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Feel-Good Foley

Posted: Jul 6th 2007 By: CMBurnham

Mick Foley wishes he could just talk about Santa Fe de la Laguna, and a little girl named Rosa Maria.

It's not that the Long Island pro wrestling icon is necessarily trying to skirt the issue that everybody wants to ask about. Some of the critiques he's given World Wrestling Entertainment in the past would burn a golf ball-sized hole in your ear, so he's not adhering to marching orders.

It's just that when finally reached on the phone to talk about the bizarre double murder-suicide involving fellow grappler Chris Benoit, he has a different story to tell. It involves hope and smiles and humor, all the things we need to hear about when tragedies overcome us.

You see, at around the same time that things were going on at Benoit's home that don't need repeating, a different scene was unfolding in Santa Fe de la Laguna, in the western Mexico state of Michoac?n. Foley was mugging for the camera with Rosa Maria, a young girl he sponsors through Christian Children's Fund.

"I joked with her that not many children have a sponsor with their own action figure," says Foley.

The previous year, Foley had traveled there on a CCF study mission and found an early childhood education/community center that had run out of funding-and Rosa Maria, who connected with him. Since 2004, he had tried to improve upon a standard relationship with the charity that dates back to 1992.

"I guess I was just a typical sponsor, probably a worse-than-average sponsor. My checks were often late, and I didn't write [the children] all that often," he admits.

But nobody missed one of his latest checks, which prompted his return for the grand reopening.

"They put up a plaque with names on it in order of the size of contribution, and the first two were the Dalai Lama and me. Not bad company to be in," Foley says with a discernable hint of pride in his voice.

Foley has, in essence, become pro wrestling's Angelina Jolie. The "King of the Death Match," who over the years has used more barbed wire than a Texas rancher to maim opponents, is heading to Sierra Leone in September to learn more about the plight of child soldiers.

How do two guys, Benoit and Foley, who have lived rather similar existences, turn out so differently?

"Everybody's looking for easy answers," Foley maintains, "and there are no easy answers."

That got me thinking about Benoit. Steroids? It does appear that he was an abuser. But if steroids caused this kind of godlessness, wouldn't we have had to deal with similar tragedies from athletes in assorted sports who have shot everything but Drano into their bodies for decades?

Concussions? Foley's head has been bounced around as much as anybody, and he is a New York Times best-selling author who earlier this year spoke at MIT.

A stressful schedule? The travel and family detachment a pro wrestler faces is grueling. But a friend made a good point to me the other day. While the Benoit situation was unfolding, the other big story was former officer Bobby Cutts Jr. allegedly killing his pregnant girlfriend. Not one member of the media has tried to link his work with the Dayton Police Department to his reported action, even though law enforcement is a pretty stressful career.

"There are all kinds of people who want to ridicule Roger Clemens because of his work schedule. So there's no way to satisfy everybody," Foley says. "If somebody's burnt out [in WWE], they ask for time off. That's what Chris had done in the past, and what I've done in the past. There's no question that working on the road full-time with WWE is a difficult lifestyle. But to try to even insinuate that a rough job can result in a double murder-suicide is really a stretch for me. The only person responsible at all is Chris. I think to try to hold his employer or his job as responsible at all for his actions is wrong."

That said, the death of Eddie Guerrero in 2005 brought along WWE's Talent Wellness Program to test for substance abuse, and suspensions have been doled out since. This latest tragedy will likely lead to an even more stringent policy, but as baseball has shown, there's no single wave of a wand that is going to instantly solve a systemic issue.

Why is it, though, that when the problems in baseball are discussed, all the talking heads are trying to save the sport, but when wrestling has an issue, commentators dismiss the profession as Satanic and hope it meets an early grave?

"It's been that way for a long time," Foley says of the naysayers. "You can ask any Make-A-Wish chapter, literally, ask any one, about their feelings about WWE and they'll give you a completely different story because they know that most of the guys are more than willing to help out and really see it as an honor to be able to put smiles on faces that don't get to smile too often. When people get to know the wrestlers a little bit, they are almost always impressed with how down to earth and generous with their time they can be."

That's why Foley says he doesn't find his charity work as much of a paradox as others do, considering that his career has been spent making people feel good. In the middle of the Benoit tragedy, he's waiting for a call so he may return to WWE for a short time and "lighten the mood."

After what the wrestling establishment has been through, some of Foley's antics-Mr. Socko and Duke Love come to mind-would be a welcome diversion.

Until then, he'll focus on his philanthropy and his family. Wife Colette and his four kids are doing great, having just filmed a pilot for an A&E reality show in their home. Before our call ends, he says with glee that younger sons Little Mickey and Hughie are all healed up-he chronicled in The Hardcore Diaries, his latest book, how the pair was in the hospital with viruses. But he uses that as a motivation for people to give, noting, "The same virus that put my kids in the hospital for two days can end a life in a lot of countries around the world."

Pretty deep stuff from a guy who used to pull out his hair on TV to get our attention. Hopefully, WWE will bring Foley off the bench soon. After talking with him about Rosa Maria, I know I certainly felt a little better.