from Jeff Seidel of the Detroit Free Press,

Joe Murphy, the Detroit Red Wings' No. 1 overall draft pick in 1986, wanders outside in a steady rain, eventually finding a place to sleep for the night in the doorway of a small restaurant.

His black tennis shoes are soaking wet and the bottom of his feet have pruned and turned bright white.

Murphy earned more than $13 million while playing 15 seasons in the NHL, but he is homeless again, just like last year. He doesn’t own socks, so he rips a T-shirt into strips and wraps them around his ankles.

“These are my socks right now,” Murphy says. “My feet have gone all white. Freakin’ nasty. I don’t need to remove my toes, I don’t think. But it’s going to be stinging and nasty, right?”

Dozens of people have tried to get Murphy off the streets of this small tourist town the past two years, including the NHL Alumni Association, members of the local police department, former teammates, his lawyer and an entire team of mental health experts and social workers. He refuses almost all of it.

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