mid-20s, late 20s, you don’t think about this. You just go out and challenge them.

SAGAL: Really?

PARENT: There’s no fear.

BILL KURTIS: I’m just wondering if the people in back can see the flash from both rings.

SAGAL: Yeah. Yeah.

PARENT: There you go, folks.

(APPLAUSE)

SAGAL: So wearing that.

KURTIS: They must be so heavy.

PARENT: I – by the way, I have a little story about the rings.

SAGAL: Let me say it. Of course, Bernie is wearing his two championship rings. That was Stanley Cup ’73 and ’74.

PARENT: ’74, ’75.

SAGAL: ’74 – excuse me.

PARENT: Yeah.

SAGAL: One on each hand. So tell me the story.

PARENT: Yes. The story is I was upstate New York, signing autographs session. And this beautiful young lady, about 17 years old, comes up to me. She said, can I have a picture for my brother? I said, sure. Then I’m signing. She says, championship ring? Yeah. And then we have our names on this, right? Parent. But she had no clue. 17-year-old kid – she looks at the name she goes, man, this is cool. You know, a 17-year-old kid. I said, what is so cool about it? She said, they even made one for their parents, too.

(LAUGHTER)

PARENT: That brings you down.

SAGAL: You must have been very proud of your son.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: Hey, we have always heard that part of the tradition of the Stanley Cup is that every player on the winning team gets to take the actual Stanley Cup – the trophy – home for, like, a day.

PARENT: Yeah.

SAGAL: What did you do with your day?

PARENT: I put mine in the swimming pool.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: You what?

PARENT: In the swimming pool in the deep end, so people had to dive in and kiss the cup, right?

SAGAL: Wait a minute. So you had a swimming pool at your house.

PARENT: Yes.

SAGAL: And you took the Stanley Cup…

PARENT: Yeah.

SAGAL: …One of the most, you know, legendary, you know, trophies in sports.

PARENT: Yeah.

SAGAL: The Stanley Cup.

PARENT: Stanley Cup. Yeah.

SAGAL: The Stanley Cup itself.

PARENT: Yes.

SAGAL: And you dropped it into the deep end of your swimming pool…

PARENT: Yeah.

SAGAL: …And you invited your friends over to say dive in and kiss it.

PARENT: Yeah, it was fine until about 2 in the morning. Then it got dangerous.

SAGAL: Yeah, well…

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: You don’t keep it up for eight or nine hours because someone’s going to get hurt.

(LAUGHTER)

PARENT: Oh, Lord.

SAGAL: Yeah. And the Stanley – the people – like, the National Hockey League didn’t get mad at you for doing that?

PARENT: If they get mad, it’s their problem.

SAGAL: There you go.

(LAUGHTER)

TOM BODETT: I think there’s been worse things than that.

SAGAL: Yeah. No, that is a Philadelphia attitude.

PARENT: Definitely.

SAGAL: Yeah.

(APPLAUSE)

SAGAL: It occurs to me, speaking of Philadelphia, this is where – did you learn English here? When you came here, you were a French speaker originally. Of course, you still are.

PARENT: Just when I got drafted, again, with Boston, I was 17. I had to go to Niagara Falls, Ontario, and I couldn’t speak English. I picked up my suitcase and went to Niagara Falls. It was scary.

SAGAL: Yeah.

PARENT: But a – you know, you get bored. Listen. When you are hungry, you learn how to speak a language.

SAGAL: Oh, yeah.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: Oh, yeah. Je voudrais une cheese steak.

(LAUGHTER)

PARENT: That was good.

SAGAL: Thank you.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: Well, Bernie Parent, it is a pleasure to talk to you – an honor to meet you. But we’ve asked you here today to play a game we’re calling…

KURTIS: It’s Your Turn to Figure Out What the Hell Icing Is.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: Icing is this rule in hockey that no one outside of hockey understands. We’re confident several NHL players probably don’t get it either, so we’re going to ask you three questions about the other kind of icing, the kind you find OM a cake. Answer two out of three questions right. You’ll win our prize for one of our listeners – the voice of Carl Kasell on their voicemail. Bill, who is Bernie Parent playing for?

KURTIS: Lauren Spivack of Philadelphia, Penn.

SAGAL: Must be a fan.

(APPLAUSE)

SAGAL: All right. You’re going to be good at this. Three questions, three periods, you know?

PARENT: Oh, definitely.

SAGAL: Absolutely. So first question. One of the best uses of icing we know about is German chocolate cake. Which of these is a true interesting fact about German chocolate cake? A, it was once used to smuggle a nail file into Rikers Island, but the recipient was so excited about German chocolate cake that he swallowed it; B, after a salmonella outbreak in 1956, it was commonly referred to as a while as Germy chocolate cake or C, it has nothing to do with Germany. It was named after a man who was named Sam German.

PARENT: Really?

SAGAL: Yeah. Well…

PARENT: Next question, please.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: Nice block.

(LAUGHTER)

PARENT: I’ll take the third answer.

SAGAL: Well, that’s the right one.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

PARENT: Oh, how about that?

(APPLAUSE)

SAGAL: There was a guy in the 19th century who invented a baking bar called German chocolate bar. And that became German chocolate cake. And now it’s German chocolate cake. There you go.

(APPLAUSE)

SAGAL: Next question – legendary baseball player Sparky Lyle used to love to prank his teammates whenever it was their birthday, and icing played a role. What did he do? A, he stole their glove and baked it into their birthday cake; B, quote, “chewing-tobacco-flavored icing” or C, he would sneak into the locker room and put his butt print in the cake?

PARENT: You know what? That’s exciting. How about the third one?

SAGAL: Yes. You know athletes.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: I’m sure you know professional athletes. Is he more likely to take the time to bake a cake or just sit on one?

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: And you were right. That’s the answer.

ROXANNE ROBERTS: And what kind of impression did it leave?

(LAUGHTER)

KURTIS: A deep one.

SAGAL: A shapely one.

PARENT: Yeah.

SAGAL: Last question. Unsurprisingly, there is a Trump administration scandal involving a cake. Is it A, the president sent a giant birthday cake to Vladimir Putin; B, the president plagiarized his inauguration cake design from President Obama or C, the president just recently slashed apart his 72nd birthday cake looking for the girl he expected to jump out of it?

PARENT: Knowing Trump, I take the third one.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: I like that you picked that. So I’m just going to let you go with that, but it was actually two – the second one.

(APPLAUSE)

SAGAL: The Trump inaugural committee, instead of having their own cake design, just went to a bakery with a photo of Obama’s inaugural cake and said, we want that. Bill, how did Bernie Parent do on our quiz?

KURTIS: Well, let’s call it three.

SAGAL: Yeah, I know.

KURTIS: He got two out of three. It doesn’t make any difference.

(LAUGHTER, APPLAUSE)

SAGAL: Bernie Parent is a two-time Stanley Cup winner, will be participating in the Philly Flyers Charity Classic on July 16. You can find more on the Flyers website or bernieparent.com. Bernie Parent, thank you so much.

(APPLAUSE)

SAGAL: In just a minute, slather up the sunscreen. It’s our Listener Limerick Challenge. Call 1-888-WAITWAIT to join us on the air. We’ll be back in a minute with more WAIT WAIT… DON’T TELL ME! from NPR.

Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

Last week, former NFL player Ryan O’Callaghan told the world his harrowing story of drug abuse and planned suicide as he struggled with being a closeted gay man. Now he hopes his story helps others.

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

Former NFL player Ryan O’Callaghan came out to the world last week with a dramatic story. In an interview with outsports.com, he described harrowing experiences he had as a closeted gay man and said his fear of being discovered drove him to drug addiction and a planned suicide. O’Callaghan told NPR’s Tom Goldman that he shared his story with hopes of helping others avoid the pain he lived with for so long.

TOM GOLDMAN, BYLINE: A week later, the calls for interviews are still coming in.

RYAN O’CALLAGHAN: I am great. How are you?

GOLDMAN: Ryan O’Callaghan is sitting on a couch in his home in his hometown of Redding, Calif. When the call’s done, I ask about the thousands of messages that have poured in since the Outsports article. He scrolls through his phone.

O’CALLAGHAN: OK, well, here’s a good one to read. It says, hi, Ryan. I think you saved my life today. I’m gay, and I’ve been living this lie for as long as I can remember. So he’s married, has children.

GOLDMAN: The man tells O’Callaghan he’s been in therapy and has come to terms with who he is. But he needs advice on how to move forward.

O’CALLAGHAN: And like me, he’s also thought about ending things.

GOLDMAN: It’s that dark subject that’s made Ryan O’Callaghan’s story resonate. A gay pro athlete coming out isn’t as huge a story as it once was, but O’Callaghan was a gay pro athlete who planned to kill himself because in his mind, no one would ever accept him – not family, not friends, not the NFL.

O’CALLAGHAN: I was just going to shoot myself. It was the easy way. I didn’t look at it as being selfish. You know, I used to think, you know, we all have the right to disappear. It’s our body.

GOLDMAN: But before disappearing, Ryan O’Callaghan planned to be very public.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Ryan O’Callaghan voted the best offensive lineman in the Pac-10 by the other players in the conference.

GOLDMAN: A football career that started in high school as a way to stay connected to friends evolved into something much more in college. At Cal Berkeley, 6-foot-6, 340-pound O’Callaghan fully devised his plan to hide behind the sport. Football, in his words, became his beard, his cover, an uber-masculine world where his sexuality wouldn’t be questioned.

O’CALLAGHAN: Football to me was deadly serious.

GOLDMAN: So was the suicidal end of the plan once football finished. But the end would have to wait. O’Callaghan was good at what he did on the field. After Cal, he played in the NFL for six seasons with New England and Kansas City. His career was cut short by injuries. As the end of his career and, in his mind, the end of his life approached, he started abusing the painkillers he’d been taking. Kansas City’s head athletic trainer David Price noticed O’Callaghan’s erratic behavior and connected O’Callaghan with Susan Wilson. She was part of the network of psychologists the NFL employs nationwide.

SUSAN WILSON: If Dave Price hadn’t referred him to therapy, he may not be with us today.

GOLDMAN: In her 15 years working with the NFL, Wilson counseled other gay players who hid their sexual orientation. But she says O’Callaghan was the only one who wanted to kill himself because he was gay. When he finally came out to her, Wilson understood the depths of his despair.

WILSON: Even when he told me, he said, and you don’t hate me? And I’m like, Ryan, of course I don’t hate you.

GOLDMAN: Wilson advised O’Callaghan to test his fear that everyone would reject him. So several years ago, O’Callaghan started coming out to those he was closest to – family, friends, Kansas City Chiefs general manager Scott Pioli. The positive responses from all shocked him. Still, he needed time to fully emerge.

O’CALLAGHAN: I spent 29 years not planning on living. I was a junkie on pain meds. You don’t go from that to perfectly fine overnight. You know, I didn’t even date I think the whole first year after I came out. I just – I worked on figuring out how to love myself and clean up my life.

GOLDMAN: Once he figured that out, it was time to come out to the world.

O’CALLAGHAN: I’m a real good example of what not to do. If I can stand up and say, hey, look at all this dumb stuff I did because I was gay; don’t do it, I can save a lot of people a lot of heartache.

GOLDMAN: The reaction to his announcement has, again, been positive. Some of O’Callaghan’s former football teammates sent notes of encouragement. Psychologist Susan Wilson thinks O’Callaghan is helping pave the way for a famous, active, gay NFL player to come out. And he’s showing closeted LGBT people from all backgrounds the value of overcoming fear. But Wilson warns there’s also a danger in O’Callaghan’s experience.

WILSON: Some people hear about his story and think, oh, I could come out, and it’s going to be a field of roses when we know some people are not in situations where that will be the case.

GOLDMAN: Ryan O’Callaghan says after so many years of hiding, he’s ready to do what he can for those who still feel trapped. He hopes to write a book about his experiences and raise money for LGBT charities and revel in living a life in full view. Tom Goldman, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF TULPA’S “THE BIRDS AND BEES”)

Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.