Crime in Sports - #15 - How Did He Not Kill Anybody? - The Insanity of Steve "Mental Case" Durbano

Episode Date: May 10, 2016

This week, we take to the ice to check out a former NHL player, who earned himself the nick name "Mental Case" for his antics on, and off the ice. From fighting with players, fans, police, and his wife... to importing major amounts of cocaine, and even and an attempt at pimping. This guy has it all!!Sharpen up your skates, drop your gloves, and have a brawl with Steve "Mental Case" Durbano!!Check us out, every Tuesday. We will continue to bring you the biggest idiots in sports history!Hosted by James Pietragallo & Jimmie Whisman New episodes every Tuesday!!Please subscribe, rate, and review!Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts!Head to shutupandgivememurder.com for all things Crime in Sports!For merchandise: crimeinsports.threadless.comCheck out James and Jimmie's other show: Small Town Murder Follow us on social media!Facebook: facebook.com/crimeinsportsInstagram: instagram.com/smalltownmurderTwitter: twitter.com/MurderSmall Contact the show: [e-mail] on Patreon: patreon.com/crimeinsportsPayPal: paypal.me/crimeinsports See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hey Prime members, you can listen to Crime and Sports early and ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the app today. Discover all the best in audiobooks, podcasts, and originals featuring authentic Canadian voices and celebrity talent, like Brendan Fraser and Luke Kirby's latest sci-fi adventure, The Downloaded. A first listen is waiting for you when you start your free trial at audible.ca. on the Mr. Ballin Podcast, now available wherever you get your podcasts, you'll hear strange, dark, and mysterious stories about inexplicable encounters, shocking disappearances, true crime cases, and everything in between. So go listen to Mr. Ballin Podcast, strange, dark, and mysterious stories on Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello everybody and welcome back to Crime and Sports. Oh boy, we are jacked up today. All pumped up for this.

Can't wait. My name's James Petrigallo. I'm here with my co-host. I am Jimmy Wissman. And thank you so much for joining us. Hope you enjoyed last week's episode. I did. I thought it was fun as hell.

As psycho as usual. They never stop. They never stop. We really have a... We have a knack for finding these. Well, they just have a knack for fucking up constantly. They find us. They find us, Jimmy.

We're just here. We're just here. We're like those mediums. They're like, we're not looking for the spirits. They just find us, man. They just come to us. They find us, and the guy who has found us this week is so much fun. Oh, Jesus, this guy's amazing.

Before we get into this, just want to remind you guys, please, please rate and review on iTunes. Please do. Please do. It helps us out so much. It really is a huge help in the ratings and everything else. It's just a big deal in the rankings. So please get on there.

Do that for us. It takes like 30 seconds. We will love you forever. So thank you guys so much. And to the newest one, thanks. Yes, and to just everybody also, too. We've had a lot of new listeners in the last few weeks, and we thank you guys so much and to the newest one thanks yes and to just everybody also too we've had a lot of new listeners in the last few weeks and uh we thank you guys a ton and uh we're gonna keep coming around we're gonna keep bringing you fresh scum every week

fresh idiots and uh we'll take patrick swayze's tour will be goldberg yes we will take keep coming back to talk to us no prisoners no prisoners let's do this. So, okay, this week, this guy, okay, is Steve Gerbano. Okay, he's an NHL player. We're getting into this. This is our first hockey player. It really is. We've had soccer. We've had bodybuilding.

We've had wrestling and football and baseball. This is our first hockey player. Honestly, hockey players don't do a lot. No, they leave. They're able to kick people's asses on the ice, so they just leave their psychotic tendencies there, most of them. I feel like they just retreat to their cabin somewhere in the Canadian woods and grow their mustache and drink beer, drink some Molson's.

That's how I figure these hockey players live. It's too fucking cold to go out. Apparently so. This gentleman this week is known as one of just the craziest son of a... Probably this is the alpha crazy son of a bitch in the NHL, in the history of hockey, pretty much. I'm on board. Now, I am not an enormous...

Like, I don't know everything about hockey. I know a decent amount about hockey. I'm not as much as football or baseball or basketball, but I'm not like, this isn't soccer. I'm not sitting here going, I don't know what the fuck happened like i know positions and i know shit so hockey fans if we're not 1000 perfect on some of the hockey stuff we apologize on the other hand my extent of it is uh a movie starring emilio estevez i know a lot about this disney film uh in which one team in your league is named after. That's what I know.

That is sad. That's what I know. That actually is a... But this guy was actually... Some of his and teammates' exploits were actually fodder for another hockey movie called Slapshot,

which is a huge... I know you've never seen it, but it's a complete classic. Paul Newman's in it. It's the classic cocky comedy movie. It's got the guys with the glasses with the tape on them and all that, which is actually played by one of Steve Durbano's teammates here later on. So we'll get into that.

I'm going to watch that movie this week. You should. It's a fun movie. But let's get into this harry stephen derbano he's born he's born in toronto stephen derbano goes by steve derbano he's born in toronto ontario he chose the middle name he chose the middle name he's like harry i'm not going with that jesus christ i'm not going to go after something a description of a dick maybe a psychopath psychopath, but I'm going to go with Steve. Sounds less crazy. He was born on December 12, 1951. He goes to school until the 10th grade, which is common.

He wasn't like Eddie Johnson and lived on a watermelon plantation or anything. In hockey, this is very common. These kids get signed when they're 16 years old and they go play professional hockey. I mean, that's what they're trying to do. So he does that. He's a big kid, 6'1", 210, which in the late 60s, early 70s, is a big-ass hockey player.

He's a defenseman. Today, that's a big dude. I'm 5'8". That's a big fucking guy. That's a big guy. But back then, that was a pretty big hockey player. And a defenseman, he's a beast as a defenseman. He's the enforcer.

He's a goon. And hockey fans obviously know what this is. If you're not a hockey fan, let me fill you in on the enforcer. Okay, every team has a guy or two that's your scorer, that's your pretty boy. Picture your Wayne Gretzky. We all know who Wayne Gretzky is. Picture blonde hair flowing as he jukes people

and he shoots it in efforts effortlessly well teams tend to get angry at that and take cheap shots at guys like that and they'll try to take his head off now a guy like steve derbano or in gretzky's case marty mcsorley in the 80s would then come into the game find the guy who did that and immediately beat the living shit out of him that was it no i like him already. No anything. They go up to him, drop the gloves, and fight. And just go. And the other guy knew that that's why he was there, because he took a cheap shot at Gretzky, and that's how it works.

You know what I mean? You hit Sidney Crosby. Exactly. There's always, and Mario Lemieux had McSorley, too. They brought him over there. I mean, it was a, so Gerbano was this guy to the extent of, he wasn't just doing it to get back you for taking a cheap shot he just felt like fighting everybody on the face of the earth basically and he did fight everyone

on the face of the earth on and off the ice for years to come and we're going to get into this um starts out in 67 68 i take it that's when he's you know drops out and he plays for york steel this is like minor league all right you know but But it's still hot shit in Canada, like junior hockey, basically. Yeah, he's a player. He plays for the Toronto Marlboros, which is kind of a good junior league team here, from 68 through 71. All right. Shit starts right away with him.

The hell is a Marlboro? I don't know. They call them the Marlies. That's what everybody, the guys on the team always call them. Also, too, at this point, he's working part-time at the maple leaf gardens uh where toronto professional he's sweeping and shit like that so he can still stay in the hockey mode um immediately in the in the 60s he gets in trouble for assaulting a police officer he gets arrested the story isn't clear because it was in the late 60s in Canada.

So I don't know. There's not a lot of press coverage, but a teammate recalls him getting arrested for assaulting a police officer in 1969. A Royal Mounted Police Officer. A Royal Canadian Mounted Police Officer, probably more than likely. He punched a horse.

He punched him. He punched the horse. So that's, I mean, right away, this guy's like 18 years old. He's like, I need a bunch of cock right now. He's not even in the pros. And he's like, who's going to, yeah. Let me punt you.

I'm going to knock you off your horse, pal. You think you're doing. He is drafted in the NHL 13th overall in the first round by the New York Rangers in 1971. Yeah. 21 years old. Already. Things are going well for him, right? You figure that. New York Rangers, is that what he said? Yeah, New York Rangers. Already. Things are going well for him, right? You figure that.

New York Rangers, is that what you said? Yeah, New York Rangers. Never actually plays for the Rangers. Okay. He is traded to St. Louis for future considerations. Except the Blues? That's the St. Louis Blues. All right.

There you go. I know a little bit. Yeah, trades him to there. Yeah, Jimmy's catching up. Trades him to St. Louis. Future considerations. I got a couple of guys later on who I didn't know who the hell they were, so it doesn't matter.

Let's see here. He played minor league 71, he's playing there plays for st louis gets moved to pittsburgh he threw his he plays till 1979 he's he is a transient son of a bitch wow um he is uh we'll kind of get into the timeline here i'll just run through his career whoever needed muscle at the time picked him up yeah he plays for st louis he goes it's traded to pittsburgh for some muscle there's a really good story about him getting traded to pittsburgh this is 1974 and he's on the team for like six days and pittsburgh was considered a they were considered soft at the time that's why they got him was that when they had lemieux no no this is the 70s he played in the 80s 90 He played in the 80s, 90s. You know, 90s mostly.

Hodgkin's having son of a bitch. Yeah. But this, so they're whatever here. They just get him. Six days they have him. They're trying to toughen up. St. Louis, his old team comes into town. And they're saying before the ice and warm-up, you know, before the game and warm-ups, they're skating around.

He's going around to all his old teammates. Hey, buddy, how's it going? Hey, how are the kids doing? How's your wife? You know, good to see you catching up said the second the game started he is just taking cheap shots at people got in a fight immediately with one of his old teammates who's like his good friend beat the shit out of him get married my regards what the fuck insanity insanity kids i'll take a tooth so that's the type of guy he was. 74, 75, he plays one game and has a severe wrist injury, avoiding a check on the boards.

And this wrist injury is going to come up later also, so keep that wrist injury in mind. Then he goes to the WHA, which is the World Hockey Association, which is an upstart league called the USFL of hockey. Then they started running in the early 70s and ran until the end here. Gotcha. Until he was done, basically, in 79. He took them down.

And then that falls apart. And that's when we get the good stories, too, and a lot of the slap shot stuff comes from when he was on the Birmingham Bulls in 1977, 1978. Great. So we're going to get into all this hockey stuff, but we're going to kind of go through it as a timeline here. I like that. It's going to be fun.

Let's see here. Now, the WHA, World Hockey Association, just to get into that this hockey stuff but we're going to kind of go through it as a timeline here i like that it's going to be fun um let's see here now the wha world hockey association just to get into that a little bit this is kind of like the rebel so when we get it we talk about this later they were the ones that let players be free agents all right this hockey had a reserve clause like baseball where the team could just keep re-upping your contract and you had no choice and they could just pay you whatever they wanted they always had that's nice. They always had, it's the reserve clause. That's the business for the team. Yeah, they always have the reserve, the right to sign you the next season if they want you. They can keep a great player.

Yeah, and then Kurt Flood challenged it in baseball and other guys challenged it. And Bobby Hull was the first guy to do this and he was the big star to jump to the WHA. He'll come up later also and Steve Durbano gets in a fight with him and tears his toupee off of his head. That was stitched in deep.

And throws it into the crowd. So some lucky fan went home with Bobby Hull's toupee and half of his scalp that night. Lots of DNA. Yeah. He could have created another Bobby Hull. So yeah, we'll get into the WHA and all that shit. He starts using coke in his rookie season by the way why the cocaine steve derbano likes his cocaine much like this is the

canadian eddie johnson like if eddie johnson was born in canada this is what his life would have been like he would have been a you know he would have had less shit going on there's less shit going on in canada because it's fucking canada but he would have had this base this is what had been his life he's been like an enforcer that you know did a lot of cocaine he called it he started doing it a little bit in his rookie season and it was just for fun recreational he called it quote his friday night sweetheart that's kind of cute right that is adorable nice it's the nicest way i've ever heard cocaine referred to it's amazing so uh he's in the early 70s. And his troubles with the law start right away, too.

Early 70s. By the way, don't they play weekends, too? Yeah, it doesn't matter. Was Friday night the only night you were using that shit? It's Friday night, sweetheart. It's like in Goodfellas. Friday night was for the girlfriend. It's his party night.

Yeah, it's his party night. Or was it Friday night for the... I don't remember. I think Friday night was for the girlfriends. But anyway. So yeah, early 70s in a town called St. Catharines. It's his party night. Yeah, it's his party night. Or was it Friday night for the... I don't remember. I think Friday night was for the girlfriends. But anyway. For the gumo. So, yeah. Early 70s in a town called St. Catharines.

He's... Which also, he gets arrested there later on. He is arrested for attacking a timekeeper that he claimed was letting players out of the penalty box early. The home players. Because he was on the road. And he said, you son of a bitch. And he tried to attack the timekeeper

and a cop tried to intercede and he threw his glove in the cop's face. And that got him arrested. And so that got him arrested. Charges dropped eventually because it's Canada and he's a hockey player,

so that's fine in the early 70s. In Niagara Falls, right around the same time, he attacks a fan with a stick that was heckling him. He was heckling him. He just tried swinging the stick at him. Oh, that's great.

Yeah, so charges dropped on that also. And hockey fans are vicious, too. I can imagine what that guy said to him. And in Canada, you heckle a hockey player, they have the right to beat you with a stick, apparently, because charges dropped. Canada's a great country. Taste my Easton. And a lot of this he's very very angry everybody says he's volatile just one second he's fine next second off the deep end he's

fighting somebody and a lot of this we think comes from uh his childhood information is very sketchy there's not a lot because i don't know it was the 50s in canada i don't know how much you know whatever uh how much it's documented but his father father is a guy named Nick Turbano. He was a hockey scout and a hockey executive and a real estate guy also. So he is steeped in hockey. In hockey, and he's also a real estate guy. The father rumored to be a seriously abusive alcoholic too, though, which he's an alcoholic and a cokehead, so genetically that makes a lot of sense. The white trash cycle doesn't break until you break it exactly that even canada has their white trash so he was once there's a an old hockey

teammate from when he was a kid a youth league team mate said that his dad showed up to pick him up one day and was drunk and belligerent and beat the shit out of steve in front of the whole team in the parking lot for no reason that's's awesome. So that's the kind of, you know, upbringing we're dealing with. Yeah, that's what we're dealing with. So this is not a surprising deal. His father also bought a team when he was in the minors there, like Toronto Marlboros in the junior league there. His father bought one of the teams in that league.

So his dad had some dough. Yeah, apparently. He was doing okay. He bought the Hamilton Red Wings. And, yeah, he also later, he ran the Sunshine Hockey League out of Jacksonville. I guess he was retired down in Jacksonville. But it's rumored that, and it's known,

later on in his life, the last few years of Steve's life, he was estranged from his father. He ends up going into doing a lot of business with his father. It seems like a lot of abuse here. You get too much involved in your family, and your family sucks. You're going to fucking walk away from him eventually yeah exactly i mean and as far

as hockey goes i mean let's get into his skills and stuff like that here uh he played 220 games in the nhl yeah uh he has 13 goals 60 assists which for a goon defenseman is not bad actually that's 73 points fighting most of the time that That's pretty good. And in the WHA, only in one year, he had 45 games played, six goals, four assists, which again, not bad. The penalty minutes

is his mainstay. He has the most penalty minutes for anyone in the history of the NHL who has like a minimum amount. He averaged 5.1 penalty minutes per game. Per game. Per game. 5.1 penalty minutes per game. Per game.

Per game. 5.1. And a game is three periods of 15 minutes. 20. 20 minutes. He's not playing the whole goddamn game. No, no, no. They have lines.

He might be in there 18 minutes or so. He's spending a third of that shit on the bench. Sitting on a bench behind glass. But he came in, beat the shit out of someone. That was his job. Take the team down one man and sit for five minutes. Oh, in 75-76, he led the NHL with 370 penalty minutes. Wow.

He led the WHA in the one league, one year he played there with 284 penalty minutes. Had 1,127 total NHL penalty minutes, 284 in the WHA. 1,100 and what? 1,127. Holy, that's so many hours. But he had almost a quarter of that in one year in the WHA in only 45 games. So the WHA was wild west. That is so many hours spent watching.

When we get to the Birmingham Bulls here, it's going to be fun. Spent watching hockey and your team being down a man. Being pissed off. And he himself would kind of downgrade his hockey talent. There's a quote from him here.

He says, if I went on talent alone, I never would have made the NHL, is what he said. But other people disagree with him. Based on his scoring

and stuff and his size, a guy, Frank Bonello was a coach with the Toronto Marlboros. And he said he was a young player with tremendous potential. But every once in a while he'd get frustrated and go off the

deep end was the way he put it he said quote you would see him do these things on the ice and you'd meet him after the game and you'd never know it was the same person he was a psychopath field rage on the fucking ice just a maniac and so and there are a lot of people had these you know Just a maniac. And a lot of people had these positive quotes of him. Like Birmingham Bulls, it's the WHA team he played for, the goalie there, John Garrett, and we'll get some more quotes from him later.

He said he was big and mean, he could shoot the puck and make a play, but he'd just snap and he'd be out of control. He could play any system he wanted for a while, but then it was see you later, he was off on his own. So he'd be fine, hey, everybody's doing good, and then fucking snap on it. Just take a skate off and try to stab somebody. That's pretty much it.

This is basically Happy Gilmore is what we're dealing with here. That's great. Except with some talent. And coke. And coke, lots of coke. At 73, he chases down a referee, Ron Wicks, chases him into the timekeeper's area, pushes him, and again, spikes his glove into his face, too.

This is a move he had, apparently. This is his finishing move. Son of a bitch, bang. What are you going to do about this? Is he either going to start a fight or get me arrested? One of the two. He gets suspended for this. That's a big deal in the league, apparently.

You can't assault referees. Players assault all you want. I know he was suspended the first three games of the 76-77 season for shooting a puck at a referee while in an exhibition game in Japan.

It doesn't even matter, bro. You're in Japan. These people don't even know what fucking hockey is. It's the 70 matter. You're in Japan. These people don't even know what fucking hockey is. It's the 70s. They're like, who are these bearded Canadian men? They're blown away

that you're moving on ice. They're like, oh, look at that. And then you're just a son of a bitch shooting a puck at his nutcase.

And those pucks are hard as fuck and you're firing at a guy with no pad. Like, oh, what are you doing, dick? He's expecting it.

Jesus Christ. Jesus. That's awesome. He had some funny medical things. Not funny for him, but a 72-73 Like, oh, what are you doing, Dick? He's expecting it. Jesus Christ. That's awesome. He had some funny medical things. Not funny for him, but he's 72, 73, misses part of the season with mono. Like, shit like that. He's super odd.

Like, later on, too, he misses a part. He's 78. He missed training camp in the start of the season because he had hepatitis. He's got all sorts of weird. He's got the weirdest diseases. He's got diseases and fights in what season did he contract the rickets oh my god and we haven't even gotten into his hardcore crime yet no he's just this is what i mean this guy normally we do the sports and then we do the crime right this guy's sports kind of is his crime and then he does more crime afterwards it's a it's a crime

to hockey that he plays it's his post-career life this is a cherry on top to his guy it's like he's just fighting and doing all this shit catching hepatitis unbelievable what was the other mono the kissing disease yeah he caught that he got that i don't know if he probably kissed a lot of people because he is a loon that's hysterical he liked the ladies he liked the ladies too he liked uh to party yeahia? He liked the ladies, too. He liked to party. He liked the drugs. And I don't know what year this is, but this was a teammate. This is a rumor that Gerbano, one of the teams he played for,

just went into the team office and demanded $400 from whoever was sitting there. I'd like $400, please. And they were like, I can't give you $400. And he says, well, I'm going to break both your fucking legs if you don't give me $400. Shocker. He walked out with $400 from the. And they're like, I can't give you $400. And he says, well, I'm going to break both your fucking legs if you don't give me $400. Shocker. He walked out with $400 from the team's offices. Like, what a psycho. That's great.

Who does that? I need him on my team. That guy's fantastic. He so reminds me of these old wrestlers when I was doing the Jimmy Snuka-like research. I bet he'd get me booked more. Oh, we need him as a manager. Listman needs a weekend. Yeah.

I can't give him a weekend. I'll break your fucking legs if you don't give him a weekend. Okay, weekend, and we got travel, too. We got you a weekend. We'll take care of travel, too. Don't worry about it. We got you first class. We got you covered.

Shit. First class in comedy means a bus ride with the luggage under the bus. That's first class for an opener. First class, the host is going to drive you around. Yeah, the host gets to drive you. Or like a waiter. Yeah. Oh, my God, this is great. for an opener first class the host is going to drive you yeah the host gets to drive you there's or like a waiter yeah uh he oh my god this is great uh 77 in detroit now this reporter is going to come back later on because this reporter that he didn't like yeah writes some hilarious shit

about him later on writes a very scathing article and then writes an obituary for him when he eventually passes away and that obituary is the best obituary in the history of mankind that's a stick around for this obituary because this fucking last line of this obituary is like holy shit that's a doozy this is a top-notch thing here um at this point though in 77 he was in detroit uh on a road game and this reporter was pre-game the reporter was nobody was in the stands reporter was out there uh on a road game and this reporter was pre-game the reporter was nobody was in the stands reporter was out there it's a female reporter too mind you all right um gerbano became visibly upset that he kept missing the net on a three-on-two drill so when he was

done he skated over by the reporter who was sitting alone and threw a stick at her like a spear how dare you ruin my day yeah he pissed off at her for it and then he later on also when he was in prison called her to threaten her life from prison also what the fuck what did this woman do nothing just wrote shit about him yeah wow yeah didn't like her at all uh in this particular incident with the spearing of the stick uh pr person like apologized because she's a member of the press for christ's sake you don't want him to write that up so she doesn't want her to write it up so PR came over

apologized and eventually Durbano was cut shortly after that from the team also wow so that's another thing and he's gonna

leave a lot of places because of his own issues and his own problems and his own dumb shit insanity behavior he's crazy

and it's just he's javelining the press yeah it's crazy and it's nuts he okay here we go uh and another thing too he's just he just flies off the handle and his teammates a lot of times they love him a lot of these guys you read the articles like steve's a great guy and i love him to death crazy as a son of a bitch those episodes but you know i guess in hockey too in the 70s you had there were some crazy people involved and you're like that guy's crazy we didn't do yeah yeah he gets my back out on the ice i guess was the deal but once left to But, you know, I guess in hockey, too, in the 70s, there were some crazy people involved. And you're like, that guy's crazy. What are you going to do? He gets my back out on the ice, I guess, was the deal.

But once left the bench with 59 seconds left in a game because he was upset at his playing time, just took off and they had to have a vote of the teammates to see if they were going to allow him back on the team or not. Wow. Or if he was going to be cut. He's the original Allen Iverson. He's the original a lot of shit.

Was Allen Iverson who did that? A lot of guys did that. Pippen wouldn't go in the game because they called the play for Kukoc. I think Kobe did it too once. Everybody's done it. The Dennehy who got killed last week by Carlton Dodson. He got killed last week. He got killed in 2003.

But we covered last week. He did the same thing in New Mexico and they kicked him off the team. Wow. Apparently leaving the bench early because you're pissed off with your own playing time not okay to do with the team environment apparently uh yeah I never thought to do that when I played sports like I'm just gonna leave so I'm glad I didn't yeah apparently it's the game's the game's not over but it's clearly over for me I'm leaving um uh basically he's trying to here's a quote We're doing their own words. Let's start in their own words here. A quote from Steve Durbano.

Just kind of talking about his role in hockey and, you know, whatever. Okay. In their own words. Here we go. Quote, We can all see that the game has changed, but I think all hockey fans like to see a good fight now and then.

Nobody likes to see the stick swinging, but everybody likes it when two big guys drop their gloves and go at it. He's not wrong. He's not wrong. He's not wrong at all. He is stick swinging also. You know, at referees and members of the media also. A little bit of blow, a javelin at a couple of reporters, but

he's saying all the right things. He is saying all the right things. In his career, now this is compiled from information from 1969 to 1979 uh he apparently was in 125 fights on the ice and he backs up his words apparently 125 that's more than 10 a year yeah he is fucking brawling this guy just my god drop of a hat will throw down i mean that's so much that's drop your gloves.com is this I've never been in that many even close to fights in my life.

If you just Google search Steve Durbano fight, it is unstoppable. Just unending YouTube clips of Steve Durbano just fighting people in the 70s. Is he pretty good? Oh, he's just crazy.

I'll do it. He doesn't care if you're, you know, whoever you are. He doesn't care. He's just like, I'll fight you. I'll just go over there. Just starts throwing hands.

Doesn't give a shit. No, he's just a crazy person. And he's coked up and he's a complete alcoholic through his whole career. Yes. Heavy, heavy alcoholic. So he's feeling no pain. No, I mean, his alcoholism continues through his whole life and it's heavy. Yeah.

I mean, his cocaine use gets out of control, but that tapers off later on. But his alcohol is going to be a serious thing. And he didn't apparently also, too. Here's Steve Schutt, or Schutt, I don't know, apologize hockey fans. Is it S-H-U-T-T? S-H-U-T-T. I think that's Schutt. It's no C. Schutt, I'm thinking.

He's a Hall of Fame left winger, so hockey fans might know him. He was a teammate on the Toronto Marlboros with him, and he said, quote, I talked with him a couple times about it, about his fighting, I assume. I don't know why. He just couldn't control himself. It's too bad, really, because he had genuine talent. He didn't have to be a fighter.

He could play the game. So he's just a psychopath. That's the thing. It sounds like he has such low self-esteem, and that's probably from his dad being a dick. Abuse and this and that. Yeah. But he hates himself,

and he says, I wouldn't have made this league had it not been for me being able to fight. And everybody else is like, he made the league because he can play. He can play. He's a big guy. But he's blown it because he fights so much. But all he does is fight.

Yeah, there's a place for it. And even now, but I mean back then especially, hockey had a big place. But there was a place for fighting in hockey. It was a big part of the game. But, I mean, you don't have to do it to this extent of completely. He felt that was his position. He felt, yeah. And I don't even think it was that.

It really seems like he just went out there and there wasn't rhyme or reason to it. It wasn't orchestrated. It was like, I'm upset and I'm going to go fight that guy for no fucking reason. Nobody's shooting me the puck. I'm just going to blast this guy in the face. Even if it's to the detriment of my team. That's what it was. It's fucking ridiculous what this guy does.

78, 70, and this even translates to the fans here. 77, 78 season. After a game, Durbano's leaving the dressing room. This is in Winnipeg. This is the Bulls, Birmingham Bulls, WHA season. He's leaving the dressing room. A fan, a Winnipeg fan, starts heckling him. He's somehow in the back there, starts heckling him.

The guy's in a suit and tie. So Durbano starts fighting him. Teammate said, you never know how tough a guy is in a suit and a tie. You can't tell. He goes, apparently this guy was pretty tough. Apparently this guy's getting the better of Durbano. Wow. A lot of it, too.

He just played an entire hockey game. He's probably drained or whatever. Still, he should be able to kick a fan's ass. I don't know how big this guy was he could have been in lumberjack he's in fucking winnipeg who knows where the hell this guy was so he starts kicking his ass brawny man likes hockey so the coach walks out sees this runs in the locker room and he's like hey you're kicking the shit out of jubano out here somebody got here so everyone's in the shower so six naked men run out and start beating the shit out of this fan who's on top of him that's

better than the hockey game oh and the fans are yelling at them going hey your dicks are small and they're like that's how they're he's like hey it's cold what do you expect and they're literally six naked hockey players are beating the shit out of brawny man and there is mulson and maple syrup flying everywhere it's a fucking disaster it was catered by Tim Hortons. It's just a mess. Sorry, Canada. Donuts and coffee everywhere. Everywhere. Everywhere. This is the type of guy he was. What happened? I'll just fight this guy anyway, even though the game's

over. And I don't know if I can beat him up. Everybody, bring your dicks. Get out here. That's the craziest thing. They just ran the... It's fucking insane. Did you see that happening in the NBA? Like, first, nobody gets back in the back. No.

You know what I mean? Where he's leaving the stadium. But had there been, like, a Kobe and a fan fighting, and Shaq and Pau Gasol... Running out with their dicks flopping out all over the place. Kobe will handle it. Okay, guys. These guys are like, oh, shit, help Steve. And they all run out there like, we're all okay guys these guys are like oh shit let's go

even they all run out there like we're all gonna help it's amazing what's this all about what's this yeah they're kicking hey first bad canadian accent yay woohoo we are gonna just absolutely offend anybody with accents because we're gonna they're gonna come out because that's what that's life you know what i mean many apologies it's I mean, he developed such a bad reputation for himself. It's like, you know, as a professional, you can't get any worse of a reputation if you're Steve Durbano. And unfortunately, there's other people named Steve Durbano.

Like Steve Durbano, the senior manager at Federal Development Ops Network and Security for Defense and Space at Forcepoint LLC. That sounds professional as fuck. It does. And he speaks Spanish, according to his LinkedIn profile. So this Steve Durbano, people are going to think he's a crazy cokehead lunatic thug. Meanwhile, he's developing things.

The poor real estate appraiser, Steve Durbano from Fresno, California. I don't feel bad for him. He's a real estate appraiser. He just wants to tell you what your house is worth. And you're like, please don't hit me. Please don't hit me. And I don't have any cocaine. I'm sorry. So these people, there's a real estate appraiser. He just wants to tell you what your house is worth, and you're like, please don't hit me. Please don't hit me, and I don't have any cocaine. I'm sorry. So these people, there's a lot of people like that.

Keep your naked teammates out of here. Keep your teammates with their dicks flopping all over. So, yeah, he, late 70s now, I believe it's 76, 77. Nobody had an exact date for this, which is hilarious to me. He marries a woman who is, by all accounts, way crazier than him. Awesome. This lady apparently makes him look just like a little less crazy person. I'm not going to say like a sane person because that would be impossible. But this lady is nuts. Her name's Lisa. I'm going to give you a couple of stories about her to

give you the exact extent. That's my wife's name. Oh, I know. So I know. We're going to give you a couple of stories about her to give you the exact extent. That's my wife's name. Oh, I know. So I know. We're going to build the mountaintop of Lisa right here. Lisa's a pretty unpredictable lady. Your wife, and I know your wife, she's a lovely, lovely lady. Your wife is like Snow White, like a Disney princess, prancing through the forest with birds chirping around her head. Seeing the birds and shit, yeah.

With this lady. I'm telling you you you're gonna go home and you're gonna kiss your wife and you're gonna be like lisa i want to thank you good being who you are when you read as we record this tomorrow's mother's day so i appreciate you that's good it helps it helps uh uh this this the goalie john garrett that we talked about earlier read the quote uh this is a story from him and this is just a little intro this isn't a terrible thing this is just her her wild streak but later on we get in her craziness and her psycho fantastic psychoness okay uh he says the wives were in the wives lounge there in birmingham and he had his

wife there a woman named shannon and uh lisa who is lisa derbano steve's wife said to shannon you're a pretty girl and sh Shannon said, thanks. And Lisa said, you should get your tits done like mine and lifted up her shirt to show her. And was like, come on, feel my tits. And this is in front of like 30 people in the lounge. Mm-hmm. I like her already. She's like that chick from Summer Rental.

Yeah. Another incident with her in St. Louis. Would you tell her they're nice? That's what this is. They're at a party at one point for a teammate and everybody's bringing something to eat and a gift is the thing right they bring brownies no one will eat the brownies

because they don't know what's in the fucking brownies seriously no one ate the brownies how crazy do you have to be that you bring something to the potluck and everybody's like don't touch that one do you have to be that you bring something to the potluck and everybody's like don't touch that one. That's going to be laced with something.

They're crazy. It's brownies. It's going to fuck us all up. We don't even know what's going to be in it. It's going to be bad. You're going to see tracers that you're going to trip over

shit that isn't there. So that's their snack. I mean imagine because I assume there's like a table like a long table with all the food on it and everything's like

half picked apart and there's just perfectly formed brownie. Gorgeous brownie fucking pyramid. Just a pile of brownies that haven't been touched. Like,

we're gonna not do that. Thanks for bringing those. Thanks, but we're, we're watching our wage. You know, we're on a diet. He's a diabetic.

He's got insulin once a day. He's diabetic. And I'm watching my cholesterol. It's just no good. You just ate tacos, bitch. Eat my fucking brownies. This is Canada.

What are you talking about? You're eating back bacon by the fucking handful. Horton's is huge. Just eat this. You're eating back bacon by the handful. Eat my brownie. So this guy, then when it comes gift giving time, her gift was to go up and pull her shirt off

and have him grope her as his birthday present which this guy's wife wasn't very happy about it was right next to him but no steve thought it was hilarious he just thought it was terrific so far i like steve so much he would be fun except he's got this other gear it's that twitch if you keep him in third gear he's just like he's like lenny Dykstra before it all fell apart. He's just a fun weekend. He just coasts. Yeah, but once he pushes that clutch in

and fires it up to fourth, you're like, uh-oh, here it comes. Then you don't want to be around him because you'll be arrested. Don't stick the clutch in this one. You'll be hacked with a hockey stick. There's teammates talking about him sharpening his hockey stick at There's one, there's teammates talking about him

sharpening his hockey stick at the bottom, like trying to make it razor sharp. Like, what the hell are you doing? He goes, I'm going to cut that son of a bitch's heart out.

Like, before the game. This is what he does. Like, this guy's a psychopath, man. Cut that son of a bitch's heart out. And the other, he's such a crazy person that the other hockey players were like,

he's crazy. Like, let's not. It's not. We're all a little out there. We're running around with no helmets. Right. Pucks flying around, fighting each other.

Fucking 90 miles an hour. But that guy, avoid him. He has got problems. So yeah, he's in St. Louis. There's an incident with his wife. They are waiting to leave.

They're all waiting at the team bus, like hanging out in the parking lot, standing there, waiting for Steve. The whole team's there, waiting for Steve to get there so they can leave on the're all waiting at the team bus, like, hanging out in the parking lot, standing there, waiting for Steve. The whole team's there, waiting for Steve to get there so they can leave on the bus to go to the airport. His car finally pulls up. They're late. He pops out of the door, screaming like a lunatic at his wife in the car.

She pops out the other side, screaming. They scream. They start physically fighting each other, tooth and nail, for, like, two minutes. And the whole team is standing there, but they don't want to get involved because he's a fucking maniac and she's even crazier he's punching his wife and she's fighting back and if they get in the middle guess what's gonna happen they're both gonna beat the shit out of whoever intervened and then get back to each other so they're like let's just wait clearly vicious and there's no phone to look down at this is the 70s you can't't look down at your phone and check Twitter.

You can't do that. You have to look at your watch. I mean, hope you have a newspaper on you you can pick up. Like, what do you do? So eventually, they fought for about two minutes with the team watching in horror. And when they were done, she got in the car. Steve calmly picked up his suitcase, came over, and said, all right, guys, what are we doing? Like, that just didn't occur in front of the whole team.

So this is the type of shit we're dealing with now. I like him. He is a fucking loon bag. God, I love that. He's fighting with his wife. Oh, God. So here's where we really, really get the meat. Where the crazy comes with his wife.

Where we can really get into the deal here uh he's on the road this is the 77 78 season with birmingham wha all the crazy times he's on the road in winnipeg uh-huh uh his wife lisa calls the hotel room yep and gets a teammate gets his teammate and roommate phil roberto okay calls him says where's where's Steve? Yeah. He's like, oh, he's out right now. She said, okay, do me a favor. Have him call me as soon as he gets in. He says, no problem. Sure.

He, of course, doesn't come in until the next morning because God knows what the fuck he was doing out there. Whatever the fuck he was. This crazy person. He's fighting people and snorting cocaine off of his hockey stick. He's a lunatic. Cutting out hearts of people. Cutting out hearts. So they said, okay. She said, okay, good. He gets in in the morning and theatic. Cutting out hearts of people. Cutting out hearts. And so they said, okay.

She said, okay, good. He gets in in the morning and the roommate says, hey, call your wife. You know, she calls the wife. The wife tells him that she's already killed his dog. Holy shit. And is in the process of burning the furniture. That's the kind of woman we're dealing with. That's awesome. Hey, honey, how honey how are you oh i'm doing great

you know snuggles yeah uh dead as a door now but the good news is i'm gonna cremate him on the fucking couch on your fucking lazy boy because i haven't heard from you in 18 hours amazing and the goalie the guy who this all came from, the goalie guy said, man, you really love that dog. I don't know why that made me laugh. And then it's terrible that the dog died for this laugh. But it's just, I feel worse for the dog than I do for any of these victims. It feels like it was like a very calm conversation, too, where he was like, hello? Hey, babe, I'm just checking in. Dog's dead.

Dog is completely dead. No heartbeat. Working on the living room furniture right now. Bedroom's gone. Burnt. Up in flames. room furniture right now. Bedroom's gone. Burnt up in flames. Backyard just destroyed. Also burned a tree back there. I just wanted you to call me so that I could ask you,

would you like me to bottle up the ashes? Would you like that? Would you like that? Or do you want me just to spread them in the backyard? Do you give a shit at this point? Unreal. It's fucking great. Unreal.

And I guess apparently this got out in the lore of hockey and the next game the opposing team whenever they would skate by their bench would they would anybody who would do it would bark at their back so that's hockey for you that's oh my god he's just sitting in there going you motherf motherfucker. Thank God I sharpened my stick. I loved that dog. I loved that dog. He's out there trying to cut people's throats. I sharpened my Easton, motherfucker. Growl at me again. Bark, I dare you.

That's awesome. Oh, man. So, yeah, he plays, you know, he goes through back and forth. Like I said, Pittsburgh goes to Kansas City. Kansas City moves to colorado he goes with them and then in the minor league team or with this was the this was no this was the rockies the avalanche was actually we'll get into later uh with the whla when it folded in okay um uh he plays for st louis his last year only plays a few games and he's cut gotcha um

in 78 79 he just it's the cocaine is the main problem. All right. It comes out later. Even he says it. Catches up with him. Cocaine, general insanity. He's just a liability at this point. And he's bad pub, too.

He's bad PR. Sounds like it. And people are, Canada, okay, guys, listen to this. Anybody who's listening in Canada, this is what we all think of you in America. We're going to tell you right now. We're going to level with you. We think that you're all very nice and you don't want trouble. You'll fight if it comes

down to it. I don't mean that. You're not pussies. You're not looking for trouble. You're not looking to get involved in shit. You've got a guy like this who's just, I mean, you have nice Canadian fans, mild mannered people sitting at home and reading about this guy doing insane shit.

And they're like, oh, I like it on the ice, but I don't know about he's tearing up a Tim Hortons. That's going to be a problem. Canadian people to me sound like you see something terrible in public and you judge them internally. And you get home and then you sit around the dinner table and your kids go to bed and then you and your wife make fun of that person. We're just like, how terrible. That's what Canadians do. How awful is that? Whereas Americans will walk by and be like like you're being a cunt right now

and just keep walking yeah you're a real asshole and just keep walking i feel like the canadians might actually like address it the next day with the person in a helpful constructive manner you know maybe you that wouldn't have happened yeah i think i can help you and we'd make you a better where we'd be like if fuck that exactly unless it was this guy's wife where he would have just she would have lit him on fire and all their belongings and the dog. Yeah, I would say so. So he goes, at this point, to the WHA folds. And just to let some of the hockey people here, also to, let's see here, four of the teams end up merging into the NHL.

You get some of them. You get the Edmonton Oilers, which is where Gretzky came from. You get the New England, which then turned into the Hartford Whalers, who I think they're Carolina now, right? Aren't they the Hurricanes? They moved from Hartford, maybe? I have to check. I don't know about that.

That might be an expansion team. See, I don't know my hockey knowledge that well. Quebec Nordiques, who then became the Colorado Avalanche later on. And they had the coolest fucking jerseys, the Nordiques. Really? I love the Nordiques. I'll have to look at it. Blue.

They were just sweet looking. And Winnipeg Jets also then became the Coyotes. So there you go. They fold after 79. Are they Phoenix or Arizona? They're Phoenix, huh? I don't even know anymore. No one cares about the Phoenix Coyotes.

In Phoenix or otherwise. The only person I care about is Shane Doan. That's it. That's all anybody cares about. I don't know much about him either, for that matter. He's the leader in scoring for 20 years, I know. He's their scoring leader in history. And that has gotten them nothing.

Nothing. Nothing at all. Dismissed. Okay. Let's see. Here's an in their own words from Steve Durbano at the end of his career. He said, quote,

but you never expect that your career will end so suddenly. I used to figure I'd play until I was 34 or 35, but I only lasted half that long. The game had changed and they didn't need me anymore.

It's kind of sad, but it's also not really true because most of it was cocaine. Right. They still had thugs throughout the, I mean, Marty McSorley, like I mentioned before,

lived through the 80s It's a very woe is me quote. That's a very, please feel sorry for me. Yeah, they didn't need me anymore. Like,

it just, that's almost like just not addressing the fact that you've got problems. You've got a lot of drugs. You just wrote it all off. Yeah,

you have drug problems and your wife kills your dog and you guys fight in front of teammates and generally, I would assume when his name would be brought up in a front office,

maybe we should bring him in. They'd go, ooh. Did you hear about the dog? Did you hear about the dog? Do you know anything about that? This guy's a psychopath. How about that boxing match between him and his wife out front of the fucking bus? Didn't he attack a timekeeper a few times?

Isn't there like a stabbing? Yeah, but hepatitis last year? We can't spread that around the team. Jesus Christ, no. No, no, no. We can't. You know what, that guy. We can't test for lister team. Jesus Christ, no. No, no, no. We can't. You know what, that guy. We can't test for Listeria.

Jesus, no. We don't have it. Apparently made 500 grand in his career, which not that much, actually. Early in his career, he played for nothing. I mean, he...

You can make that as a fucking tile worker nowadays. Well, when he first signed, he signed... His first deal was for, like, a $10, dollar signing bonus and a nine thousand dollar salary so that's what he made he's making nine grand that's what he made his first this is 69 71 71 which i mean it's you can buy a car for three yeah it's it's a living

yeah but i mean it's not he wasn't no you're not comfortable no no even the major league play major league baseball had a little better than that You're not looking at retirement and you're like, I'm set up forever. No. I mean, then by the end of his career with St. Louis, he made $75,000, I think, his last season. That's in 79? 79, yeah. He made $500,000 in his career, spent it on drugs mostly. Yeah, I would say so.

It went quick, and I assume him and his wife, they had to buy new furniture every three weeks. He made $75,000 his last year. He made $500,000 over the entire thing. So he made almost a fifth of his total income in his very last year. In his very last year. That's sad. Because the salaries were getting bigger. That's really depressing.

If he made it another eight years, he would have even gotten more because of Saki. That's depressing. By 1980, he's retired. He is self-reported here. He says he has a $1,000 a day cocaine habit at this point. He was injecting and smoking it too. So he's freebasing. He's doing everything.

I mean, he's fucking shooting it. You rarely hear of anybody overdosing on coke. You know what I mean? I mean, you can. That's a lot. But it's never... It's always heroin. That's the one that ends up killing people.

You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. The coke, though. So a grand... That's a shitload of coke. A grand is a shitload of of coke as he puts it himself quote and we'll do in their own words quote right around the clock i was doing a gram or two every hour for 24 hours wow wow that's that's a shitload of coke that's a lot of coke absolutely like i don't even know how you would be have your wits about you on that much coke.

That's a shitload of coke. Eddie Johnson's like, I've got to move to Canada because I want to hang out. I thought it was in Miami. Apparently it's all in Canada. Yeah, and he at this point also starts to say how he's doing interviews later on for what he gets busted for here. He's doing interviews and he is saying like look people do drugs in sports basically because at this point 1980 that they were still trying to brush this under the rug as far as you know you had the pittsburgh scandal pirates stealers that whole

thing i mean drugs were in sports were starting to be a big deal and this was uh so they were trying with hockey they were trying to be like oh it's just him he's just a crazy person he's like oh no no no i'm the tip of the iceberg I'm the tip of the iceberg. I'm the tip of the iceberg. And he explains that iceberg right here and a little in their own words here. Quote, look, I never got high by myself. I always got high with other people. There were five or six on some teams, one or two on other teams. But if I get high with one of my teammates and there's only 20 guys on a team, that's 10% right off the bat. Yeah, no doubt. So that's, I mean, that's what he's saying. He's still got his wits about him to do math.

That's pretty important. Yeah, that's good. I mean, it is. I mean, if you think about it, five, six out of 20 young guys that were kind of out and about in the late 70s. That's a force, man. They're doing some coke. Yeah, there's a lot of coke going on. There's a lot of fucking coke going on.

For sure. I mean, and at this point, he starts, by the way, we have to tell you his nicknames also, which are great in hockey. His nicknames are A, his first one was Demolition Derby. D-U-R-B, Derby. And then they just called him Mental Case. That was his Steve Mental Case Durbano. So that just tells you right there what you're dealing with. Steve Mental Case Durbano. I feel like that's like...

Steve Mental Case Durbano. That's like the first couple name, too. Just their couple, him and his wife together, are Mental Case. Mental and Case. They have little suitcases with MC on them. At this point, he's a bartender, too. He's a tending bar. He invents a drink, also, never on a sunday is the name of

the drink and it sounds absolutely horrific it was the runner-up in the bartender toronto bartender competition in like 81 though uh tequila kalua grand marnier milk and cola holy shit i don't know what the distributions are of those particular items but i don't want those things to get and milk that's a suicide milk in the fucking mix here? That's a suicide attempt. That's looking to shit your pants before you finish it. That is called the pants shitter, I believe. That's what I would call it. That is called the intestine liquefier. Or never on a Sunday, as he calls it. That's called never wear underwear on a Sunday. Never wear pants on Sunday because it's just going to be covered in brown. Here's another in their own words. Quote, those guys just don't want to say anything that might make the business look bad.

I'm not looking at the business. I'm looking at the guys and saying, I lost my career because of Coke. You could lose yours too. They're watching you. So, I mean. Now he finally blames it on the right thing. That's when he's in prison for this incident. We're about to get into it.

Wake up call. Wake up call wake up call excuse me uh on february 7th 1981 this is a saturday he is arrested at toronto international uh airport getting off of an air canada flight from miami to toronto but before it was in miami it was in Peru and Bolivia. And in Peru and Bolivia... What got on that plane? Let's see here. Well, after a joint investigation by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and Canada Customs in cooperation with a regional police force here, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police spokesman, Brian Bavis,

said customs officers seized 474 grams of cocaine. Wow. 474. That'll keep him busy for 474 hours. Yeah, that's it. Maybe 236. We don't know. That's a week's worth of coke for him.

Yeah, so he is charged with illegally importing narcotics. And the funniest part of this is how he was trying to do it. Oh, no. Take a guess, Jimmy. How do you think he was trying to do it oh no where take a guess jimmy where how do you think he was trying to get the coke into the country it was on his person where do you think he had okay on his person it was did he eat it no no no no no did he duct tape it to his body no this is even more hilarious this is some this is so 70s to me this is like he had him in false heels in his shoes.

Get the fuck out of town. I swear to God, he had a 474. He put it on lifts. Yeah. And put 474 grams of coke in like platform shoes. He's got goldfish swimming in coke. Yeah, he's got false bones. Imagine that coke ingenuity that someone came up with that.

They'll never figure it out. You can hollow it out, man. You know how people do with Bibles? We do with that. Oh, never figure it out. You can hollow it out, man. You know how people do with Bibles? We'll do it with that. Oh, shit. Do it with my platform. Yeah, come on. Get me my...

I'll put my bell-bottom shoes and my bell-bottom pants on and drape them over the shoes. They'll never see it. Never. How did they catch it? Investigation. They knew this was happening.

Like he didn't stub his toe and it left a white mark? No, no. And this was going on for a while also because there's other people involved. This is not just him. All right. He is the tip of the iceberg, but he won't rap. Gotcha.

This guy's a stand-up cat in this way. He just wants his coat. Let's get another quote from him here. We've got a few on this particular incident. This quote, he says, I guess, quote, I guess I really got into it when hockey ended. I used it a little when I was playing, but really when you're playing hockey, you don't have the time.

Cocaine was a good, easy excuse. All of a sudden, halfway through training camp in 1979, it was over. It was easy to fall into. I was definitely using all the time. That's what we have here. But he also has some things. So, I mean, he's's arrested he's taken in he

gets out and there's two years before this and the sentencing and the trial and all this so in these two years he's working construction um coke field construction worker that's beautiful that's again work all day yeah and then he said quote he quote did a lot of drinking which he does always you know no need to even mention that you've done a lot of drinking you're a construction worker now that's what you do are you awake yeah drinking yes we get it yeah um he separates from his wife lisa which is probably the best thing for him at this point she's not going around showing her tits he probably just adopted a really nice dog he's like i gotta get rid of that bitch yes but he also hooks up with another girl and knocks her up too so i mean you got that going on so come on get it together pal uh works

at a toronto for in a toronto restaurant for 16 months and his drink is the uh runner-up in the toronto bartending competition in september of 82 never on a sunday i assume he beat the shit out of the guy who got first place let me just pummel him unmercifully with a sharpened swizzle stick beat him with a grand marnier bottle until he fucking gave him his trophy. Oh, my God. And he said, too, also the wrist injury was a big deal. He said he never got compensated for that season. So he was very upset and bitter always.

And he was bitter with his agent also. He had an agent that he was very angry at. And he says that he was in the middle of putting together a lawsuit against the NHL when he got busted for coke. He probably should have concentrated more on the lawsuit, less on importing large amounts of cocaine from South American countries. Stay out of Peru and Bolivia, you fuck. Yeah, he said he used all of his money for legal fees at his coke bus,

so he couldn't sue the league now. He said he was suing for the wrist injury. They basically said there was a disagreement with him. They said you needed to file permanent disability within 30 days. And he said, I can't because I was having surgeries four months later. So I couldn't file after that because I didn't know what it was going to be like. I can't write. My wrist is fucked up. It was a bad, bad wrist injury too. I guess his bone got smushed into his hand and it was really bad. Like it changed his whole career. He wasn't the same guy after that, you know, actually, skill-wise.

But yeah, he was under the impression, basically, that it was guaranteed money that he was going to get it, and he never did. And the league basically said, so sue us. Go fuck yourself. NHL was different back then. It was a much smaller thing. They didn't care about the publicity of this. He's a cokehead.

Fuck him. So he's convicted after he pleads innocent, but he's convicted in he pleads innocent. Yeah. But he's convicted in January 27, 1983. He's 32 years old at this point. Wow, so young. So young, yeah. So young.

That's what he said. I thought I'd be playing hockey still at this point. Instead he's, what is that, Midnight Express? He's doing Midnight Express cocaine movements into Canada of all places. He's convicted and sentenced to seven years which is the minimum in this in this case i guess he got lucky reporting uh he could have gotten life that was one of the sentences on the table uh and apparently for that sentence they made a deal where he would waive his right to appeal if he got a minimal seven and get out do the seven and

he doesn't even do the seven and that's the thing he does and the cocaine too this is the other thing the cocaine they say it's worth half a million dollars. He said he was getting $15,000 for it because he was getting it for somebody. Wholesale or some shit? He was getting it for somebody. Oh, he was going to be the guy that brought it. Yeah, he's the mule. Basically.

He said he paid $6,500 in Bolivia for that much coke, which is a good deal. He paid $6,500 in Bolivia. It was 99% pure, tested out by the labs there, by the police labs. 99% pure. So he was bringing in the straight shit. And he wouldn't rat. He says, quote, this is great in their own words right here, Jimmy. This is top notch.

Quote, there were other people involved, but I'm not going to be a rat. I don't want to worry about somebody jumping me from behind or a bunch of guys coming at me from the front. I'd rather do my seven years and walk out than come down here with somebody else and be carried out. I dig him. So he's a gangster. He's a soldier. He's a gangster. But I love, he said, I don't want to worry about somebody jumping me from the back or a group of guys coming from the front because one isn't going to try it, basically, is what he's saying. I'm not worried about one guy coming at me from the front because I'll fight. I just don't want to fight a bunch of guys anymore. I don't

care. I'm 33 at this point. Timekeepers, referees,es i don't give a shit i'll be 39 when i get out of here yeah five six from the back it's a different story um he spends 28 months in prison of the seven-year sentence so wow he does two and a half years yeah not even half jesus not even half that's in prison then he goes into a halfway house for a little while a toronto half halfway house still blaming his agent alan eagl, for not being compensated. Fucking Alan. Fucking Alan Eagleson. He sounds like a shiesty, shitty fucking agent.

Sounds like he's got a great house and everybody hates him. Like a shithead. Not like Lee Steinberg sounds like a guy you can trust as an agent. That guy, Alan Eagleson, sounds like just a snubbag. Their neighbors have a barbecue and they're like, Ugh, Alan showed up. Fucking Eagleson's knocked on the door. He's being investigated for some kind of real estate fraud on the side. That's what he sounds like, just a snub bag. Their neighbors have a barbecue and they're like, Ugh, Alan showed up. The fucking Eagleson's knocked on the door. Like he's being investigated for some kind of real estate fraud on the side.

That's what he sounds like. Just a shithead. Yeah, he's... Everybody, shh! There's no party going on. The Eaglesons are at the door. I've got to get rid of them. Yes, exactly.

And then later on, he kind of changes his tune. He does some articles. People talk to him. And he said that he didn't want to talk about cocaine in the NHL anymore, which that's all he wanted to talk about for years. That's all he wanted to sing about, yeah. And later on, late 80s, he gets out of prison. He does his 23 months, and he said, no one wants to hear about that from a cokehead jailbird.

Yeah. So I think he's just depressed. It sounds like he just has no, you know, whatever. He gets out of jail. He starts working for his father, overseeing one of his golf courses in a golf club he had. He's a goddamn groundskeeper. In Welland, Ontario. I don't know if he, yeah, I don't know what he's just an overseer.

Doesn't sound like a big town. No, Welland, Ontario. He's arrested for shoplifting at this point. Oh my God, it's so far down the hole. Late 80s. He's arrested for shoplifting five shirts from a men's clothing store. When he's arrested, he has $12 in his pocket. Oh, my God.

And claims that he's on welfare. Where's Rock Bottom? Where is it? It's got to be there. He's knocking on a door. Hello? Hello? It's Steve.

I have a 3.30 appointment to hit Rock Bottom. And he does eventually hit Rock Bottom. I brought five shirts. We're not there yet. Is five shirts enough? Do I need more for that? How long will I, is there laundry services at rock bottom? Is there rent?

I got 12 bucks. I got 12. Can I, how expensive can rock bottom be? What can I get for rock bottom? Come on. It's got to be. Jesus. He's arrested for shoplifting.

And then after that, that was like a high profile thing. Because he was trying to make a, it was like people were writing fluff pieces yeah rooting for the guy trying to get back you know yeah people were sad for him and he's arresting five shirts shirts and he's got 12 bucks 12 bucks he couldn't even buy a shirt yeah he couldn't even be like i was gonna buy one shirt but then i was like i like all four of these too he couldn't buy an item and then steal a couple right he had to just steal it all i don't have anything i don't have anything i came shopping i have nothing you have a cufflink maybe i don't know not a silver one like i really can i take the buttons off these i really like the buttons yeah you know like the one in the pocket and the little plastic baggie that i

i can use that for cocaine wait no stop don't use the button baggie for cocaine keep the baggie what am i doing um so at this point too he starts helping his father plan an executive golf course. And at this point, shit starts going down. It feels like Dad started to feel real sorry, too. Yeah, he's about to hit rock bottom. In 93, he's told by a doctor that his liver is in such bad shape, he's going to die if he doesn't stop drinking immediately. And that news alone makes you want to go have a fucking drink.

And he doesn't stop drinking at all. No. He just keeps drinking more heavily. I don't blame him. Mid-90s, the Hockey News did a piece on him, Hockey News magazine or something, and he was selling vacuum cleaners door to door. Oh, Jesus. This was after the liver thing and the shoplifting. Oh, my God.

Not good at all. It doesn't get worse than that that's like the stereotypical fucking wandering douchebag job wandering nobody and here's rock bottom here it comes he's trying to be an entrepreneur yeah so let's give him credit for that yeah he's not he's like i can't sell vacuums anymore it's either rock bottom or like the start of something like i saw pursuit of Happiness That he was selling shit door to door And this isn't drugs so we'll give him credit for that He doesn't do drugs He instead tries to start a prostitution ring That's his answer to this

You won't buy this sucker? How about this sucker? Yes he is He's arrested in September of 97 In St. Catharines, Ontario Which coincidentally was the same place that i think he roughed up the timekeeper earlier so he's gonna stay out of saint catherine's uh he was on welfare at the time and receiving three hundred dollars a month in a hockey pension

this was when i guess when they did a union deal to get the guys back pay um but he uh you know that wasn't enough so he is uh puts out personal ads looking for escorts, is what he does. Puts out personal ads looking for quote-unquote escorts, which are really just hookers in this sleazy prostitution ring. This is the most Canadian thing ever, by the way. Not the crime, but the circumstances. He has a woman meet him at a Tim Hortons donut shop. So you have a hockey player meeting you at a Tim Hortons.

You can't get any more Canadian than that. That's as Canadian as it gets. Unless he beat you with his hockey stick. That'd be the only way. So meets this blonde, attractive woman. They go over various acts that he expects her to be able to perform, prices that she'll ask for and receive herself from him. Gave her a code name

that that's her you know she's on the team like your employee number right this is your whore employee number here you go your whore employee number is bubbles your whore employee number is gave him a code name uh problem is turns out she was a cop whoops a daisy whoops a daisy oh no oh no that's definitely rock bottom that's rock bottom so now he's charged with attempting to procure a prostitute which is language they use for pimping you know and it's not so bad for him it's so bad so now he is in goes back to jail yeah he's convicted there's three a couple years go by actually and then he's finally convicted on april 21st 98 for running uh illegal escort service in a hooker factory.

So he's screwed there. He goes to back to prison. Only three months, actually, he gets for this, which I'm shocked about. That's solid. Yeah, that's not so bad. Not bad, right? But you come out and you've got nothing. So now he's got all this, this horrible reputation. He's sold. What's his resume

look like? What's he supposed to do with his life at this point? Well, I sold vacuum i can beat the shit out of people out of a hockey stick i can rip a guy's toupee off and get it at least 12 rows into the stand um i make a really mean drink that'll make you shit your pants four seconds after you drink it he's useless and my ex-wife has great fake tits so can i have the job or no is there benefits what are we looking at here do we get dental is there 401k i did play hockey i really need the 401k i need it bad i need a retirement plan unfortunately for him he really doesn't need that much of retirement plan he's released from prison in uh june of 1998 takes a job with an alberta-based carpet cleaning

company which that might be lower rock bottom than cleaning carpets, I think, is worse than running a prostitution ring. You're sucking shit out of fibers. It's terrible. From the bottom of people's feet. That's the worst job. So at that point,

he moves to Yellowknife in the Northwest Territory. Oh, boy. This shit is out there. He's damn near the North Pole now. This is like Lewis and Clark shit. He needs a sack of Jouia. Yeah, he's basically out by Alaska in the wilderness in the middle of nowhere,

and he's the company's rep out there for carpet and furniture cleaning. You're in the middle of the forest. Nobody even has fucking carpet. There's no houses. Well, I mean, what are you cleaning? Well, when the moose comes through the house, you have to be able

to clean the carpet afterwards. He's cleaning vacation homes, probably. I can't imagine there's that many people that live up that way. It's amazing, but he stays up there

and everybody says, basically, people, when they go up there, it's like they go up there just because they've run out of options. They're going up there to die. It's like here,

if anybody moves to Alaska or like, they're fucking, they got an issue. What the hell are you doing that moves to Alaska, we're like, where the fuck have they got issues? What the hell are you doing that for? Yeah, they're probably crazy. This is basically like Ted Kaczynski shit. Like, he moved to the cabin.

That's what he did. He just hates technology. He hates it. So he stopped doing drugs at this point. That's great. He was clean of drugs, but drank his ass off. Oh, sure. I mean, he was sitting in the woods. What the hell else is he cleaning?

Imagine you clean carpets all day in the middle of the forest, and then you come home to your wood house, your woods house, and you sit there. What are you going to do? You're going to drink. There's nobody to beat the shit out of,

so you're going to drink. Unfortunately, that leads to his death on November 16, 2002, at the age of 50. Wow. 50 from liver cancer. He got 50 years out of this thing. Yeah, liver cancer, man.

That's too bad. I mean, that's 50 years. They were 50 hard years. Yeah. I mean, 50 years. And this woman, a lot of obituaries about him. Yeah. But the woman that he threw the hockey stick at.

Yes. Like a javelin. Let's hear her words. Had her final. She's going to have the last word. She got's hear her word had her final she's gonna have the last she got the last dig at it she's gonna have the last word on steve derbano here uh first of all she starts the article by saying i haven't spoken to him for a while and quote the last time i spoke to steve derbano he threatened to kill me so that's how that's how she starts out the obituary and then she says like a lot of like, you know, he's like, you're supposed to say nice things during an obituary.

I'm trying my best here, but I'm going to also tell it like it is. It's so it's so sad. And then we read the whole obituary. And the last line of the obituary is, I mean, this is how you want to be summed up in your life here. And this is in like the major Toronto newspaper too. Quote, he was a thug, a pimp, a druggie, and a psycho. Other than that, I'm sorry, he's dead. She tried so hard to say something nice.

She's just like, I'm sorry, he's dead. That's all I got. Might be the worst obituary line i've ever heard as succinct as you can be to something a human being is wonderful ever and it's amazing but yeah turbano guys i just have to tell you guys look up steve turbano fight yeah just look up fighting youtube steve turbano endless and it's you know, it sounds like the fight is just him projecting his struggle with life. He just has to struggle with somebody. You can tell, like Eddie Johnson, you can tell a lot by the way a guy plays on the court,

how he lives off the court. That's the same exact thing. He's just struggling to get through it. And through this, guys, the information that we don't have because they didn't keep records of it because honestly in canada in the 70s if you're a hockey player they let some shit slide i mean here they would let baseball and football players slide in the 70s all the time they would let these hockey players slide because he got arrested apparently countless times countless bar fights he's known as like if he goes out he's a psycho he's fighting somebody out in the bar. He's already fought someone in the game,

now he's going to go out in the bar and fight another guy. He didn't even make it to the bar the one night. He was just outside the dressing room, and he's throwing down with some guy with naked teammates helping him out. So it's a complete mess. This poor son of a bitch. Honestly, I kind of feel bad for him. He's kind of just an

unsettled soul, this guy. And I never quite found his niche. And, I mean, I guess he did have a prostitution ring that might have hurt some people, but he never really hurt anybody who wasn't... Yeah, that's a victimless crime. You know what I mean? He didn't...

Yeah, I mean... He wasn't out there actively injuring people on purpose. He wasn't looking for teenage girls. He wasn't looking for, like, you know, he was just trying, whatever. The person he hurt the most was his ex-wife. Yes, probably, I'm sure. And, yeah, well well she also killed his dog right so she kind of and i don't not i do not him at all no and i don't and i don't advocate domestic violence but if you kill the man's dog that's worth a smack i think maybe right that's okay yeah yeah you're gonna catch

i think at that point you're just that's you're squaring off at that point like you killed my fucking dog like i think we're going to, I don't know if you guys can hear that, but there's some, there's an alarm. There's some heavy alarms going off outside

the Crime and Sports Studio that normally it's very quiet and I don't know how we can hear that, but I hope you guys can't hear it. But if you can, apologies.

Crime and Sports Studio is not in the greatest neighborhood. So, you know, but hey, that's what we can afford. What are you going to do?

You know why? Because we're a grassroots organization, Jimmy. It's fucking free. It's free. We're not a's what we can afford. You know why? Because we're a grassroots organization, Jimmy. It's fucking free. We're not journalists. We don't have a big network. We say this all the time. You know what we have? You guys listening to us. You guys have been so cool.

And we can tell you guys have helped spread us around a lot and keep it up. Please thank you guys so much. Everybody that's followed us on Twitter, at Crime and Sports, thank you guys. Facebook uh facebook.com backslash crime and sports you can email us at crime and sports at gmail.com please do that uh jimmy give him your twitter at wisman sucks w-h-i-s-m-a-n sucks that's for twitter and instagram and i am at jimmy p is funny there um we keep it up we were going to do a guy named mike danton this week but he's a hockey player

also but this story is way too twisted this is so fun you got to give me like a month or two on We keep it up. We were going to do a guy named Mike Danton this week, but he's a hockey player also. But this story is way too twisted. This is so fun. You've got to give me like a month or two on Mike Danton because it's deep and twisted, and I was like, whoa, I need some time to investigate. But this one was just fun anyway. This one was so much fun.

It ends terribly. It's tragic. It's a guy blowing opportunity, tragedy, mental illness, alcoholism, drug abuse, crime. It's got it all. is this was a good crime and sports uh thing no murder none what are you gonna do that's okay but there was a death there's a death and and and there was a canine murder and then his the dog was murdered and the wife i'm sure someone killed her and put her in a ditch at some point in her sad life because she seems like

a disaster dog killing bitch i hope somebody hacked her tits off ha so I'm surprised it wasn't Steve Giovanna I'm taking him back takes him the yellow knife and sits in a cabin with him and drinks

himself to death I'm gonna sell him for coke his wife's tits in a jar I'm gonna sell him for labat Jesus Christ his sharpened stick and his wife's tits

in a jar that's his mantle he's like all right I'm good now I can drink myself to death thank you guys so much. Please join us next week. Come on back. See us again.

Please, like I said, rate and review on iTunes. Spread us like a virus. I love it. Give them, you know, tell all your friends. Tell anybody you can. Live from the

Crime and Sports studios. We love you so much. Thanks, guys. Keep the Crime and Sports movement going and we will see you next week. Thank you. Bye.

Hey, Prime members. You can listen to Crime and Sports early and we will see you next week. Thank you. Bye. Hey, Prime members. You can listen to Crime and Sports early and ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today, or you can listen early and ad-free with Wondery Plus and Apple Podcasts. Before you go, tell us about yourself by completing a short survey at wondery.com slash survey. If you don't know when Crystal Pepsi was discontinued, what was in Al Capone's vault, or which famous meteorologist is Lenny Kravitz's second cousin, then you haven't spent enough time on Wikipedia. But that's okay. I am here for you. I'm Darcy Carden, and I'm inviting

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