A short film featuring NHL hockey player Mike Fisher, No. 12 for the Nashville Predators, released Thursday on iamsecond.com. Fisher, who plays center for the Predators and is married to award-winning country musician Carrie Underwood, is the first NHL player to join the elite roster of I Am Second films, which includes athletes, actors, models, musicians, pastors, politicians and everyday people.
In the iamsecond.com film, Fisher shares about his personal and professional life struggles. Growing up in the hockey town of Peterborough, Ontario, Fisher’s childhood dream was to become an NHL player. Raised in a Christian home, as a child he sought to balance school, faith and hockey.
At age 17, Fisher moved away from home to pursue his dream and by 19, he was drafted by the NHL Ottawa Senators.
“I’ve made it to the NHL and made my childhood dream,” Fisher says in the film. “Everything was great on the exterior, but the interior was not good at all.”
Fisher describes his next few years as a time filled with bad decisions and masquerading his values and faith in an effort to pretend everything was all right.
“I remember signing my first contract. I was 19 years old,” he says. “It’s kind of a little bit unbelievable. You know, that should have been … that’s every kid’s dream, to sign a contract, and I remember going out that night to a bar … gettin’ drunk … making a bad decision … I was letting people down.”
It wasn’t until Fisher realized that despite reaching his dreams, he had been searching for answers in the wrong places. It was then he started on a track to change his life and return to his faith.
Over 14 seasons, Fisher has overcome various injuries to forge a notable career in the league. In 2012, he received the NHL Foundation Player Award, which recognizes commitment, perseverance and teamwork on and off the ice.
I Am Second, launched in 2008, features more than 100 films of individuals who have stepped in front of the camera and declared, “I am second.” The website iamsecond.com and its Spanish counterpart yosoysegundo.com feature stories of hope and transformation.
Based in Dallas, I Am Second launched one of its multimedia city campaigns in Nashville in 2012. Fisher’s film is one of several films involving Nashville residents featured at iamsecond.com. He is the first native Canadian to be filmed, supporting I Am Second’s social media outreach in Canada.
