Always an iconoclast, Witt was not just a hockey-playing surfer. You may also remember him as one of the first hockey players to get tatted up.
His body art was featured in Sports Illustrated way back in 2007
. Although more commonly found around the league these days, when Witt started, he was definitely doing his own thing. "I don't do your traditional hockey player stuff. When guys were on the golf course, I was in the tattoo shop." He figures he was one of - if not the - first player to be fully sleeved, but come puck drop, Witt was all about the team.
When he retired in 2010, he and his wife Salima, and their kids, Aliana and Safiya, moved from Florida to a 100-acre ranch in Montana. They had horses, but don't be fooled - this is still Brendan Witt we're talking about, so this was no ordinary ranch. Witt's wife Salima is licensed to care for primates and other animals, and she'd been running a monkey rescue outfit in Florida. In Montana the wildlife refuge really took flight as they housed and cared for not just primates, but birds of prey, deer - even a few yaks. Perhaps the whacky crew of assorted animals helped ease Witt's transition from the locker room to civilian life and kept him from missing the game too much. He liked it in Montana - the whole family did - but it was a long way from the beach, which he missed. Luckily, his daughter Aliana is also drawn to the water. She'll be starting college at SDSU this fall and doing an internship at UCSD mapping coral, so the family moved to San Diego to be closer to her. Now Witt can hop on his beloved board without first hopping on a plane.
When he's not in or on the water, Witt still watches hockey, and he sees lots of changes in the game over the last 10 years, He remembers noticing the old way of playing hurt starting to die off during his last few years in the league - though when you play the same day you get hit by a car, you might be in a category all by yourself when it comes to playing hurt. "It's totally different than when I played," he said. He likes the speed, but perhaps misses some of the physicality. And he couldn't help but poke fun at the way the game has changed in terms of fighting: "Today's brawl is just two guys yelling insults at each other," he said.