The Saturday after he left the Olympics, Mark Fusco recalls signing a contract with the Whalers and playing his first NFL game the following Tuesday. In many ways, he felt this gave him a "logical progression " from his experiences at the Olympics and didn't leave him feeling empty. His NFL contract enabled him to set new goals for himself and try to meet them instead of focusing on his Olympic past. Playing in the NFL was significantly different than the Olympics though; his first season he spent 10 months living out of a suitcase, which felt like "more hockey than I ever wanna play ". It "gets to you ". On the other hand, the Olympics are more difficult because of their short length and intensity. One mistake, anything from eating the wrong food to waking up sick, determines everything. In many ways though, the pressure is responsible for making the Olympics the great event it is.
As a Boston native, getting recruited by the Bruins took away a lot of Ted Donato's pain from not winning a gold at the Olympics. Unlike many other Olympic sports, hockey offers many other dreams to go after and opportunities to play right away and make a living. At the same time though, he never felt he had as intense an experience with the Bruins as he did when he was wearing the US Crest on his jersey, even when his team made it to the Stanley Cup. There was something about not having his teammates worrying about contracts or family and just focusing on playing for their country, that made it a special experience. Something that bothers him about the Olympics today, is that when he was a young amateur athlete he felt lucky and privileged to play for his country, whereas now countries feel privileged to have a given professional player on their team. The sense he had that he was taking and not giving seems to be gone from the games, at least in hockey.
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