Travis Roy

I had an entirely different post written earlier today.

I was working the overnight again and decided I'd get some stuff off my chest. In truth, I still feel what I wrote but I knew that the post would generate concern and questions. The funny thing is that I wrote to not be concerned.

I'm OK, actually. I'm overwhelmed, which is my standard answer these days, but I'm surviving. I also feel defeated in some ways. The post was about waiving the white flag.

But, in the end, the words I wrote at 1:53 a.m. aren't necessary for now. Time and some sleep soothed the savage beast.

I had gotten past what I had written long before I got the news that Travis Roy -- one of the most sad and inspiring stories sports has ever produced -- has died. He was 45.

Travis was like so many of us. He was a kid with a dream. His was to play hockey. He worked himself through his high school years in Maine and Massachusetts to join the Boston University squad.

Just 11 seconds into his first shift, on Oct 20, 1995, Roy crashed head-first into the end boards against the University of North Dakota.

He was paralyzed.

Life takes turns and Roy took his fate to become a philanthropist, creating the Travis Roy Foundation in 1997. The foundation works to help fund research for a cure for spinal cord injuries.

He wrote a memoir (Eleven Seconds), earned his degree, and became a motivational speaker.

In 2010, Roy was linked with Matt Brown, a hockey player from Norwood, MA, when Matt was injured in a similar fashion. I've come to know the Brown family in a distant way and proudly call them friends.

Matt Brown also has a foundation, and they said in a statement tonight: "We are absolutely heartbroken after learning of the passing of Travis Roy. Travis was a pioneer in the spinal cord injury community, as well as the hockey community. His courage, vision, and determination helped to better the lives of so many. He was the shining light in so many families' darkest days. His legacy will live on for generations, and he will never be forgotten."

I'm heartbroken for all of them tonight. Travis was the guiding light on all of this, taking the awful circumstances of that night in 1995 and making the best of his life.

Complications from quadriplegia took Travis Roy's life today. ESPN's Greg Wyshynski reported that Roy died of "complications from a procedure he needed to maintain his quality of life."

Heartbroken.