File this one under: Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

Imagine you're a highly paid defenseman in the NHL, and you are about to become a free agent. You don't want to do anything in the summer to make yourself an unattractive item in the free agent market. Maybe your old team wants you to come back for another year. Maybe some other team will bid a lot for you. You want to be in the gym and in the rink all summer long, right?

If you're Patrice Brisebois, the answer is a resounding NO. Brisebois regularly competes in amateur Formula Un racing. On Saturday, he finished fifth in a preliminary race at the Canadian Grand Prix.

Am I being a prude, or is this the kind of activity that teams and player agents should find to be grossly objectionable? F-1 racing, even in the amateur circuit, is a very dangerous thing to do, and the team should be very worried about their investment (player). I should say especially in the amateur circuit, where the drivers are less skilled, and probably more likely to crash. I know drivers routinely "walk away" from magnificently fiery crashes, but it's probably not something that is smiled upon in the GM's office when he sees a player racing cars. Baseball players tend to be motocross fanatics, and I know that many players have clauses in their contracts expressly forbidding participation in such high-risk activity. Other professional athletes are usually begged by their team and their agent to not do things like ride motorcycles or anything else that could get them injured in the off-season.

Why does Brisebois' agent allow him to go in these races? My understanding of this is that this IS NOT a celebrity charity race, where they're going 58 mph in a Mazda RX-7. They're racing Ferrari F430s. Granted, this is a "road" car, but the stock specifications have this car going 0-60 in under 4 seconds and a top speed of 198 MPH. They're not racing stock versions. The ones they're driving are more powerful than that.

Like I said, I might be too much of a prude, but this seems like an overly risky thing to do, and I'm surprised the powers that be are allowing him to do it year. after year.