Crime in Sports - #193 - None Of This Is Good For You - The Capriciousness of John Kordic

Episode Date: January 28, 2020

This week, we try not to blink because we would miss this shooting hockey star, and his unraveling life. A Canadian kid, achieving his goal by making it all the way to the NHL, and serving as the resident goon, beating up anyone in his path. The problem is when you have a propensity for violence, and you mix it with a cocaine addiction, and an enormous amount of steroids, you get a whole lot of insane things happening, in a very short amount of time! Skate around with the Stanley Cup, never meet a person that you don't want to punch, and make sure to take your steroids with John Kordic!! Check us out, every Tuesday! We will continue to bring you the biggest idiots in sports history!! Hosted by James Pietragallo & Jimmie Whisman Donate at... patreon.com/crimeinsports or with paypal.com using our email: [e-mail] Get all the CIS & STM merch at crimeinsports.threadless.com Go to shutupandgivememurder.com for all things CIS & STM!! Contact us on... twitter.com/[e-mail]/Crimeinsportsinstagram.com/smalltownmurder  See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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gmail.com and you can make a one-time donation there and that will make you just as much of a producer and honestly just as much of a close friend that we love to death so thank you for that everybody that does that we have for you today a wild episode it's a hockey episode so once we get into all the brain damage sports obviously are are going to be the fun ones and the problem like floyd mayweather he's in a brain damage sport but he's been hit like eight times in his whole career so his brain damage was minimal this was that was him at full capacity full mental capacity so that's tough. Today we have a guy who quite possibly, if the whole CTE thing was around at this moment in time,

would have definitely probably registered on that scale, I believe, and probably explained a lot of his actions and mixing it up with what he was doing. It's interesting. This is kind of one of the shooting star kind of legends of hockey. Not legends in terms of one of the greatest players ever, but just like the story of him. What could have been? Yeah, it's this weird legend. So let's talk about it.

John Cordick. You ever hear of him? John Nicholas Cordick here. Oh, Nicholas. Oh, yeah. The Nicholas. Well, him. John Cordick. Nobody knows that. We had his his poster john nicholas that's what you say yeah well you look used to looking at his driver's

license i know so that's the thing you're used to seeing his official identification so uh march 22nd 1965 is when he's born he is a a Canadian fella, as you might imagine. He's a hockey player. And, you know, he's a good one, so he's probably Canadian. He's born in Edmonton, Alberta. That is hockey country right there. That is oil and hockey. That's the two things they care about.

Those two words are very specific to a region. Yes. Edmonton, Alberta. You know exactly where it is. That's what I mean. It is oil and it is people drinking after they've worked on oil. That's pretty much what Edmonton, Alberta. You know exactly where it is. That's what I mean. It is oil, and it is people drinking after they've worked on oil. That's pretty much what Edmonton is. And then hoping the hockey game's on tonight.

So cold there, it's shocking the oil doesn't freeze. Yeah, fuck, it doesn't. Imagine that all winter. Well, there goes that job. Eight months out of the year, we don't have that. So that's not going to work. Now, his parents parents john's parents are immigrants uh not from but they're from immigrants from europe actually they are his

parents their names are ivan and regina and they're from yugoslavia yeah they came there uh they came in the in the early 60s to canada from yugoslavia so that's you know they have a different it's a different, they have an upbringing. If you have immigrant parents or even like if you had to grow up in an immigrant parent's, a grandparent's house, it's a weird feeling of being different of like just the normal things you see on TV, like in sitcoms, you're like, well, we don't have meatloaf for dinner. You know what I mean? Like it's just little little things and even as it goes on further can't really relate no i felt that way in the 80s as a little kid you'd watch like sitcoms and everybody is like sitting around on the couch eating popcorn together and like the

fuck is that no one's screaming at each other there's no you know drama there's no you know nobody in a house coat chasing you with a kitchen utensil to hit you with little james's life was not alpha. It wasn't alpha. It wasn't family ties. I'd look at that and go, wow, look at them all eating breakfast together. So it was just different. So you feel like, you know, even though you're American and nobody knows, but you feel like everyone knows that that's at home.

And like you ate something weird last night that they wouldn't know what it was and shit. I smelled funny. Yeah. You feel different. It's a different different feeling which is i'm telling you it is i feel for people and going the opposite way as somebody that did kind of have that life apart from the beatings uh going into friends houses where they were immigrants or their family were immigrants that smell in that house it's a very straight you're like yeah fuck's happening in here yeah that's what i mean what do you guys do that doesn't

smell like child abuse that's yeah what's happening well if it is it's an ethnic child abuse it's different it smells like your family loves you and they're beating you to guide you yeah that's not an abuse for like no no no getting aggression no no that was uh just overreaction to you not fulfilling your potential, mainly. That's an immigrant beating. You could have been better, damn you, if you could beat for that. I didn't fucking come all the way over here so you could be a lazy son of a bitch. It's like the Henry Hill beating in Goodfellas.

You don't have to be a bum. You don't have to be a bum. That's it. That's what it is. It's that beating. It's a different type of beating. My house beating just smelled like Coors Light. Yeah, it's a different beating.

It's a way different beating. I remember me and my cousin, we just wanted to be normal, though. We just wanted to like, we'd be eating weird shit. Why do we have to, like, what the fuck? Pasta seven times a week. Well, no, it was all other weird. Grandma grew up in like, yeah, no, but I i mean she grew up in like a you know a village in the 30s and 20s she plucked a chicken oh plucked yeah they were they killed fucking

animals i mean they were it so they would have like weird peasant food that you'd eat like weird fucking you know world war ii fascist occupation fucking and you're like we're like in new york in the 80s with like a you know a super bus shop right right up the street we're like you can go get anything you want right there it's not just whatever's growing or whoever's you know rooster wandered away what's happening what are we eating slinging a chicken in the front yard it'll be all right this is pouring polenta on the table right on the table no plate like what the fuck are we doing i remember me and my cousin were like what is this this isn't normal no other kids have to do this we just make trails in it with our spoon chunks of sausage and shit like what is happening why are we eating this so kind, kind of nuts. No, we weren't.

You're just letting it run off the table. Yeah, we were just moving it around and being like, okay. We're done now. Can we go to bed? Yeah, that's what it was. I'd like to go to bed, please. I just pushed my Hot Wheels through that. Yeah, it looks good.

Looks like I ate something. Really just a track of an 86 Corvette. So his parents, like I said, from Yugoslavia, settled in Edmonton. And his father in 1972 is when he discovered hockey. He was nine years old, which is late for a Canadian boy to discover hockey. And mainly because his parents weren't Canadian. So there wasn't like a tradition of everybody watches hockey on Saturday there. They have the Saturday night in Canada, hockey night in canada deal it's a you know big

deal sure that didn't they weren't into that so they went to see the canada cup competition in 1972 and uh and they they were like oh look at this hockey because there's a parents didn't know shit about they didn't know hockey existed in yugosavia in the 50s. They do nothing of hockey. So John here, John actually says of his father, quote, he liked it. I was nine, so I started late. He just liked what he saw. His dad was like, oh, this isn't bad to watch. And he was like, I want to do this.

He just saw it. He liked the game. He thought it was a fast, fun game. And then also he saw there was fighting. Yeah. And he thought that was fun, too. Hell yeah. Little boys see that and go, holy shit, this is great.

Like, you can skate around and play. And then if somebody makes you mad, you're allowed to just fight. This is fantastic. I'm in. Drag you right away. They put you in a box for a minute. Who cares? Two minutes.

Cool off. Great. All right. No problem. Yeah. That took a lot out of me anyway. I need a rest. Now, he says, he says though quote i never fought until juniors i was fat up to grade four i didn't know any english they called me dp for deported person i always got beat up i was always scared

dp means something different today yeah it's well deported hey dp that's pretty weak yeah well i don't know why yeah dp hurts well i mean if that's i mean he feels different anyway and then they're all saying you got deported from wherever you came from to here you fat fuck and they beat him up that's a shit way to live talk about feeling different twice over like he feels that way on the inside and the outside they're making sure that he knows how different he is too so yeah he's deported person they need that today too though yeah the kids are just fucking they don't they don't get it they don't punch each other anymore he's talking slavic now it's like you know it's in canada slavic is a is a really uh

embracing language to hear by the way If you just hear it out of context Have you ever heard anyone start speaking Slavic It's part of Russia right Well it was the eastern block But it's a totally different language It's more throat clearing noises Yeah it almost sounds like a mix Between like

Spanish and Arabic If you mix the two of those And put a dab of like a cherry of Russian on like there's like spanish and arabic yeah almost if you mix the two of those and put a dab of like a cherry of russian on top it's a like we went i took my grandmother out for pizza about eight years ago she wanted to go eat pizza i took her out and unbeknownst to me the family that owned the place was a slavic family that was running it because i found that out because out of nowhere she just starts speaking slavic. And I'm like, what the fuck language is that? Like, I know Italian and that ain't Italian. Like, what are you speaking?

And then the guy's talking back to her. They're having this conversation, laughing. And I go, what the hell was that? And she goes, oh, when I was a girl, there was this Slavic family moved to my village. And your grandma just knows it. I pick it up. Yeah. She picked it up in 1935.

Hasn't used it since. and just kept it in her purse came out with it at 84 years old to some people and we're talking back and forth for 15 minutes i'm like what the fuck i can't remember anything i don't remember the story we did last week and she's got slavic from 80 years ago locked and loaded yeah locked and loaded weird she's like a human rosetta stone yeah yeah it's fucking funny man and then people god damn it that annoyed sorry she got a couple years i think i mentioned this before but three years ago she went to the movies yeah and some teenager told her to go back to her own country first of all if i would have seen that yeah they would still be trying to find his fucking teeth and that goes for anybody if i see anybody yell anything at an old lady you're gonna find your teeth don't

fuck with old ladies especially but to tell my grandmother that so then she yelled at me told him she's been here i got here 1947 before your grandparents are born you son of a bitch blah blah blah i was like oh there we go she handle herself. But I really wish I would have saw that. You're like, I don't have a wooden spoon. Oh, she would have fucking thumped him one. Just absolutely. I guess the movie theater guy yelled at the kid, too. Good.

Fucking leave her alone. It's just 80 fucking mid 80s. But the lack of respect from kids today. I hate saying that. No, they're dicks, though. You were right about they need to be punched, though. And we do sound like old men when we say that. But God damn it.

A little boy, not little girls. I don't know what goes on in their psyche because I wasn't a little girl. But as a little boy, the threat of being punched in the face needs to be on you. It needs to be there. Because the world is one big punch in the face. And if you're not braced for it you're gonna be fucking surprised when your nose gets bloody you should be like oh yeah i got hit and blood comes out that's what happens you wipe it away and you move on so the shit i just said i probably shouldn't say that

oh i shouldn't say it because other people there's consequences for it oh yeah that's right and they get not with your parents i'm not talking about you should hit your kids i'm talking about if another your kids are both in fifth grade and one kid, for no reason, says some shit to the other kid, that kid should get punched in the face, the talker, because or he should have to fight. You figure out who gets to say what by who knows his bloodiest. That's what happens. When we were kids-

It's a fucking law. Yeah. When we were kids, you got to be as much of an asshole as- As your face can take how as how tough you are that was a proportionate thing that's the law of yeah you can be this much of a dick because you're not that good of a fighter and the majority of people are not great fighters and we don't know how society goes around and around and we don't want might is right and you know all that shit we don't want bullies to run everything that That's not even what we're talking about.

We just want if some kid has a fucking mouth on him that shouldn't have a mouth on him, some kid should go, hey, shithead, and punch him in the face. It's a lesson that you learn. That's all we're saying. I'm not saying I'm going to go out as a 38-year-old man just knocking out fifth graders. I mean, I'd love to. I'd be the best. Don't get me wrong.

Because I think I could take any fifth grader on this planet, number one. Any of them. Just kick them all right in the chest. knocking out fifth graders i mean i'd love to but they'd be the don't get me wrong because i think i could take any fifth grader on this planet number one any of them just kick them all right in the chest pow pow pow i'd just be fucking dominating but i would like my kid to have the ability to fight back uh from time to time when somebody just because they don't there's no wit to the things that they say it's just you're ugly or your hair looks stupid or you're fat or what yeah punch that kid in the fucking mouth yeah you used to have to have humor yeah now you don't have to have nothing no because now it's just all because you're not allowed to yeah you can it's all just fucking tweets almost everything's not bullying yeah everything's set in tweets now so it's like

or on an xbox yeah there's no there's no fist within reach i mean i don't even mean it's whatever you want to say is set on twitter i mean your a tweet is how you talk now yeah like yeah you're right in a in a sentence inside there's no nuance there's no humor there's no anything like that i don't fucking get it at all but it was different in canada yeah in the 19 1972 i would assume uh probably if you called somebody you know a i don't know a dp a dp or a big maple syrup eating fat bastard or something somebody would punch you in the mouth probably and then you go oh boy i shouldn't say that to him so a deported person is what they called him and he said he always got beat up he was always scared this is a way different than what we're going to get into later on with him uh he says he he was he wanted to be a defenseman he

wanted to be like bobby orr that was his idol was bobby orr um the bruins there and uh he said he really wanted to do that he's a he's a big kid but he's a big big, happy kid. And he grows up to be 6'2", over 200 pounds. He's a big, stocky, big, strapping young guy. So much to fucking put skates on. Yeah, it is. And that's what you want in hockey. Hockey's one of those sports where on the ice, height is leverage. And it's not even a matter of skill.

It's just height is leverage. You can lean on someone if you're a little taller than them. And physics take over. Yeah, it's just a different different thing so you can dominate people you shouldn't be able to dominate right if you're bigger it's one of the few sports where it's that much it's like basketball and hockey or where height can really make a huge difference in a lot of things here and also with basketball and and football your your feet have so much grip and there's so much yes yeah your legs can create so much for you. Yeah.

Where in hockey, if you don't have fucking balance and you're on slippery shit. You're screwed. It's over. That's why I hate when people say, because we'll talk about him, he turns into a goon in hockey. People get mad and they're like, ah, goons. These guys are not skilled and they should take those guys out of the game. Have you ever tried to get punched in the face on ice skates and still stand up and

then deliver another punch back? Good fucking luck. Because I can't do that. No no most people can't do that that's a skill i can barely get the skating part yeah you see people get punched repeatedly on their feet on ice skates you're like wow that's incredible to me uh so he was uh he was also though he he could skate he could score when he was a kid he was a big big kid that did well. His mother, Regina, said, quote, he could play, but something went wrong. He started using nothing but his fists. After a while, I didn't recognize my kid. I didn't raise him that way.

His parents were actually angry at him. Heartbroken. It's so funny. There was a monster. That's what they thought. They would yell at him. We'll talk about it later. His dad would call him up after games and yell at him for fighting.

Wow. It's like, that's what my job is, dude. They told me to, Dad. They pay me just to do that. My coach said, do this. Yeah, I'm supposed to go in. That's my job. You like that you don't have a mortgage?

It was embarrassing to the family to do that. In 1971, April 18th to be exact, 1971, his brother Dan is born born and dan will end up being a long-time nhl player really uh as well yeah so it's uh yeah dan cordic he plays uh for philly for a long time yeah now his father john's father wanted him to go to uh the university of uh alberta that was what he that was what he for hockey no no just to go no just to go he wanted. For hockey. No, no, no. Just to go. Just to go. He wanted to go to college, whatever. His sister, Tony, played for Canada's 1984 U.S. Olympic women's basketball team. Really?

So this is an athletic family. The other thing, too, is I keep hearing it pronounced Kordich and Kordick and Kordich and Kordick and Kordich. That was more toward the heritage. But then I hear other people call him Cordick. So that's why I'm calling him Cordick. And if you know him as Cordich, I apologize. I've heard it multiple times from multiple different hockey announcers. So I'm just going with the easiest one for me to say right now.

We're calling him John. So, yeah, he's about 6'2", 210. He's a big strapping kid. And his father wants him to go to college. Play hockey if you want, but do it in college. Be a college graduate like your sister. Look at her. Look at her.

She's got a medal. Look at that. She's doing things. That's respectable. You're an Olympian. What's more respectable than that if you're an athlete? Her name is known around the fucking world. Yeah, that's what I mean.

So, yeah, 81-82, though. He goes into the juniors, or kind of a pre-juniors team. It's the Edmonton Pats. Kind of like the Regina Pats. Same type of thing here. This is 81-82. He's 16 years old. Really? Yeah. They play in these leagues up there when they're so

young. The semi-professional league, basically. Yeah. You're not going to high school. That's so awesome. This isn't a school league. I can't imagine. Hockey and soccer they just do that it's strange being embraced for anything at that age to feel like oh you're good at this we're gonna encourage you imagine that so i was just never good at it i'm sure my parents

would have encouraged me if i was good at anything i just never i didn't have any abilities or skills i'm sure you'll think of something i was really good at getting the grease out from underneath my fingernails after after an oil change is there anything for that is there any way to make money that way that's not bad i mean i could go do it for other people i suppose that's good a manicurist but that's all i've got i was really good at rolling blunts that's a marketable talent i was good at it though i could roll giant ones and i could roll them three together and make a fucking literally i was like an artist with that shit. So outside of that, I didn't really have a lot of talent.

Is there like a subway for rolling blunts to be a blunt artist? I don't think so. I was pretty good at playground basketball, which also is not an ability that... You elbow someone in the face. It's not really a talent. So at 16 here here he plays there this is the alberta midget hockey league there uh he says i'm sorry he plays 48 games yeah here uh it has 23 goals and 41 assists which is a shitload in 48 64 points in 48 games is fantastic and 178 penalty minutes

jesus so he's fighting a shitload too on top of that so he's scoring and fighting which is a not unusually normally the thing the fighters are there to protect the scores the scorer doesn't score and turn around and punch somebody that defeat then he's out of the game for a while that's the problem we need you yeah so he says quote when i got in junior i got in a i got in a fight and he was supposed to be a really tough guy. And this was a guy named Troy Loney, who is a future Penguins player, Pittsburgh Penguins. Quote, I never thought I was fighting out of fear, but I got a bad temper, eh? By the way, he throws the A in there.

Of course he does. I got a bad temper, eh? So I beat him. I didn't find him so tough. I won a few fights after that and montreal drafted me because i was tough but by my second year i didn't have to fight as much because i got my respect so i had a chance to play my game and work on my hockey that's not true by the way no he didn't he even complains that that's all he is and you'll see that's him that's him on he's a

very roller coaster emotionally kind of guy he had a happy. That's him on a good day. He was at the top of the loop-de-loop on that one and about to come down. It didn't go well after that. Okay. 82-83, he is with the Portland Winterhawks. Okay. Portland, Maine or Portland? I think Oregon. Oregon, yes.

The Western Hockey League, I believe. So he's with the Portland Winterhawks. He plays 72 games, three goals, 22 assists. So that's gone down because he has 235 penalty minutes. Jesus. He is absolutely. Went from 170 to 230? 235.

He went from 178 to 235. That's so much. His goals went from 23 to 3. So I think they had a role for him is what we're saying here. There's a strategy. Yeah. I guess his father was really, really against his fighting. He was just, I mean, his father's, everybody, the players said it would really affect John, too.

Like, his father didn't approve of him. And it would make him sad. Like, he was upset by it. He wanted his father to approve of him. All I'm doing is trying to approve. I'm fucking succeeding. Yeah trying to approve i'm fucking succeeding yeah and you're pissed about it and you're pissed about it because you're not doing what you i wanted you to do the way you want to do it but also at this time john this is when john starts to party oh boy john likes to party yeah let's just say here here's about 17 18 uh this is when he starts doing coke. Yeah. He, John, loves cocaine.

Oh, God, does he love it. He loves cocaine. Absolutely. That's incredible. Cocaine is his, it's his baby. We'll just say that. I feel like he would cradle it at night and hold it and pet it and go, I love you, cocaine. Sweet cocaine.

It's so nice that he found it so early. So early. And he just loved it. He knew exactly what he wanted in life. You know what else he loved? What is that? At least in the next couple years. Booze.

Booze. Because hockey players love booze. We'll talk about it, though. He wasn't an alcoholic, as we'll find out. No? But he liked his booze. Also, we'll get very into steroids, which is a dangerous thing. Yeah, when you have a steroid ridden cocaine fucking fuel jacked

right you know drunken right this is not this is great this is a scary we're setting the table for quite the story here is what we're saying i see muscles popping and bloodshot eyes and like sweat shooting from the forehead yeah fists clenched at all times where is he i'll punch him i'll just punch him there's nobody here i don't know what you're talking about you know what i'm talking about i'll fucking punch him john nicholas chill out man bro what would your dad say fuck man we're Canadian. We're supposed to be nice. This is amazing. Jesus. So, yeah, in 1983, though, the Portland Winterhawks win the Memorial Cup, which is the championship

of that hockey league. And this is when, like I said, this is when he starts using steroids as well. So he's like 17. That's a good time to start using steroids and cocaine your brain's not developing still or anything i'm sure that won't affect it i'm sure everything will be fine your balls did you know anyone in high school use steroids oh yeah i did i knew a bunch of kids in high school some that were football players all of them were football players and some that were just thug motherfuckers that were just like literally that were like yo

i could do that i'm jack now i'll fuck you up that's all it was it was just to fucking be intimidating and shit like tons of people were doing stuff it was very common i knew four or five dudes that were doing it they were playing baseball okay and then all these guys were football guys yeah and it was fucking very weird all the all the quote-unquote thugs there was red dog was one and he was like five foot two they called him low rider for cheese the man he was so all these guys the quote-unquote gangsters at my school they were all little little mexican guys that were legit little like our football coach was five foot seven and he called them low rider oh okay yeah, okay. Yeah, that's interesting. Yeah.

Yeah, we had black guys. They were bigger. And we had everybody normal. I mean, North Phoenix, there were very few black guys. They all played football or basketball. Oh. And then the real quote-unquote thug guys were the Mexican guys. And then...

In New York, the white guys were as much thugs as anybody. Everybody was the same. Everybody was the same back home. This wasn't the thing here. It's very strange as anybody everybody was the same everybody was the same back home here it's very strange yeah back home everyone was the same it was like you were either like into school or you were into sports or you were into the street shit and that was that and you know that was it everybody was the same black white puerto rican didn't fucking matter i mean the white kids did everything they played basketball and and uh ran with the gangster kids and then also were

into school and stuff but the the majority of the mexican guys didn't fuck with sports they were just little little guys that weren't even uh no it was that our soccer team man at north phoenix it was just a a bunch of pampered ass white kids and then sean mcdonald who played in the nfl yeah for like i don't know seven years and i don't know didn't go great for him but in high school he was amazing jesus christ lucky fuck so uh one of the coaches for the winter hawks said quote or one of the players i'm sorry said quote about steroids quote he was using he told me he was using them to get meaner and tougher yeah because he knew what he had to do if he wanted to go to the NHL.

And now the Winterhawks president, remember his name for the very end of the show, Winterhawks president Brian Shaw denies the denies that because there's another player that says that, you know, Kordick used it and everybody kind of knew he was using it. And Brian Shaw, the president, says that's absolutely not true. No one knew anything. And I don't even think he was on it when he was here i think that guy's making it up uh shaw says quote at no time when he was here did john cordick do drugs now there's no drug testing nothing like that they can't even prove that they never asked him i'm sure they were just like i

didn't see any powder on his nose and he didn't forget to take the needle out of his ass as he walked out of the fucking stall so not on drugs never smelt anything on his breath to my knowledge well he says we know our players are not on steroids because we've had drug testing since 1981 drug testing which is not there's a lot people say these leagues say drug testing there is a varying yeah that's a broad spectrum yeah between like an o an Olympic standard drug test and some like, you know, C Canadian League drug test. And then the one you get at like

CVS or Walgreens. The probation officer, the one you get for your kid or whatever the fuck it is. Yeah. There's a lot of different drug tests here. I'm taking those.

Yeah. And especially back then there was a lot of a lot of masks, a lot of ways to mask for drug tests. Like, I mean, these bodybuilders knew ways to mask for drug tests like i mean these bodybuilders knew how to beat these drug tests for steroids for fucking years and then they would

come up with a way to find the masking agents they come up with new masking agents going on today still the nfl is in existence so people are taking hvh yeah you think those guys aren't 85 percent i don't even ate 95 of them i'm not even kidding. If you think that 100% of them are clean, you live in a fucking fantasy world. If you think 10% of them are clean, you're out of your fucking mind. You're out of your fucking mind. You legitimately don't understand what the human body is capable of. Look at an NFL player without a shirt off. Yeah.

That's not a human. That's it. Right. Look at a 1975 NFL player with a shirt off. They work out, nutrition's better. No. No. It's not that much better. It's not. No, no. It's not that much better.

It's not. It's not. That's a different species of people, of human. It's because you're on fucking human growth hormones. That's just the way it is. It's fine. Or something. I don't care.

I don't give a shit either. Those guys probably need that shit to get through the season. And I, whatever. I mean, the amount of cortisone and tortol and shit they pump these guys up with, they don't give a fuck about their health. So what's the difference about steroids? Just because that's got a bad public image. Right.

You're not even supposed to put a specific, you're only supposed to get to a certain level of cortisone in like a year period. Yeah. Do you think they're really just giving them that much? They've got to be giving them more. All the guys. There's no fucking way those guys can put up with those hits. All the guys, once they retire, they laugh and laugh and they go they say you're only supposed to get

toward all every like so often i got that shit every game like every game totally against protocol it's just the league wouldn't run unless you put these guys together with tape and drugs and push them out there right otherwise after week one after training camp the first pre-season game would be the only game with healthy players and everybody the rest of the time it would just be varying degrees of of an infirmary ridiculous the ir would be so long yeah look at football that's not a sustainable thing 16 weeks of that shit are you out of your fucking mind practicing too that's the other part so it's like constant it's silly so yeah uh a former uh captain of the team jeff crawford says that not only was cordic on steroids but he wasn't the only player in the league on steroids the management's crazy

if they think that he was the only one this guy says crawford i was aware of others using steroids and i'm sure portland was aware of cortic steroid use. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure it out. If you've got an 18-year-old kid who's jacked with muscle and super aggressive, you might go, I think we should have a talk with that guy. He put on 20 pounds of muscle in three months. That's probably not natural. That's a lot of Monster Energy drink he's pushing down, if that's all he's got.

Absolutely. It's crazy, man. The 80s, especially, too. This time period, steroids were... There was, like in the USFL, there was coaches that told teams, players straight up, if you're not on steroids, you're not on my fucking team. I don't want you if you're not on steroids.

I got a number for a guy for you. That means you're not trying because you don't want to be as big and as strong and as fast as you can be. Why are you not committed to this? Why the fuck would I want you? That's literally what the policies were of some of these teams it's crazy so anyway 1983 nhl draft comes around uh round one i know we don't know many hockey players but there's a few i recognize in here pat lafontaine uh steve eiserman know who

he is uh guys like that cam neely know who he is and Guys like that. Cam Neely, know who he is. And we've talked about this draft before. You know, guys like that. Round four, though, is where we pick up with John here. By the way, first guy picked in round four, Frank Pantrangelo. Pantrangelo spells his name P-I-E-T-R-A. He's the first six letters. All right. You know, a few people spell it.

And then a G. Yeah. But there's an N in there. So whatever. But I was. It was the Angelo at the end. They get a lot of each other. I was very excited about this guy, though.

We're probably related. I'm not even fucking kidding. Because the people have messed up the spelling. Frank, yeah. Oh, he's so Italian. Clearly an Italian guy. He's from Canada. But he played in Pittsburgh.

I feel like we're related in some way, shape, or form. Pittsburgh, yeah. You know, yeah. There's a lot of. There's Petrogallos in Pittsburgh. No kidding. There's some lawyer named Petrogallo in Pittsburgh. I feel like we're related in some way, shape, or form. Pittsburgh gift. You know, yeah. There's a lot of, there's Petrogallos in Pittsburgh. No kidding. There's some lawyer named Petrogallo in Pittsburgh. That's right. I remember that.

That you run him down. He must hate me. Who's this fucking asshole? He'd Google himself. I feel pretty good. Then he's like, who is this dickhead? He didn't go to law school and the first nine pages are all his asshole. Why do so many people in Illinois hate me?

Shit. Yeah. Or Indiana or one of the two whatever the fuck jesus christ so why is the midwest railing on me what's going on so finally 70 what did he do so horribly that they could fucking spell his last name we all know how that goes we all know that when people are mad at you they learn how to spell it's the only time they learn they magically learn how to spell that's like what was that w h i s never forget it ever again otherwise fucking dick normally they're like at so and so tagging the wrong people people you like some. Some other guy that always gets tagged. Yeah, I just want to inbox him and go, I'm so sorry, man.

Sorry, dude. My bad. So, finally, 78th overall, fourth round. Montreal selects John from Portland here. And, yes, he's going to be a Montreal Canadian later on. But he's with Portland for the 83-84 season because he stayed with those junior teams for a while until they bring you to their...

And it used to be different in the 80s. Really? Hockey has a real complicated, weird system of minors. Do they do it very similar to majors where they keep an eye on you to see if you're going to fit what they need you for? Yeah, but it's like in the minors. Let's say in baseball, if you were playing for some semi-pro team somewhere when you're 20 years old or something, and then you got drafted by the majors, you wouldn't keep

playing with the semi-pro team. They'd send you to their minor league team. Whereas here, he just stays with the junior team. It's like they own your rights now, and whenever they want to exercise them, I believe they can exercise them, but then you stay down there. Do they pay you to be? They've got you, right? Yeah, they get paid, these guys.

It's a professional thing. It's just they don't get paid a lot at all oh sure it's not anything whatever i'm sure they probably provide them housing and shit like that i hope so so he was a left winger at this point but uh for the winter hawks he really he wanted to be a left winger uh coming up but then as uh he ended up being a good defenseman here for the winter hawks and uh he ends up being traded not by montreal but by the minor league teams you can get passed around to seattle there uh where he ends up on the whl all-star team and he also ends up with 20 227 penalty minutes there so he is just fucking fighting yeah a lot um he and he's getting called out for it too like later on

don cherry who's the kind of mr hockey and can canada guy uh he called him he may kind of picked on him a little bit on a hockey night in canada broadcast called him a goon and uh he says that he likes rough aggressive play but he says that he doesn't like it when a guy's only role is to fight. He says, quote, it's demeaning for a human being to sit on a bench for most of a game and be thrown out there only to fight like a mad dog.

That's what he said of goons. Then he said of Kordick, quote, he always wanted to play the game of hockey, but everywhere he went, he was just considered a goon. And so that's the role that he has here. Now, Seattle here, I found their team. They were originally known as the Kamloops Chiefs.

Yeesh. That's no good. Kamloops in the Western Canada Hockey League. And then they were moved to Seattle and called the Seattle Breakers after that. And he plays there. He plays for Seattle. He also plays on the Sherbrooke Canadiens. That's Montreal's minor league team.

That's when they're looking at him. A little bit more there. Plays 46 games with Seattle and 154 penalty minutes he ends up with there. That's a lot. But finally, 85-86. He comes up to Montreal and he gets a little taste of the end of that season. They bring him up in, I believe, April here. It's his ability to fight is what they want they don't want him to score uh he's 20 years old at this point

he's not even 21 or yeah he's 22 i think he's a he's a kid he's a young kid i mean he's such a young guy uh the team uh the coach of the team said quote he did an excellent job he beat the best fighters in the league so that's. So that was his job here. John says about fighting, quote, it's nothing I love doing. I like to hit and take the body, but I don't like fighting. I know what people are thinking right now, that I'm just a goon. I heard Hockey Night in Canada commenter Dick Irvin say, well, that's why he's out there, and that doesn't make me feel good.

I'm sure my parents heard that on TV, and they'll be upset, too. I'm not worried so much about myself, more about my parents. I just wish they'd understand that this is how I'm getting my chance. They're European, and hockey is new to them. Which is, I don't know why that's great. Which, hockey's huge in Europe now, but I guess in the 50s it really wasn't, apparently. Or at least in yugoslavia right they're cleaning up from world war ii probably still so he says broken

glass in the streets escaping you know of some soviet block country he says john says quote i know why i'm here i just turned 21 and i'll pay my dues but i wouldn't mind playing a little more i know it's got not going to happen this year they're going with the guys who got them here so yeah he's uh he's not thrilled about just being a fighter that's the thing um he's just not he wants to he wants to be he wants his dad to be proud of him yeah he wants that's a big deal for him of course it's it's uh you know this is the pinnacle of of canadian success in essence i mean that's their fucking national pastime it's everything to them it's like playing in the major this is like baseball this is like playing baseball in 1955

right this is like yeah as an immigrant at any time your parents are fucking immigrants you're fucking joe dimaggio basically right. Be an immigrant, parents, kids, you know, kid of immigrants. And you've got a job in the big league of it. Yeah. And they need you for a specific reason. That's amazing. Absolutely. Montreal's good this year, as we'll talk about here.

Yeah, he was just a way to, I mean, they needed him because, you know, you have to protect people in hockey. That's why you have, if you don't know hockey, find our ignorance charming, please, but I do know this much about hockey. You have a goon, so when someone fucks with your scorer and tries to take cheap shots at him, you send that guy out there to beat the shit out of that person and discourage them from doing that again. That's the way it works.

It's a protector for your score. Wayne Gretzky would have been broken in nine pieces if he didn't have Marty McSorley and this one and that and that one fucking people watching his back the whole time he would have been killed it's just the way it is there to tell that kid uh don't say that shit and then you punch him that's what he is exactly what it is grown up eight year old yeah that's it this is the equivalent of like an american moving to i don't know south america and then being a king in soccer that would be fucking insane it'd be weird yeah and your parents are like, I don't get it. I hate that you do that.

All the fucking running. Just kicking all shit around everywhere. Jesus, you're going to ruin your lungs. Your heart only has so many pumps in it. That's what the problem is. You're accelerating it. Why would you do this? You're wasting your pumps, kid.

That's what you got to tell kids. I get it. You're good at it, but you're wasting your pumps. Quit wasting your pumps kid that's what you got to tell kid you're good at it but you're wasting your pumps quit wasting your pumps so he a guy there's a um he uh he ended up uh hitting a guy in the face with a stick here he was kind of sent there uh to do that another guy on his team was hit with a stick yeah and then he said that uh the coach told him he told me just to go out there he didn't tell me anything but i don't need to be led for what to water you know what to do he knows what to do he says quote i gave mcafee or mcfee a shove and said keep your stick down he gave me a slash and said let's go later when i was in the penalty box he came over to me again

and told me we weren't finished yet and called me a few four-letter words. And I thought, geez, I don't know why he'd want to go on with it. I don't know why he'd want to go on with it. I thought either this guy's very intense or he's forgetting what's going on. He said I didn't want to have to remind him again. I didn't want to have to do it. I didn't want to have to do it in the first time. But he slashed Carbo, and Carbo's one of our main players.

It wasn't fun, but maybe it got our guys a little excited. So, so and they said once they got out there he basically beat the shit out of this guy and uh yeah and the uh the uh charbonneau guy says quote i was just scared i broke my jaw i'm not happy john did it but it's good to know people care for you that's the guy who on his team who he was protecting yeah so he's like you know know, hey, he beat the shit out of people, but it's nice to be protected. He says, quote, guys on this team come up to me all the time and say, what you do, well, I'd never be able to do your job. They appreciate what I do, and it makes me feel wanted. So, yeah, you're doing the dirty work.

You're the guy diving in the first row for a rebound. I mean, it's a dirty job, and punch somebody. Gets everyone else to their glory. You punch somebody in the face, you're going to get punched, too. And that fucking hurts. And if you fall. And if you can't take it right. Ice is hard. That's the thing about it.

It's generally frozen, usually. But if you can take that punch and then deliver another one, you're my fucking hero. Because I don't want to do it. Incredible, yeah. That sounds awful. James, that sounds terrible. That sounds terrible. Jesus Christ, man.

Fuck it. And when your face is frozen, it hurts more. So much more. Oh, my God. When you're cold anyway, you're being punched by cold fists. Getting your fucking ear flicked in the cold weather. I've been punched in the cold. It's not fun.

It's not. Ow, that hurt twice as bad. Dick. Jesus Christ. the cold it's not fun wow that hurt twice as bad dick jesus christ uh he says i've talked to chris uh nealon nolan or whatever who's montreal's other enforcer uh he's a different ships enforcer he said i was sitting down on the bench once and i was discouraged not playing i asked him chris did you start out this way and he'd tell me that he used to just sit on the bench never knowing when he was going to play he told me to keep my head up.

He's probably not aware of it, but he really keeps my spirits up because no one else in the world would know how I feel. So he had a guy telling him that this is how you get into the league, and it makes sense. If you were a scorer, you'd start out on a lower line and work your way in.

It's the same thing. It's just when your only job is go out there and punch that guy and sit in the penalty box. It's kind of like, oh, great, that's my job. You don't feel like a hockey player. Like if you were a comedian on a lineup your only job is go out there and punch that guy and sit in the penalty box. It's kind of like, oh, great, that's my job. It's discouraging. You even feel like a hockey player. Like if you were a comedian on a lineup and they go, oh, no, no, no, everyone else is doing 10.

Everyone else is doing like 10, 15. We just want you to go out there and just say, hey, how's everybody doing? Is there any bachelorette parties? Give it up for the troops and then run back in the green room. That's the equivalent of that. So you want me to do a joke? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Just a couple of things. Make them crazy. No, no, no. Just a couple of things. Make them crazy. Cheap applause. Just a couple. Something that would really just make you feel like you're not a comedian. Give it up for your headliner. And then run back in there. And get off the stage. That's the equivalent of what that is.

You're like, I don't want to. I don't want to do that. That's like telling Barry Bonds to get in there and just get over the plate so that you're beaned. You know what I mean? Go catch a bean ball and then take your first base. That sounds terrible.

I want to play, too. I want to play, but you can't. You're not playing, Jimmy. You're out. Where are my weed smokers? Yeah. Where are my weed smokers at? That was the worst.

I used to hate that. Whenever anybody would ask, where am I so-and-so at in a comic, I just put my head down and go, oh, God. Are we here? Fuck. He's out of ideas. If you want to tell them that you smoke weed and you enjoy it and you have jokes about it, just fucking tell them. You don't have to fucking ask everybody and get their permission. What are you doing oh you got some you got a cheap joke loaded like that's some shitty weed you fucking idiot fucking idiot so annoying oh you're wasting our time yeah so uh the nilon or

nilon guy nilon he said that he understood because he said it was the same thing like he would guy nilan he said that he understood because he said it was the same thing like he would he understood like in the minor leagues his parents would drive hours to come see him play a minor league game just to watch him come in for three minutes to get thrown out you know what i mean it was like that that kind of sucks yeah so it makes sense he says quote i this is the nealon guy i understand it from the viewpoint that that's how he came that's how i came into the league how i got my chance to play hockey i know it's what got me here and you shouldn't forget what brought uh what brought your game out i fight but i don't like it some guys in this league like it i don't i know uh anybody looking at my penalty minutes which was uh 274 in that season this guy he said would

have a hard time believing that but i don't like to fight i do it because it's part of my job and then he says about cordick quote i liked her about john quote i like john i don't think it's an enviable position for anybody when you have to do it sometimes it's lonely he definitely has the tools to develop into a much better hockey player he's big and strong he can shoot the puck and he can skate okay he's a natural defenseman uh if if he works on all those things he can improve but the other but the way i look it, he can get that chance by the physical part of his game. It has to be there. It's not fun, but if a guy like John wants to make it, he shrugged.

That was that. And he does. He wants to do that. He does. He says that later on, though, he says that in the season, he's not liking this. He says, quote, this is John talking, quote, if I have have to keep doing this i'll probably quit and go back to school i wouldn't mind being a police officer or a fireman it's something different every day there oh my god so that's how much he doesn't want to do this what a crazy statement yeah i want to give up my dream

that i've had since i was nine and then you know a national this is what every kid wants to do in hockey but i'll just go be a fireman which i mean that's a fine job policeman life and limb rather than be uh cheered every goddamn night yeah it's just an odd thing there are you can be nothing wrong with being a policeman or fireman but there's very few policemen or firemen that if you said to them hey you want to go play for the montreal canadians and they're canadian or you want to go you know patrol Montreal Canadiens and they're Canadian, or you want to go patrol for speeders, I think they would say, well, fuck, where's the uniform? Get those skates on me. I mean, come on.

I'm not in the starting lineup and have everybody cheer. It's just any job. It's not their job. It's any job. That's what people strive for. You're on TV. You're playing a game for lots of money and adulation. It's ridiculous.

It's great. It sounds wonderful so uh yeah he says uh this is the nealon guy again talking quote his parents are against it but he's a big boy and he's got to be able to say what do you want uh what do i want to do i tell him all the time you got to put things in perspective and say do i want to be a hockey player do i want to be in the league for 10 years or do i want to start another career that's where it got to the point with him where he actually considered maybe i don't want to maybe i don't want to make it even though i've made it um but in his first game he's uh you know he's fighting

already in his first shift on the ice as a pro he fights he says a quote against kevin mcclellan in my first on my first pro shift i'm from edon. I've seen him fight a lot of times. My friends work for the Oilers. One's a stick boy. They told Kevin McClellan, Kordick's coming to town and he's going to fight you. And they tell me, Kevin McClellan wants to fight you. So the fight was set up before the game. Yeah.

Sounds like everybody else got this shit going. It was a preset fight, but we didn't know it. They were even building it up on the radio in Edmonton. Wow. So this is like, yeah, there's going to be a big up on the radio in edmonton wow this is like yeah there's gonna be a big fight at the game what the fuck is this and neither of these guys have anything to do with it it's gonna be a rumble i heard you wanted to fight me eh yeah i heard you wanted to fight me eh well better get on with it let's do it we'll go to tim hortons afterwards

and we'll get it over with okay okay and they just do it on the loser all right hey no bear claws though pal because those get expensive all right you look like you're gonna need a few oh look at you you're a big guy he said uh oh man uh he uh jesus christ he i guess at one point there was one fighting time one time he was fighting that it was at that time he said that his dad actually didn't mind it because it was a big thing set up he said quote my dad liked it that one time he was fighting, it was at that time, he said that his dad actually didn't mind it because it was a big thing set up. He said, quote, my dad liked it. That one time he did.

My sister and brother were cheering. He says that he was smiling, telling the story. He was all happy about it. He says, if I'm going to fight, I want to win. He says, have I ever lost? No, I've never had a busted nose or anything like that. I've heard people say here and there that a fight I was in was pretty even every lopsided fight i've ever been in though i've totally won i can't say i've ever been beat like that or heard anybody say i was if you find one

i'd like to talk to him that's he's a crazy motherfucker he's a big coked out dude on steroids never had his nose busted yeah i'm getting punched in the face unreal multiple times and we'll talk about too he like he ends up uh being roommates with a boxer who like teaches him better punching oh no so yeah oh jesus he's actually taking it seriously in terms of how can i fight better right just i'll go fight how can i really do the most damage here and then this boxer what kind of lunatic is that to be like look you're really good at this i'm gonna i'm gonna make you fucking lethal i can make you yeah punch people they fall on ice and crack their heads open now i am looking at their roster for the canadians here for 85 86

i don't i know chris chelios yeah i've heard of him uh who else here also play for the flames i think the uh the the red wings i want to say maybe that's it yeah i want to say the red wings yeah i want to say detroit uh who else do we have claude lemieux who's mario's brother there we know who he is uh just because it's a perfect little brother name is claude not even not little just the perfect brother name is claude just the you don't matter the perfect less talented brother name claude was. Just the you-don't-matter name. The perfect less-talented brother name. Claude was a great player, too. He played forever, but he's not Mario LeMieux.

That's the problem. After our last hockey episode, I found out Mario LeMieux's son plays for ASU's hockey team. That's amazing. They have a hockey team, and his son plays for them. Jesus Christ. No, this guy, Claude LeMieux is the Dom DiMaggio of hockey. He really is. For sure.

Dom DiMaggio was an all-star. Did you know that? No. An all-star. But it doesn't matter. A really good player. Guess who he wasn't. No, he ain't fucking Joe.

He looked like Joe with glasses, too, which was really weird. So it looked like he was like the Clark Kent Joe. It was fucking strange. But great player, totally overshadowed by his brother. Poor fuck. No one cares. Same thing here. And Patrick Waugh, the goalie who's the future, you know, one of the greatest goalies ever here.

The Avalanche. The Avalanche. And everywhere else. Yeah. He played for three, four teams before them, I think. Yeah, because he was on Colorado. Yeah, yeah. I think he played for the Stars, too.

Quebec and Colorado when they moved to Colorado, I think. Is that what happened? Is that who went to Colorado? Yeah, Colorado was the Nordiques. Absolutely. That I do remember. Now, he does get sent down during the season, too, back down to the minors. Okay, we talk about sports all the time.

Guys get sent up and sent down on a regular basis. It's a normal thing. And it's part of the thing, and you take the lump with it. He emotionally just reacts so... Everything is... I might just forget it then. I just might be done. I would be the same way.

He's that guy. It's really hard. But you can't be that way as an athlete. You have to be steady or else you're going to lose your mind. Keep your fucking head in the game. That's what you have to do. He said about it, quote,

I don't feel like going to Sherbrooke, which is the minors there. I don't feel like going to Sherbrooke, which is the minors there. I don't feel like going to Sherbrooke. I'm going to do what's best for myself, not what's best for the team. I paid my dues in the minors last year. So he's pissed. He's like, I thought I was up for good, and I'm not up for good, and he's not okay about it.

He plays five games with Montreal that year, 53 penalty minutes in five games. Not bad. 68 games with Sherbrooke 238 penalty minutes there you go so yeah that's our guy not bad montreal finishes 40 33 and 7 that year and they go to the playoffs they beat boston three nothing they have a seven game series with the hartford whalers who don't exist anymore uh then they beat the rangers four to one and go all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals against the Calgary Flames Really? Absolutely and this was a weird time in hockey because this was right after the Islanders had their

dynasty because they won what four in a row right before this and then I want to say Gretzky and Edmonton ended that and then for a year Gretzky and Edmonton are out and it was like Calgary and Montreal and then Edmonton came back with Gretzky and Messier and they out and it was like calgary and montreal and then edmonton came back with gretzky and messier and they were good for a while why i remember this i have no fucking idea

because i don't know shit about hockey i don't remember any of this i don't know i just remember the flames being good for a minute then they flamed out huh yeah and then they were good again and then i don't think they're good anymore i don't know now we don't know now. Now we don't know. I know the Kings are... Every couple of years, my Twitter feed is just scrambled with comics that are so jacked about the Kings doing great. Who gives a fuck? You didn't even know where they played before that. You didn't care? Stop it.

Fucking assholes. You didn't get excited when the Ducks do well, too? Stupid. You're from Dallas. Fuck you. You know what I mean? You're not even from LA. Why do you give a

shit i don't get that fucking assholes that makes no sense caring about the kings right why because you had a callback that you didn't get the audition for you have a terrible apartment i share with three other people here so that means and i don't i like the hockey team there's something that puts a smile on my face jesus christ from fucking ending it all that's the only sport that comes in on the antenna on the tv that's why the local station it plays them everything else do okay and it keeps me from going and walking down the 101 i need cable to see good sports that's the problem basketball's on cable right so uh yeah they go all the way to the stanley cup finals against

the calgary flames and they win the series four to one and montreal wins the stanley cup all right so he's a rookie and he's a champion around stanley cup champion kid young rookie right it up coke dangling from his nose yeah grace as fuck this is grace my friends i would say it doesn't get any more grace than that um yeah he said that uh one point uh you know this is great for him but also the fighting thing is getting to him at one point the coach recalled him crying in the locker room while talking on the phone and he said quote i said, quote, I told him, John, why are you crying? We won the game. You should be happy. And he was, and John said, quote,

John would say, quote, ah, my dad is giving me grief. He doesn't want me to fight. So he's crying. He said his dad never accepted his fighting. But the fans did. That's the thing. In Montreal, every fan base loves,

the goons most popular, unless they have, you know, as Mario Lemieux or gretzky the goon is the hell yeah even if in terms of just cheers the goon gets a loud jeer people want to see that ass makes it badass also it's fun to watch it's just you're watching this game then all of a sudden hey there's a boxing match going on in the corner there's a bare-fisted boxing match just a surprise you know and they're just punching each other. All right, this is something.

And then you go right back to skating around and shooting the puck. It's this graceful thing. It really is pretty weird. So weird. Especially when you're watching it live because you're watching the puck go back and forth. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's starting to get tedious and boring. And then everybody stands up and looks over in another direction. And then everybody's up and you're like, what?

Get out of the way. I'm trying to watch. Oh, they're not even shooting the puck anymore. What is going on? Punching each other. Oh, my God. There's clothes on the ice. I love it. It's the greatest.

It's so much fucking fun. Gloves and sticks everywhere. Sticks and gloves. Two guys with a hold of each other's shirts. It looks like a car accident happened and there's like a car seat over there and there's a juice, a sippy cup is laying over here.

You're like, what's, hope that kid's okay. When did this even start? How long has this been going on? Yeah, a like to they take a couple shots and they go around like measuring each other up for shots which is so much fun to watch because it's like not a wild fight it's like right there i'll hit you in the fucking there too you son of a bitch like it's very much it's not like a bar fight it's fucking hilarious or a boxing match it's different it's a very sober bar fight it's a very yes sober bar fight hey everybody hold on no it's like both

guys are super drunk like wait let's hold each other up wait it's like you can't sit i can't stand i feel like i'm on ice case hold me up okay here there how's that oh god damn that that hurt if i didn't have both hands on your shirt i fell down i'm gonna it's gonna fall so uh yes floor is slippery it's very slippery so after this that he would fight the chans with fan cordic cordic chans with fans from the top of the arena jimmy cordic cordic hell yeah so uh yeah he he becomes a fan favorite they give him a two-year contract because they want him to fight uh but he's doing coke and steroids and all this type of shit he's also drinking heavily staying out all night partying in bars there's a really good by the way a bunch

of this information came from a really good new york times article i give them credit for that so uh yeah he's he's heavy drinking doing all that type of shit 86 87 he comes into camp and the coach described it as being disturbed at what he saw when he arrived at camp he said quote i couldn't believe it he said how could you bulk yourself up the way you did? He looked like Mr. Universe. I got phone calls that he was on steroids, and people were asking me to look after him. He came in so big that everyone was like, Jesus Christ. I mean, come on, bro.

That's ridiculous. You know? Like, dude. Obviously, that's not real. I mean, yeah. You can't just put on just 30 pounds of muscle in an off season. That's not normal, you know? We just saw you six weeks ago. And, 30 pounds of muscle in an offseason. That's not normal. We just saw you six weeks ago. Yeah, the hockey season is forever.

It is. It ends in June. And then it starts again in July. Three seasons starts again. Training camp's in July. They have like three weeks off, these guys. It's insane. It's just forever. So, yeah, he's noticeably bulky and a little bit weird.

And the problem here, too, is that's okay in hockey. It's all right. That's the thing. They don't care. Not only they don't care. Listen to this. The NHL has suspended players for cocaine use back then. They didn't test. But if you went to rehab voluntarily, they'd suspend you.

Wow. That was their policy back then. They didn't test. But if you went and said, I have a problem. I need to go to rehab voluntarily, they'd suspend you. That was their policy back then. They didn't test, but if you went and said, I have a problem, I need to go to rehab, you'd be suspended for your drug use. If you can handle it, you're fine. Yes. That's the crazy shit. The second you become a non-

A responsible person who wants to fix it. Right. You got to go. When you're non-functioning- Suspended. Get the fuck out of here. Exactly. At this point, the NHL did did not this is the 80s now steroids

weren't banned federally till i want to say 91 okay like distribution and that's what the whole vince mcmahon trial and all that type of shit but it did not you ban the use of steroids that were legally acquired in the 80s so if you could just get a doctor to write you a prescription for steroids which everybody every athlete on earth could have gotten in 1986 the nhl had no problem with you being on steroids how about that none so you don't hear about this shit you hear about all the steroids that ruin football uh football was at least at least saying we don't want our people to be on steroids the nhl on the other hand said and uh this is the league spokesman gary meager uh in the 80s uh quote we don't have a policy against steroids it's not an illegal drug but if steroids created uh can create will

create tragedies then the league has an obligation to take a look at the issue that's where they were in 1987 right we don't know anything about them but i mean if they're bad we'll take a look at everyone else knew by then yeah except for how for didn't get the Canada to the information. It takes a while to flow up there or something. What the fuck, man? I don't know. You guys, did you see that Terminator? That's a damn good movie.

I get here a little slow up there, but come on. Jesus Christ. What the fuck, dude? Just totally fine. I mean, if they got a prescription, who are we to say anything? Even wrestling was pretending like they were against steroids at this point everybody was this is crazy was brian bosworth in the nfl yet no no he was in college at this point on a lot of steroids a shitload of everybody was that's

what i mean this is everyone knew at this point what was going on but they were like weird yeah and we don't know and these were like blocks of human, too. Oh, yeah. They weren't even like. This isn't HGH. They were just swollen. This is fucking deca. This is testosterone. Just enormous people. Jamming it into their fucking.

Just getting size. That's why the wrestlers were so bloated. Right. There's so much water in there. They're bloated. They go out and drink beer with steroids. And that's what these guys are doing. Look like they had a bicep or a basketball in their bicep.

Yeah. Their arms were so fucking big. They were just jacking to get size, size, size. Just be big and look like a spectacle. Brock Lesnar. Yeah, be a spectacle at the airport. Right. That's what they always say.

That's the rule of wrestling. Really? Absolutely. You can tell if someone's a star. This is the old school. They've been saying this forever. Do they stand out at the airport? That's the test, they always say. If they blend in at the airport, they're not a star this is the old school they've been saying this forever do they do they stand out at the airport that's the test they always say if they blend in at the airport they're not a star nobody no that's i mean like rick flair is not a huge imposing guy but when rick flair

walks through the airport everybody turns who the fuck is that even if they don't know who he is they go the fuck is that guy right he's somebody obviously that's what they're saying all right or whoa what a spectacle holy shit look at that guy or like hulk hogan was a head turner in an airport a six seven guy with blonde hair and spandex right tank top you know fucking the skin of a hot dog and tan to shit big red do-rag with fucking tassels everyone's going whoa what the fuck is that you want to see him fight you don't want to see you fight. You know what I mean? That's the point. I've got a new goal.

I want to be a fucking spectacle. You want to be a spectacle? Instead of hair. When we go on the road, you want people to just turn and look at you? Who is that little fucking guy? Man, he looks dangerous. Who is that tiny, strange man? Jesus Christ. Tiny, strange man.

Jesus Christ. Now, his other players and a roommate of John's, and John told a lot of people this, that during this time, not only did the league turn a blind eye to steroids, they turned a blind eye to everything. They didn't give a fuck. If you were playing, you're fine, is the way they worked on it. He said, this is a quote from his old roommate, quote, John said a coach walked into a hotel room where a couple of players were doing drugs, you're fine is the way they worked on it he said this is a quote from his old roommate quote john said a coach walked into a hotel room where a couple of players were doing drugs and the coach

said i didn't see that and turned around and walked out the door oh my god that was montreal that was montreal that's awesome yeah his cock out of that unwilling uh yeah i didn't see that I didn't see that. I didn't see that. What a fucking stance. The weird part is, that is the statement of every one of Michael Jackson's house employees as well. I didn't see that.

I didn't see that. He went in there with five kids. I didn't see that. I didn't see anything. I mean, I wasn't counting people. No, I didn't. I don't know. I mean, it could have happened. Could have been looking at a kid's butthole for a half hour

i have no idea do you watch the documentary that's what he was doing i did no i don't want to imagine that okay this is horrible there's no way to joke about this and obviously you've been through... It's the fucking worst thing ever. What you went through was worse than what those kids... Happened to those kids. Allegedly. Allegedly.

Right. But just to have Michael Jackson as an adult. Picture this. Not a child. No, no. Picture a 25-year-old man. Just a guy. You right now, 38 years old with a beard.

You're sitting in a room with Michael Jackson. He goes, I want to look at your butthole when I touch myself. That's the funniest fucking thing I've ever... I would never stop laughing. I want you on all fours, and I want you to look at that Peter Pan cutout and spread them. I want to really see it sparkle. What a thing. What a thing.

How would you not... I would still be laughing. not if it happened when i was a child obviously but if i was an adult in that situation i would still be laughing and if someone said why are you laughing i i go i can't catch my breath to tell you what i heard but when it's to a child obviously it's it's way worse it horrific. It's the worst thing you could do. Awful behavior. I want to stare at you. What a fucking thing.

Told you that right now. Just walked in the room. Timmy. Timmy, I want to see your butthole. Will you turn around? Oh my God. Make it shine like a star for me yeah i'd probably have to get it bleached for him at this point though i'm sure he wouldn't give a shit about it today i don't know what it looks like back there but i've seen porn i imagine it's a little more brown

than i than it was when it was new it's not about seeing it it's about you being embarrassed that's what turns me on jimmy i think that's what it is yeah i think that's. It's about you being embarrassed. That's what turns me on, Jimmy. I think that's what it is. Yeah, I think that's what it is. It's about you feeling wrong, not me feeling right. Jermaine, get the shovel. It's about you feeling wrong, not me feeling right. Well, I mean, not to laugh about that, but I think that's... No, it's the vulnerability.

It's the power. That's Bill Cosby's whole thing? I think that's the power thing. It's about you feeling wrong. That's what it is. These fucking sick bastards. What a thing. I think you just cracked the Da Vinci Code.

That's amazing. We did it. We did it. It only took 193 episodes but we cracked it jimmy teamwork this is what it is this is what teamwork does see sex predators it's about you feeling wrong not me feeling right that's what it is though i honestly believe that yeah it's it's a fucking. I feel like you can't get off on that. Otherwise, unless that's the weird back door you're taking to it.

Like mentally. Very fascinating choice of words. You know what I mean. But that's what it is. Side door. It has nothing to do with what validates them. It's just you. It's pain.

It's fucking crazy. That's sick shit. That's fucked up. That's as sick's pain makes them it's fucking crazy reverse that's fucked up that's as sick as it's not even reverse pain that's just general pain yeah it's anguish mentally yeah because the physical pain is nothing compared to that that mental oh well yeah because that lasts forever that's fucking ever go away those those yeah those are raised scars on your heart. Yeah. Those are fucked up. Those are terrible. No, butthole scars will heal eventually.

Yeah. But not the scars of the soul. That's the problem. That's a fact. I don't even try to be a fucking jerk about it. It's true. You've seen a stab wound and how that fucking thing just welts up afterwards when it's healed. That's what it is on your emotions. Because your buttholes, it's all wrinkled already.

Yeah, you can't. You can't see the fissures. They go away. Good God. away good god blend in i'm sure i'm not a proctologist what you're doing with that thing on a daily basis anyway is terrible sometimes i feel like i'm stretched at work you're pushing shit through it in here yes it means like i had fogo de chow last night and and then i sat in bed and ate a wheel of cheese a wheel of cheese so i had a block of munster because yeah or good good my shit's coming out like a football is what i want to tell you just like one big football good luck for me i like gouda or uh yeah it's Gouda because it looks like a pound cake. It does.

And it's so fucking good. It does look like a pound cake. It's like a cheese pound cake. I love pound cake. So rad. My favorite thing. I can't get enough of it. I love it so much.

It's my two favorite things. Gouda and pound cake. Oh, they're so good. Not together. I'm telling you. Well, yeah, that would be gross. Shavings on top. Something's wrong here.

So anyway, back to his and his drug use here his future fiance said that quote john told me he was doing coke with another player when a coach came in the coach didn't say anything he just walked away so he told everybody this this was like not just story this is not not a one-time thing here uh 87-88, he's in Montreal for 60 games. He's up there the whole time. The games that he's gone, he'll be suspended, as we'll talk about. He's got a lot of that happening. But he plays in 60 games, two goals, six assists, but 159 penalty minutes.

Certainly got a job. That's what they want out of him, definitely. And even in the playoffs in 85-86 when they went to the Cup, he was on the team. He played in 18 playoff games and 53 playoff minutes. So even in the playoffs, they brought him up to go out there and fight in the playoffs. Now, he had a good time in Montreal as far as his career goes. He was getting a good reputation as an up-and-coming enforcer here. He was roommates with a guy named Michael Labonte,

who was a boxing coach. And that's where he ended up learning how to throw better punches. Because why not? If that's your job, why not? How do I throw that right hand a little stiffer? It's a French-Canadian that can throw hands. Apparently.

He's a brewery worker and boxing coach. Sounds like a tough dude. He's probably a tough guy. Yeah, he has a brewery worker and boxing coach. Sounds like a tough dude. He's probably a tough guy. He has a few and he can knock you right in the mouth. Now, Labonte says about John, for a while, he was one of my best friends. Beautiful guy to have fun with. He loved laughing. So, there you go. I've never described a

friend as a beautiful guy. Beautiful guy to have fun with. That's a weird way to put it. It is. But he's a Canadian. They're very nice. They're very nice. They're very sweet. They're very sweet people. Now, he says that around this time, 1988-ish, is when he started to notice

some changes in John's behavior. A lot of it started with when his father, Ivan, was diagnosed with cancer. Oh, no. So John's father is diagnosed with cancer and everybody says he reacts very poorly to this. Sure. He really, what his father thinks and his father's everything,

it means a lot to him. I mean, he cries because his dad is mad at him for fighting. Most people in the NHL for fighting, and their dad was like, you don't do that. You'd laugh and be like, that's my job. You're crazy. That's funny. I don't know.

What are you doing? You'd laugh and just blow it off. But he you're crazy that's funny i don't know about this what are you doing you laugh and just blow it off but he would cry about it you know what i mean so he's very close with his dad there i guess apparently his roommate said that he started drinking even more heavily and staying out late at night and not coming home at night and and shit like that uh john told the uh the newspaper later on about this period. All of a sudden you're mad at yourself that you weren't closer than you were about his dad. I spent so much of my time doing things against his will.

Uh, I took his illness really hard. So that's, everybody said it was, this was his rapid decline here. And, uh, the Montreal Canadians were getting sick of him because he's getting unpredictable. He's getting a little crazy. He, at one point, told the coaches he didn't want to be a fighter anymore. He wanted to be a scorer from now on. And they're like, yeah, that's not why we drafted you. We have guys that do that.

That's what their job is. And you're not that. It's too late for you to start doing that, too, by the way. That's the thing. You can't do that now. You fit in our system in a specific way. Yeah. You don't like it the way. That's the thing. You can't do that now. You fit in our system in a specific way. Yeah. You don't like it.

Yeah. Fucking go somewhere else. Jeff Dunham can't go out and start doing edgy fucking political humor now. No, he can't. Because he's fucking ruined himself for anything to be taken seriously by carrying a puppet around with him for 40 fucking years. And the flip side of the coin, if Anthony Jeselnik came out with a fucking puppet, you'd throw your beers at him.

Yeah. I'd probably throw my beer at him anyway. Because he's terrible. But besides that, on top of that. Right. You'd throw your beers at him. Yeah, I'd probably throw my beer at him anyway. Because he's terrible. But besides that, on top of that. Right. You just can't switch what you're supposed to do. This is what people came here to see you do.

That's the fucking thing right there. So he said that. And he said he wanted, he called it from crusher to rusher to usher is what he wanted to do. What? I have no idea. I guess he wanted to seat people. He wanted to be a friendly force in the seating. Okay.

How about I get a job with the stadium crew and I'll just help people find their seats? How's that? Crusher to rusher to usher. Crusher to rusher to usher. That's like ashy to classy to... I went for... What was it? It's a biggie. Oh, God damn it. Ashy to nasty to classy. I think that's what it? It's a biggie. Oh, goddammit.

Ashy to nasty to classy. I think that's what it was. Is that it? Yeah. Or the other way. Classy to nasty. Yeah. But it's fucking...

Either way. It's pretty good. Nobody till somebody kills you, I think, is the song. So anyway, yes. But the coaches at that point, one of them said that he was, quote, not the most skilled guy. Not going to be a scorer, basically. And, you know, it's one of them said that he was quote not the most skilled guy not going to be a score basically um and you know it's one of those things he says a friend of his says it's difficult to keep up the tough guy image and if you don't people around people around don't want you around

anymore that's what it is and he's got to keep doing it and uh his coach in montreal said that quote he beat the shit out of everybody he was the best fighter in the league nobody could take john so okay that's fucking awesome though why wouldn't you want that that's good he's got his dad doesn't approve of it now it's even worse his dad's sick he feels like he's like making his dad sicker right you know what i mean it's man it feels like he gave his dad cancer by bashing these dudes heads that's what it is and his coach at this time said quote john tried to tell himself that he hated fighting but he really loved to fight he kept saying i don't like it i don't like it but he seemed to really like it he said the only way for him to attract attention was to fight and he loved the attention okay but that's different yeah that's like saying

that you know no that's that's different that's like saying that that girl loves to strip. She loves it because she likes attention, and that's the way she gets attention, by putting her vagina in people's faces. Maybe some girls, that would fit. There are a few, I'm sure. But there's a lot that doesn't fit. I'll bet the vast majority of women that that's their profession

would much rather do something else. They'd much rather, yeah, be getting attention in another area while their clothes were on, maybe. Maybe not, I don't know. And a large paycheck. And a large paycheck. All at the same same time yeah uh he loved the attention after he beat up gordonali of the nordiques before an opening face-off in quebec in 1988 as he was walking off the ice or as he was skating off the ice he kissed his fist and held it up to the crowd i never saw anyone else do that before or since that's pretty fucking awesome yeah that's pretty cool

dude i like that a lot that's a power move yeah it's imagine that that's that's that's a michael jackson butthole look yeah that's perfect i just want to punch you i just want to punch you right in the mouth that's that i fucking love that to me that's that's and that's what hockey fans like too hockey fans and it's a different breed of hockey fan a lot of times, especially back then. It's tougher. People go there to drink beer. It's a tougher thing. And they like the fights.

It's just a different thing, man. It's violence. That's what the NFL is, too. It's violence. And they try to pretend like it's not. They try to play the gracefulness of the scoring. No. People can get killed.

That's why they watch. Do people watch NASCAR, the gracefulness of the scoring. No. No. People can get killed. That's why they watch. Right. Do people watch NASCAR? The gracefulness of the driving? No. Because at some point, an explosion could happen. We could see something horrific, and we're on the edge of our seats for it. It's fucking nuts. That's why they watch boxing, because there could be a knockout.

Right. And someone, all of a sudden, it's an excitement thing. And I don't have to do it. Yeah. I don't have to do any of that shit. I don't have to be a part of it. Ever. Except to sit it. I don't even have to be a part of it. You just have to sit here.

Man. Now, his sister, Toni, though, says that he did actually not like fighting and that that was genuine. She says, quote, he didn't want to fight. He just knew what he had to do to keep his job. Each game, he was expected to fight. And somebody like John maybe couldn't deal with all that pressure. And so that's kind of the pressure and the father and everything he's really turning hard to drugs and things like that now a roommate of his a former roommate of his he says that he's not an alcoholic though he says quote john wasn't an alcoholic he

drank yes but only when he was doing drugs so how often was he doing drugs every day yeah so but he's not an alcoholic he's only doing that for the drugs it's like he doesn't like the attention he doesn't like to fight he only likes the attention it's like it's the same thing it's insanity it's the recipe for him for a madman yeah that's it's and he's just doing what he wants and uh a league spokesperson said uh because people were taking shots at their drug policy at this point. Of course. Because basically because I think it was, I want to say Grant Fior, maybe. I don't want to besmirch him if it's not him. But a player went to rehab on his own voluntarily, and they suspended him for it. And so, you know, but they don't have like a good testing policy.

And they're saying that the spokesman says it's pretty easy for you or anyone else to sit back and take shots at this policy which is geared to prevent first-time use by making it known that there will be maximum penalties other leagues accept that there's going to be other leagues accept that there's going to be a drug going to be drug use and have policies that aren't too hard on first offenders our program is a maximum deterrent and that's what i support oh yeah in other words we're doing everything wrong everything wrong we're telling people to hide your drug problem because if it comes out in the open then you're in fucking trouble even if you say you want help on your own

then you're in trouble but if you hide it really well no harm no foul stay functioning and it's not a problem and he said it's easy for anyone to sit back and take shots. It's his policy. It's real fucking easy. You make it easy. You know what? It's super easy. It's like the easiest thing in the world to sit back. Basically, you don't give a fuck.

Right. Unless it becomes public and then you can act like we don't like drugs. Look at what we punish those bad players for doing drugs. That's what it is. Even though you've encouraged this fucking behavior by not giving a shit about it until they voluntarily want help fuck yourself fuck yourself nhl just you take the nfl with you by the way jesus christ you either give a shit or you don't yeah thing and if you're not gonna drug test and not gonna check on them and and manage it then you certainly don't give a shit you pretend to give a shit as long as it doesn't affect the bottom line.

There you go. And that's it right there. Which do you give a shit about, them or your money? That's it. And you can't give a shit about both. You've got to make a choice. And they don't. So November 7th, 88, he's worn out his welcome in Montreal.

He is traded from the Canadians with a sixth-round pick to the Toronto Maple Leafs for a guy named Russ Cortnall, who turns out to be a real, real good player. He was a good player at that time. He was in the league for about five years. He plays all the way until 1999. Wow. From, you know. From 85?

Yeah, he came into the league in 83, 84, plays all the way until 98, 99. So, very good player here. 16, 17 years? Yeah, 744 career points. Jesus. A good player. A real good player years. Yeah, 744 career points. Jesus. A good player. A real good player. 297 goals.

Decent guy. The Toronto fans were pissed at this trade. They did not want some enforcer for a guy they really liked and who was a good player. Not a popular trade among the players or the fans or anything like that. Now, his year with the Maple Leafs, he plays in 46 games. One goal, two assists, 185 penalty minutes. So he gets that done, no problem. But his personality is out of control at this point.

It's out of control. He's getting in fights in the locker room with teammates now. So he can say he doesn't like to fight all he wants, but he can't control it. at this point. It's out of control. He's getting in fights in the locker room with teammates now. Oh, no. So he can say he doesn't like to fight all he wants, but he can't control it. Why are you doing it in the personal time? Probably because you're

on steroids and coke, both of which make you a little jumpy, you know? Both of which, those are both aggression drugs. Right. And then when you mix booze in, which is like,

takes away your interlocutor that stops you from doing crazy aggressive things, you're a fucking menace. You're a walking lunatic someone needs to you know give that put a bong hit in this guy's face to calm him down a little bit minimum a leash so yeah something i don't know if you hold him back christ almighty so uh yeah he gets it he got in a uh he slapped a guy named uh alan bester who's a goalie who's five

foot seven oh jesus he's slapping around the goalie of the team who's yeah goalies aren't really big fighters usually either they hang out in the in the goal so uh that year he uh he does have nine uh i'm sorry later on here he has got so many penalty minutes here uh he broke a stick over a guy named keith acton's head um which is uh interesting broke his nose with that. Oh, he hit him in the fucking face? Yeah, hit him across the head and it went down and...

Wow. Broke a stick over his head, which is... Oh, my God. You know, that's... That's dangerous. Yeah, man, that's... Those are hard.

That's a fucking weapon. Yeah. It's a weapon. Yeah. You do that, like the... I can't remember the guy... Oh, was it Brashear

that got hit in the head? Who the hell was it that McSorley hit him in the head with a stick knocked him out he fucking fell and hit his head on the ice is that the it was the late 90s 2000 because they tried to like bring up on charges yeah that's happened a few times on on ice things which is weird uh but he uh yeah he does that he's suspended for 10 games for the stick breaking incident here uh the the maple Leafs at this time would have him stay in detox centers. And they never said publicly for what, though.

They would just kind of keep it under the radar and not say it was a drug thing. Because if it's a booze thing, that's fine. You're supposed to booze it as a hockey player. So they don't mind that. You could be the biggest alcoholic in the world. They'll go, hey, get yourself to AA there, buddy right and you're fine but if it's coke yeah fuck you maximum deterrent motherfucker jesus christ they put him in those places like yes like what like there's no hotel rooms tonight so we're just gonna put you in this place yeah you're going to detox

for the night they even moved his mother to toronto for a few months to live with him to keep an eye on him. Here, your mom's going to keep an eye on you. Maybe that'll help. Another guy said, quote, I would have to babysit John on the road. He was a funny guy with a great sense of humor, but he would wear you out. He had chronic money problems and his lifestyle was self-destructive. You just felt used by him. That's what he's become now.

The guy who's borrowing money and got drugs problems and scumbag yeah and he's making 150 grand a year in in the late 80s which is real money real good money in the late 80s like you know about 300 grand a year now up proper 200s that's damn fine money pretty easy to go through that and blow though i would blow yeah i mean geez blow it's easy to go through. You can just go through an unlimited amount of money with cocaine, especially in the 80s. It was expensive. So 1989, finally, John's father, Ivan, dies. I was just about to ask that.

And yeah, this is not good for John. The controls are off, basically, at this point. Now he's got nothing to feel bad about, and he's just going to be a mess from here on out uh a friend of his said quote the best way i can put it is that after his father died john had no support system which makes sense uh one of his fiancés said because he had different ones at different times said uh quote john was so shy he couldn't even go shopping without someone being there this is the kind of guy he is he's very shy very dependent on his parents very things like that but then he's also this crazy fighter guy that goes out there he is everyone knows who he is and he's you know known as this big tough guy and he's got this image he needs to uphold so he's got to take

steroids he's got to do coke to feel like i can do anything and run through a wall and you know that's what it is what was your first experience with cancer? With cancer? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Both my grandfather's died. Do you remember which age? I was 10. Okay.

So, okay, right around this age then. Yeah. Right around now. Yeah, yeah. In the story. I mean, like in 89. It was in 90. My one grandfather died and the next grandfather died.

And when you watched that, how fucking miserable. Oh, it was awful. I couldn't do anything about it. A kid across the street from me, his dad had leukemia and he died. Dude, so fast. It seemed like he got diagnosed and then I woke up in the morning and he was burying his dad. Yeah. And I remember watching him, though.

I say that, but I saw him deteriorate so quick. And that is the most horrific thing I'd ever watched at that age too and i didn't i didn't even understand what the hell leukemia was yeah today i know what it is but then i didn't understand what it was until he told me that it was a form of cancer yeah it is a horrible thing to watch and for that to be his father the guy that he wanted the the approval of and now he's gone it's it's about to go yeah it's real bad it's it's really well it's got so bad his teammates gave him a nickname oh no um it was sniffy oh what sniffy so he's out like that much coke he's always sniffing everybody knew he was a coke head is that worse or better than dp

well i guess it's volunteer doing coke, so I guess it's better. You're earning Sniffy, whereas DP, you can't help at all. That's just you. That's where your parents brought you. He was always low on money, so not only did he ask his roommates for it, he twice asked the Maple Leafs for an advance in his paycheck. How often do you hear of an athlete asking for a fucking advance in their money? That does not happen.

A hundred and how many shows this is the first time? Never heard of that before. That's the crackiest behavior we've ever encountered before. They said he was just moodier than usual. He would just sometimes miss games, just not show up, and no permission. You can't get an advancement on your pay and then not show up to earn it that's the thing he wants it's why if you're on coke you do shit like that that's why you don't advance coke ads for money or gamblers no gambling comedians don't get oh never give a gambling money first there is no more mess of a human being than a addicted to gambling stand-up comedian

never you're gonna get never more of a degenerate ever not even trying to pun just all bets are off all bets you will never never they get off work at midnight wide awake guess what they're gonna do they're gonna gamble a lot especially if there's casinos where you live holy shit on the east coast where the west coast is still playing sporting events yeah fucking the bets are happening it's insanity so yeah he became just a mess here by the summer of 90 toronto management encouraged him to enter a drug rehab program at this point but not like trigger it with the league just like hey it's the summer why don't you go sneak into a rehab and then you'll be better when you come back hey what do you say yeah and then we'll all

be happy and we don't need to announce this to the public or anything you know we don't want them to get upset um so uh he it's it's a fucking mess man uh he says uh there's a uh a sportscaster here who uh he says that uh he he acts as an informal it's his name is jim mckinney he's a former maple leaf player turned sportscaster and he's like a kind of like an informal in this article they call him an informal liaison between the club and players who have substance abuse problems because he's been there before so he's kind of one of those guys you can go to them and find out exactly it's they're dropping the they're dropping the stick in the gas tank to see exactly how much how fucked up it is in there

yeah oh no he's okay he's got a little left uh so this guy says quote low self-esteem then the drugs all the all the drugs are linked a guy like him will have two or three drinks then he wants to get into the blow then to take the edge off of, he has five or six drinks to get the level again. And then he's pumped up on steroids and start all over again. It sounds crazy, but to him, it was a way of life. And that's what it is. The Coke and booze people, if you've ever done that, it's, yeah, I took, oh boy, too much Coke.

I take that edge off. Okay, let me have three drinks. Oh boy, now I'm a little tipsy. I got to have a little more Coke to get. You can never find that right balance, but you'll try all night. That's the thing. So that's what people do. Mix steroids in there.

I don't even know what the fuck, man. That's a disaster. I've seen people try to make that balance all night, and you're like, dude, you're just not going to get there. Sorry, man. Shit. I wish I could have watched LT in the 80s doing this shit. Oh, man. He was just on coke, though.

Yeah. Yeah, but he was drinking, too, right? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. He's drinking. But he had to be doing steroids, too. I'm sure. I bet it was this same fucking cocktail. Everybody was on that cocktail in the 80s.

That's the thing. All these athletes were on these cocktails. It's the Dexter Manley, it could be called. I would have loved to be in a club and just stand in the corner and just watch. Watch lunatics at work. I would have loved to be in a club and just stand in the corner and just watch. Watch lunatics at work. So, 89-90, though.

Next year, he makes $122,525 to play for the Leafs. 55 games. Nine goals, which is his most in the NHL that he's ever had in a season. Four assists. But 252 penalty minutes. So, he's trying to show, hey, look at me. I can score, but you still got to go fight, too. That's how that works there.

Apparently, a rookie ended up being roomed with him at one point on the road. And this guy was like, what a fucking nut. I guess he said his luggage was in the room, but then John just wasn't there ever. He said, quote, so I went to bed figuring there must have been a mistake maybe john was in another room but at about 1 a.m he burst through the door yelling about something takes the old metal key used to have at hotels and whips it at the window which breaks then he flops into bed it's one in the morning you're awoken by that son of a bitch broken glass and then he just falls in the bed that's it he says quote i spent the whole night wide awake under the covers worried about he what he might do to me

jesus christ i would too yeah who knows this guy could just decide he wants to t-bag me at fucking 4 a.m while i'm sleeping i gotta be ready for this shit holy fuck man uh so they suspend him the leafs do for two days after he doesn't show up for a game with detroit just doesn't show yeah just sorry no call no show like he works at a fucking mcdonald's or something uh yeah he's just a a huge pain in the ass apparently another time here uh the game before that he called the dressing room 20 minutes after he was supposed to arrive to say he was late. No, that's not okay.

We know that you're late. Yeah, we get it. Where the fuck are you? Yeah, fucking stupid. So June 2nd, 1990 here, he, John, is at Barry T's, which is a night spot here. He's hanging out with his girlfriend at the bar doing his thing here. He's fiance at this point. He then gets into an argument with

her, obviously. This is not his... He'll have another fiance. This is his first fiance that he doesn't marry. So he gets into an argument with her. So she pours a drink on his head. And so he knocked her onto the floor okay not okay no uh

this is you know in public you can't do that especially obviously not in private anywhere but in public if a giant guy throws his girlfriend on the floor tends to draw a little attention i'd like to know where that where that little cliche bullshit started though the the you're an asshole so i'm allowed to pour a drink on your head yeah i don't get that it's a fucking jerk move that well it's the it's that's really dancing on the fact that i can't punch you in public that's what that's not cool at all no that's the thing if you're gonna and also slapping right girls like to slap guys it's like i get that guys might deserve to be slapped sometimes but they can't say that about you right and then give you the back of their fucking hand right that doesn't work but if you if you get slapped and you know but obviously i look like a bitch

and an asshole well what did he do deserve that i've got to deal with this now and i deserved that in public we can't just fucking get back home and talk about this thing is and the physical thing is the problem is it's not an equal thing so no one should hit anybody right let's just say that right I'm not saying that, well, if you slap me, then I should be able to hit you. That's not what I'm saying. I'm just saying no one should slap anybody. You don't slap him, and then he definitely shouldn't slap you. But the fact that I'm not going to hit you should be enough in your head that, well, maybe I shouldn't pour a drink on him also.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Maybe I shouldn't just go and do all these punchable offenses and then just fucking stand there no that's true especially jerk thing if you're engaged to this guy you know he's not stable that's my point with it and that's again not an excuse of no matter what a woman does you can't hit her that's the thing you can't physically do anything no matter what it is so and that's fine that's how it should be and that's fine sure it's good but also fucking you want equality? Equality. Don't fucking pour drinks on me and I won't pour drinks on you.

We'll have a better world if nobody physically does anything to anybody like that. Keep your liquid in your cup, asshole. Unless you're a young boy who's been called a name, then punch the other kid in the face. There you go. Because you can't hurt a young boy with a young fist. That's the thing. Two nine-year-olds punching each other, no one's getting hurt. No.

Even if they knock their teeth, you got new ones coming in. Don't worry about it. It was loose anyway. Show me the reports where a nine-year-old punched another nine-year-old to death. I'm sure it happened once. The kid fell and hit his head on something. But generally, it's not going to happen. It's a safe fight.

So after he knocks his girlfriend down, he is wrestled out of the club by many doormen because he's a giant lunatic on steroids and cocaine uh so he uh he leaves the club uh there he they they throw him outside he's out for a minute and then he comes back in oh you can't do that you can't you can't do that so then they said hey dude you you can't uh you know hey can't do that remember what we just did, hey, dude, you can't do that. Remember what we just did? We just wrestled you outside. And he went, you're right. And he turned around and he left voluntarily this time.

But he fucked the door up on the way out. He broke the door on the way out. What a child. He does that. So he is arrested. The police come and they go to arrest him on a mischief charge. Police cuff him and go to put him into the police van. So they put him in the police van there.

Now, his friend is there. He's trying to get to his friend to tell his friend to call his lawyer. So his friend said, quote, John yelled at me through the van door. Raj is my lawyer, is what his friend said. His friend's last name is sarbah sarbah wall uh i guess he then tried cordick then try john tried to tell his friend the phone number of his lawyer through the thing hey this is his phone number uh but the police ordered the guy his friend sarbah wall away from the van they said get away from the van so uh they said that apparently the cops say that

the sarbohal guy at that point began yelling and swearing at them um the cops say even though we'd use no obscene language uh they're polite about it yeah now this guy the sarbohal said he didn't become upset and start swearing until an officer used an obscenity and gave him a shoulder check to get him away from the van uh he said quote the officer bumped up against me and hit me in the chest i yelled back in the as in the same pitch voice as him um so apparently at that time 50 drug bar patrons are coming out because the hockey guy just got thrown in the back of a fucking van and uh the cop described the situation as quote potentially explosive which is yes the violence could erupt at any time here so police are trying to get this guy away because he's causing a scene

and everybody's getting all irritated and all this sort of shit so uh apparently that uh they told him the police say they told this man five times to get away from the van they said that they told him if he wanted to help kordick to meet them at the police station. If you want to help John, meet him there and then you can call his lawyer and do all that shit. Apparently, the guy wouldn't go away.

Eventually, they arrest this guy, the Sarba Wall guy. You can get his number right next to him in the van. That's the thing here. Tell you what. If you want to talk to him that bad, hop in. Gotcha.

There you go. So they handcuff him and charge him with causing a disturbance yeah so uh yeah he told the court that uh he was worried about being uh worried about losing his trainer's license because he's a horse trainer and he says that in order to be a trainer at the place he works you must have a clean record yeah so uh and that's wonderwall that needs that yeah that's that's wonderwall. And he ends up being convicted and fined $330. And they did say, though, there's plenty of trainers with impaired convictions.

But he has a problem. He doesn't want to get suspended from doing this because he already received a 90-day suspension from the Alberta Racing Commission in November for attempting to give a banned substance to one of his horses. So he was drugging a horse and got suspended for that. So he's like, I don't want to lose my license for a van incident. He's a drunk guy that makes the horse run a little faster. Yeah, he's a drunk guy that's like, I give a horse something better. He sticks it in.

There you go. Give it a boost in the thigh. I give it in buttocks. Show me butthole. Give it a boost in the thigh. I give it in buttocks. Show me butthole. Make it shine. I touch myself while horse shows butthole. It's not about make me feel good. It is.

It's to make you feel bad. It's to make you feel bad. It's not about make me feel good. It's about make you feel bad. it's about to make you feel bad is about how you feel is about to make you feel bad that's basically the voice of every pedophile yeah that's pretty much science they closed right there is is about you feel yes so uh yeah he is found guilty of causing a disturbance anyway here he's a harness trainer at the northlands racetrack jesus christ so august 14th 1990

john has court for his incident there and pushing his girlfriend down and causing a disturbance but he does not show up for court you know skips it. This is bullshit. Jesus Christ. Good court. What the fuck? I'm sure they forgot. They don't need me there for that. I'm sure. They have all the information.

They got bigger shit to fry anyway. There's murderers out there. So a warrant is issued for his arrest, obviously. I don't think that's the same, by the way. Bigger shit to fry? I don't think that's the thing. You got bigger shit to fry, pal. That's gross. you're doing dinner

wrong mister he's a big a different protein where are you from i thought the polenta on the table was weird at least nobody was frying shit up buddy from yugoslavia jesus christ man my god you're gonna get the coronavirus that way. Oh, man. That's how you get it. That's the only way to get it. Finding the big shit to fry. That's it.

You got to find the big shit to fry. And then you come down with it. It's a delicacy in a certain region. Oh, man. So John doesn't show up for court the maple leaf spokesman who he's playing for at the time said that he knew nothing about the charge or court and he said all i know is it's supposed to be a camp on september 7th outside of that i don't know fucking think about it i don't have any paperwork don't ask me shit i don't know anything about it meanwhile they knew all about

it but there's i don't know nothing so So 1991 season, he makes $150,000 for this season. This is where he's going to end up getting traded in January. He plays three games for Toronto, and then he's traded to Washington. Traded to the Capitals here. Now Toronto just doesn't want him anymore, and they're ready to shit can him. They're ready to just dump him. they're ready to just dump him uh but the his agent howard goritz apparently convinced the capitals to give him another chance and to try to trade him like hey if you drop him you're gonna fuck his whole career if you act like everything's fine and trade him you're just

pass that problem along you know that's what we're doing rid of him we get a different opportunity everybody's happy everybody's happy and it's off of your plate. What do you care? So he is traded from the Leafs with Paul Fenton to the Capitals for a round five draft pick, which ended up being Alexey Kudashov, who is a guy who has played in a bunch of Russian teams.

And German Dusseldorf. He played for the Moscow Dynamo. I feel for all those foreign guys named Alexis. That's a tough name for a dude, man. Alexey I feel for all those foreign guys named Alexis. Alexis. That's a tough name for a dude, man. Alexi, this guy is. Alexi, Alexis.

But over there, it's fine. Yeah. Over there, it's like John. Here, it's no good. No, here, it's Alexi. Oh, that's brutal. That's not a good one. That's a little white girl in Des Moines.

It is. Little Alexi. Little, hey, listen. Your pigtails are not straight,lexi let's fix them now uh he the general manager in washington david uh poyle he said he wanted to toughen up the capitals who at the time were the second least penalized team in the nhl oh it's the only sport where they're like we need to get more penalty in there like that's every other sport they're like i fucking fix our penalties here they're like we're a bunch of pussies. No one's getting penalized. Sure. Take a roughing.

Yeah. Come on, man. So he said about this. Poyle is a general manager said about John, quote, He is what you call a legitimate tough guy. He was your he is your loaded gun. He had limited talent, but he's a tough guy. And whether maybe that's maybe that's another reason why we should look at things as, we'll see anyway.

That's what he literally, a bunch of ellipses and trail offs into that. Essentially today's rap lyrics. That's it. It's a tough guy. Legitimate. Legitimate. Ellipses. And that's it.

Ellipses. That's going to be, that's my new, my song. It's just called Ellipses. The whole thing is just... Yeah. It's going to be you and Billy Eyelash next year at the Grammys. It'll be like... Who was it?

The Chappelle? Is it the Chappelle thing? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Turn my headphones up. I can't hear my snare. I can't hear my snare. Turn my headphones up. That's the whole song.

His hit, Turn My Headphones Up. No, for real, motherfucker. I can't hear nothing. hear him i said yeah turn but turn my headphones up that's the whole song his hit turn my headphones up no for real motherfucker i can't hear nothing my hearing ain't good in my right ear man you gotta turn my headphones up my headphones up i love that shit so john says about being are being uh in washington quote i was brought here for one reason and that's what i tried to do sure i try to intimidate the other guys i don't care who knows it intimidation is part of the game now he's just taking it fuck it this is what i do it is what it is man uh now the capitals director of player personnel he said him and the general manager had separate interviews with john and they wouldn't discuss

his problems but they said they thought cordick was good now yeah very silver the nhl is maybe the most silver of the leagues silver hair middle-aged white men running amok in this fucking place cordick says of the interview john says quote he asked me everything he wanted to know uh and you can't blame him i had to realize the other 20 teams didn't take a chance on me i was sitting around for seven weeks that opens up a guy's eye to the idea that he's not wanted around the league i'm grateful to washington for giving me another chance i'm not going to let them down or let my teammates down most of all i won't let myself down he's ready yeah ready to go jimmy he's fucking coach terry murray said that he had to go over

guidelines for cordick on how to fit in this is what you get rules for him and he says he's just grateful and he won't let them down and uh he ends up playing seven games with washington uh no goals no assists but 101 penalty minutes how do you get that many seven games nine fights and he was suspended twice wow in seven over the he played in seven games well there's a lot he missed a practice about three weeks after that's one of the suspensions yeah uh the team suspended him for a game uh and they also acknowledged that the problem was related to alcohol and depression but they said that they thought he'd be okay they just were like you're fine yeah get out there and punch somebody and make you feel better uh so apparently he said that uh when he was late he said that he had moved into a new apartment

and a phone wasn't installed yet for a couple days and so yeah he said you know the communication with him is tough because he's you know i don't know what had happened what happened was yeah the one coach said i don't know where he is i don't know why he isn't here and i don't know where he's at that's what he said i don't know anything whatever uh so they said they were aware of his behavior but they were you know they were hoping it would be fine uh the general manager poyle said quote it hit me like a shot between the eyes i want to take some time before deciding anything or doing anything else i need that time which is why there'll be no update until the club returns next week. So like,

we don't know what to do with them. Everyone's asking, what are you gonna do with Cording? He just showed up. John shows up, fucks up or immediately. Are you just going to get rid of him? Cause it's just a,

you know, part of his pattern or what? I mean, like a shot between the eyes. So he ends up even mean. Yeah. So surprised and murdered you. He was surprised that this guy didn't show up.

Like really? Were you that shocked? Is that shocking? A shot between the eyes? Yeah, that surprised. What, he fucking murdered you? He was surprised that this guy didn't show up. Like, really? Were you that shocked? Is that shocking? A shot between the eyes? Yeah, that's shocking. Now, that's a surprise. They send him, this is how the kind of dark days of this in sports.

They send him to a clinic for rehab for eight days. Eight days. Yeah. Should be good now, right? Real. You're good now pal dedicated slap him on the ass and send him back out on the ice that's a little over a week oh that's that's eight days the doctor who treats fucking hanukkah yeah literally just hanukkah um the doctor who treated him uh told him that this is amazing they told this doctor told the team the capitals think about this okay what's

the first thing like uh you know when someone has a major drug problem the first thing they're taken away from is like work shit right stuff that does that especially if it's like the road or like right away like get yourself healthy you can't be you can't do both anything like i know uh in all the cooking shows they always say like gordon ramsay will always say if a chef has like a real drug problem or an alcohol problem he can't be in the kitchen he I know in all the cooking shows, they always say like Gordon Ramsay, always say if a chef has like a real drug problem or an alcohol problem, he can't be in the kitchen. He's got to be out of the kitchen while he figures that out. That's what is part of his thing.

It's his trigger, right? Yeah. So the doctor here, though, tells the Capitals that he thinks that John's recovery would be better served if he's back with the team. That's a guy that can't deal. If he's got a bunch of pressure on him and, you know, he's back in the situation that caused this in the first place, he'll probably be better off. Or I can't fix him. Yeah.

Well, I think it was basically that's what the Capitals, that's the diagnosis they wanted. They sent him there and they said, you got a week to fix this. Probably. probably they said uh uh the general manager said he told us all in front of john me the coaches and the players that john's comfort zone was in the arena we all knew it was a gamble i knew the coaches knew the players knew and john knew he said that the doctor said it's a 50 50 shot yeah this is not a mathematical equation and And that's not even great. No, that's bad odds. I would say those odds because, yeah, it's either failure or success.

That's 50-50. That's 50-50. Thanks for your help, Doc. Glad you went to college for that. You really worked a miracle here, Doc. Thank you. So basically, if we just take them and pretend it didn't happen, then it might work out or it might not. Wow, you're brilliant.

I'm going to refer everyone to you. We got the same chances as you've got? Is that what you're telling us? 50-50 shot. And the team said they believed in second chances. And they said that John agreed to try harder and they said they thought it would work. The general manager here, Poyle, says

it was a patch to get through the year, which is really what it was. GM here is very honest about the fact that this was not a great thing to do. It's so fucking weird. One of the guys here said, one of his teammates, at first the guys were iffy

on whether we should have gotten him, but he's done his job adequately and the guys came around. As a teammate, we liked him and he's still our teammate. So that's what they're saying. And he also said, same guy, he provided a lot of enthusiasm in the dressing room.

A lot of guys on this team are real quiet. He was always talking and having fun. He talks on the ice and in practice. He knew exactly what his job is and doesn't gripe about it or the ice time. So they're saying he's just great. So, wow. They said, quote, the team, they and the team worried about. This is what John says. They as the team worried about this is what john says

they as a team worried about me as a person john the human being and not john the hockey player that means a lot to me yeah that's sweet that's what he would want here but they really didn't they just sent him back to the play more um so after his return after he returns on the ice he makes an obscene gesture to the crowd in New Jersey. He gives the crowd the finger, and the NHL suspends him for a game for that. You can't do that in New Jersey? That's just waving. That's what I mean. We said that's in New Jersey.

Good morning. Go fuck yourself. That's good morning. Good morning. You want cream in that coffee? This is great. Yeah, so that's a one-game suspension, and right after that, he's back into drugs, relapse from one-game suspension, and he goes AWOL from the team. Gone.

Dis-fucking-peers. Yeah. At this point, they said the Capitals end up finally finding him, and they end up offering to pay to send him to rehab. Really? Yeah. Now, they didn't have to at this point. They could have just cut him. He'll never play for them again, but they're he's gonna pay for them they're gonna pay for him

to get rehab uh here uh the poil the general manager says quote john just john wanted to play hockey more than anything in the world he said it was his last chance uh he said and the capitals wanted to trust him there uh he said poil called called it, he said this isn't a crash diet, it's a serious illness. You know, it's just, it's not a, he needs more time to rehab. The general manager called the,

he said he had two relapses, basically, that we just discussed. He says, quote, he had a lot of problems, whether they be people problems, communication problems, or off-ice problems. John is finished for the year, is what the coach says. He has a big problem and needs help, long-term professional help.

The important thing as far as John is concerned is that he gets his life back in order. Right now, hockey is just secondary to that. And then Poyle said, quote, it's very unrealistic to think that Kordick will play again this year. He has a very big problem, and we want to get him help. We want to help John Kordick and we not even think about him playing hockey again until he gets his personal life straightened out. And John says at this point, he talks to the press and this is sad. He says, quote, I think my career as a hockey player is just about finished.

I don't want to say anything else about it right now. He chose drugs. That's what he said. He's just like, I'm done wow this is fucking crazy so um montreal july 1991 he's living in an apartment in montreal and there's rioting going on outside and he thinks it's better than watching tv well yeah there's race riots happening in the streets and he thinks he thinks it's fucking great canadian race riots i'm sure it was adorable uh actually no no um it wasn't like water gun fights let me read to you okay uh neighbors hissed and hollered friday afternoon at a group of five black men who were escorted from their home by police damned n-word but they said it go back to haiti yelled

a man who leaned out his kitchen window with his mother. All they ever did was play their music and speak some bamboo language. I wish I'd have been here yesterday to come down myself and beat the shit out of them. You can't say that. That's why there's a riot. This is what causes riots. Is this Alabama or is this Canada? This is Montereree fucking all. They're bamboo language.

Go back to Haiti, James. Dude, it's fucking crazy. Apparently the kids were throwing bottles at each other and then the police arrived. And it's been going on all week. And I guess a white kid got stabbed in the knee and taken to the hospital and a black guy's car was set on fire and a hundred people watched all this type of shit.

Those are not equal offenses, you guys. A kid getting stabbed in the knee doesn't mean light his shit on fire. Well, here's a paragraph from the Montreal Gazette here. Quote, On Fridayiday the all-white residents of the rundown working-class neighborhood of i have uh hojalaka mason nueve uh drank beer and pepsi spat at two police cruisers full of ethiopian somalian and jamaican morn men and gave the finger in a blatant show of bigotry this is what's going on here in what year 1991 july of 1991 welcome to canada wow um john lived there and he's hanging out his window

watching the whole thing he says quote everybody was coming out to watch he says it beat staying inside to watch television oh my god no it's way worse that was horrifying uh he said the trouble started uh this is what he says quote when the blacks started razzing a mulatto youth for fraternizing with whites another word you don't say well back then you could say that that was the official designation back then that's the other reason why this is unbelievable he said the blacks moved into a basement apartment several weeks ago and had been harassing neighbors with their, quote, loud music and late night street dancing. I'm just shaking my head, man.

I don't even know what to say about this. This is fucking crazy. How about this? Don't ever go to New York, you guys. If you can't handle this shit, you are... Don't go anywhere. Don't go outside of Canada because the white people will do the same go anywhere don't go out of sight of canada because the white people will do the same thing is this is out of the norm for you you gotta you got a lot

of problems it sounds like this is just they're crazy then he said quote they would yell sexual threats at the girls he said that quote white tempers flared when the blacks turned up the volume on the popular rap song i'm gonna knock you out to taunt the whites a fucking ll cool jay of all people off really ll cool jay come on man you guys are gonna lose your minds when you hear about crisscross oh my god what the what what's gonna happen when onyx comes on ll cool jay being played sets off a riot between what is happening, man. He said that, yeah, it's ridiculous.

So John is sitting watching it like it's on television, not really caring either way. Crazy shit. I just didn't know that kind of thing happened in Montreal. One of those weird things. 91-92 here. October 4th, 91, you'd think he'd be done. Who the hell's going to take a chance?

Well, one of the worst teams in the league decides to take a chance on him. Jet? Quebec. Quebec Nordiques, who won't even be in Quebec for much longer. I think two more years, they move to Colorado, three more years. So they're really in the desperation shit heap at this point. And he's only going to play 18 games for Quebec and have 115 penalty minutes, though. Very strong penalty showing there.

Now, he he roomed with Brian Fogarty, who's a guy we'll end up having to talk about someday. He's a guy who had a bad alcohol problem and ended all life ended tragically here. Fogarty says at this point, though, quote, me and John were straight and sober. This is John trying to be john were straight and sober this is john trying to be on the straight narrow here he says we were being tested almost every other day for drugs and alcohol there was no lying he was straight then he had a little slip in january that's when the team found out about it and they split us up because they put the two recovering alcoholics together to i guess help each other right i don't know if that's a good that's a good idea if you got two recoverings then one watches the other either going to be 100 great or 100

yeah you know they're gonna have to pick them up from the police station because they were on the roof of the elementary school right you know throwing pine cones at the kids as they entered right it's like two mormons together they're either friends together because they fuck up together or they're friends together because they keep each other in line. One of the two. Exactly. So, yeah, Fogarty said he had no doubt, though, that John was using steroids because that was not on that.

That wasn't part of this. That was a separate thing. He said, quote, It was pretty easy to know when his weight was fluctuating 10 or 15 pounds weekly. What? Weekly. Each week he's 10 pounds up, 10 pounds down. When he feels like he's not performing well or when he feels like, because the drugs make him feel, the cocaine make him feel invincible.

When he doesn't feel like that, he just does more steroids. Wow. Because that'll make him feel bigger. Quote, he got it in his mind that he had one good year using steroids to beef up and to be tougher than everybody else. And now that he did it, and now that he did it the one year it's almost like he can't do it without it because that's what he's thinking now so uh the team at this point he's such a distraction the nordiques team players take a vote to have him cut from the team they vote to get rid of him i've never heard of that before no well in the

nfl they'd be like fuck you yeah that's what they'd say like this isn't your team because you know we own you is how they would look at it but in hockey they took it seriously and the manager of the uh of the quebec nordiques uh called uh john quote a time bomb set to explode yeah so he had played 19 games at that point and the they end up releasing him uh the gm says quote he broke the rules and that was it for him he came to me and cried i said isn't that the deal we made we gave you a chance when no one else would and i'm glad we did i'm still glad we did so he really didn't want to get cut but he gets cut um now the general manager denies that he tested positive for cocaine, but his fiance

and his roommate says that he was using cocaine this whole fucking time. Again. Um, once he, once he relapsed, once he had that one little blip, it was over. Uh, yeah. So, um, the GM said that he would say, quote, so often we said to him, do you want to live or do you want to die? It's strange to think back on it, but that's what we said. to live or do you want to die it's strange to think back on it but that's what we said so he ends up finishing the season with cape breton breton uh which is the the edmonton

oilers farm team and uh they said that he was his work ethic was great his enthusiasm was great he's trying to catch on with the oilers next year that's his goal with edmonton and go back home and play there uh so uh he was talking about trying out in the training camp and doing everything. And they said, we'll see if you're healthy and everything. We'll take a look at you. And that sort of thing. He begins,

he gets a new girlfriend, new girlfriend. She is a believe they call her X, but we're not sure how X stripper dancer on again, off again. No, no, no,

no, not her, his X. She's an extra. Right. Right. That's what I mean. She's on again off again no no no not her his ex she's an ex-stripper right right that's what i mean she's on again yeah maybe like she was a stripper until they started going out now he's like you're with me now all right you can't be doing that i'll pay your rent or something i don't know what the fuck just stay with me or she got a job in an office and everything worked out i don't know who knows i have no idea finally got her degree and it all worked out. Or she got a rapping career and still can't speak English. Can't speak English.

No. On purpose. That's the annoying part. She speaks English just fine. She on purpose doesn't speak English. Right. Shut up. You know what the fuck we're talking about.

So she's 23 years old from Quebec. She's apparently very pretty. She says that she talked about their first kiss. She said that she slept, quote, with my head on his bicep like a pillow. She said they used to lift weights together and he even taught her the correct way to throw a punch. That's nice. Yeah.

That's sweet right there. So next time we're out, you know, if I'm arguing with someone, you come along, hit them in the ear. They'll never expect it. And then I'll kick them. It'll be a great, we could really do this. You know, I'm really tired of women pouring drinks on my head and ruining a good suit. You kick their ass.

You know what you should do is just punch me in the face. And I'm going to teach you how to do it. Let's do it here. Now, so he ends up moving to Quebec City city where he where she lives so he ends up spending time with her uh she works uh la falla sean i don't know how you say french words which is the club she worked uh it's it's near the quebec airport and it's a lot of like motels and fast food restaurants typical like around the airport shitty area Now, John used to come in and hang out at the bar here. A bartender there said, quote, John would come in here and sit very quietly at the bar.

He looked like a loner type. That guy. Big guy sitting there just angrily getting drunk quietly at the bar. At the strip club. At the strip club bar. Yeesh. Yeah. And somehow hooking up with one of the girls here.

Now, Nancy, his fiancee, said that his favorite TV show was The Young and the Restless, the soap opera. She said, though, that while watching it, he would taunt, there was a character who was an alcoholic and was struggling with it. He would taunt the character,

and she said he would yell at the character on TV, quote, go ahead and drink it, pussy, go ahead and drink it. He would like, fuck like fuck well because he was getting fucked up and he knew it's like had this shouting him down don't be clean you fucking poser this fucking soap operas cathartic as shit so uh yeah have a drink and fuck some strange come on man just do it do it so she also described uh sessions of cocaine use that were just off the charts and bouts of paranoia in which he would tell her

that people were plotting against him oh no full-blown coke fucking you know delusion now at this point uh so early june though he asked her to marry him. He proposes here, gives her a diamond ring and a red rose while on a horse-drawn carriage ride. Very nice. He told her that he wanted to have a son and to name him Ivan after his father. Very nice. And he said that he didn't want his boy to play hockey. That's what he said. Nancy says, quote, I swear to God John was not mean.

He's a nice guy. He was not a bad guy he had to fight he had no choice uh so um they were even at this point his brother is 21 and he's coming up to be in the nhl he plays for the philadelphia flyers and he said that uh he was he wanted to uh uh he's basically she said that he was looking at his brother his brother's 6'5 too his brother's a 6'5 defenseman and he said that Dan was showing signs of becoming the player that he always wanted to be like a skilled guy not just a goon

he would say and this is you know Nancy would say quote John would say that little shit I'm going to kick his ass he thinks he's better than me I said he's your brother you don't really want to fight your brother do you and he would finally admit

that he loved his brother but he didn't know how to show it that's what I mean little shit he's bigger than you he's bigger than you he's his little brother

always though but it's just that's what I mean he's so he doesn't even know he's just so angry at everything that he's

I'm going to kick his ass and he's like no I love my brother I just don't know how to show it like that's weird he should be proud of his brother.

You know, they said that he would go through periods of euphoria, periods of what she called black depression, violent rages, you know, like people on coke and steroids do. It was CTE. And that's the thing I want to talk about here is, I mean, he's in a second because he's doing all this shit. Imagine being around him. Like, first of all, imagine's in a second because he's doing all this shit. Imagine being around him. Like, first of all, imagine being in his brain. That sounds like a horrible place to be.

Between his ears? Yeah. But I mean, that's self-inflicted, most of it. So whatever. But what about her? That's your fiance? You got to deal with this? And now Edmonton is going to try to pick him up and they're going to try to give him a

chance at a tryout? Right. I mean, this is really a fucking mess. I feel bad for all these people, Jimmy, but not nearly as bad as I feel for John Cordick, senior vice president of operations at WASH. I don't know what that is. It's in the Los Angeles multifamily laundry systems. It's in the L.A. area. He did go to the university.

He went to Berkeley, Cal Berkeley. So very educated guy here. And then John Cordick, president at Florida Landscape and Nursery Company in St. Augustine, Florida. Poor fucking guy. Poor guy. So basically what his girlfriend was saying that after this whole deal going through the summer of 1992, he's doing three to five grams of coke a day so he's doing at least like an eight ball a day which is a lot of fucking coke to do every day yeah jesus include with a bunch of steroids and uh whatever she said sometimes for a straight week at a time he would

do this just every day pound it pound it pound it pound it uh it's fucking nuts. July 16th, 1992. Neighbors near Nancy's home call police about a disturbance. John is taken out of the house and to jail in handcuffs and charged with misdemeanor assault against Nancy. Oh, no. Yeah. She poured a drink on him. No, I don't think so. I don't think she did much.

Nancy told police it was the third incident in the last couple weeks um but she didn't want to press charges before and then here she ended up not wanting to press charges either again again she didn't want to press charges uh now john told the court he would see see a psychiatrist but he didn't uh was the problem she also said that he often cried especially when anything would remind him of his father he was very emotionally like a landmine emotionally he would just be set off now cocaine and steroids yes also this guy's been hit in the fucking head a lot so many times and it's not even dude like this is violent shots these are these are people punching bare-fisted right he's hit i mean as hard as they can.

Not only that, he's a guy who checks and gets checked. So guys, you go in checking someone on the board, a lot of times you're smashing your head. You might hit your head on the board because when you hit them, they kind of move a little and your head hits the board. And that rings your fucking bell. He's had so many concussions, probably it's not even

funny. His head right now has to be a disaster of how he feels. She said that he would cry, he would fight, he would flip out. Emotionally, he was just a powder keg. He's got nothing specific. She said if something reminded him of his father, she said, quote, if it happened in a bar, he would get into a fight. If it happened at home, he might scream and yell and push Nancy against a wall. She said the last time this occurred, this was when the neighbor called was in july she says quote he didn't beat me up he grabbed me then he punched the wall which is a that's illegal that's

a sick that's a really scary thing that's right there it's crazy the next the next one is going on you that's as that's more than threatening. That's more than anything. I want to punch you so bad, but I'm... Wow, that's really... He's right there. It's not... He's right there. It's scary and wrong here. She said, I didn't want to go to court against him.

All I wanted to do was have him out for the night. But the cops said to themselves, now we have big John Cordick. Everybody knows he has a drug problem, and he's running around beating everyone up. He has to learn his lesson. So they charged him with assault, even though she didn't press charges. And he was prohibited from living with Nancy until an August 11th court hearing. Oh, my God. He's not even allowed to go back here.

They did their own TRO on her. She didn't even have to do a restraining. I guess Canada is different, probably, too. She at this point, since he's got nowhere to fucking be, nowhere to stay, he spent the next 10 days with his ex-roommate floating from motel to motel. Oh, Jesus. The ex-roommate here said, quote, he still had a drug problem and he hated himself for it.

He was always saying, I'm sorry, that's what Nancy said. He was always saying that it was because of his father. John never accepted his father's death. He said there were times that he could feel his father inside of him, especially when he was really high. Because you're high. You can feel anything you want when you're high. Creepy fucking thought. Yeah, yeah.

Hopefully he meant in his soul. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Not his butthole. So, yeah. Now, he told her, John told Nancy that he wants to have kids she told him that he had to stop taking steroids first uh she said quote he said he had no problem with that but that he was 27 and there were a lot of guys in the nf and the nhl who were younger and stronger than him he said i have to be able to beat them up if i'm going to get my chance, my last chance. What? His life depends.

His career and life depends on whether he can beat people up or not. And he's 27. He's 27, man. He's a child. And he's like, life is over. Oh, my God. So August 1992 here, he shows up at the Motel Maxim, which is as nice as it sounds. Not great.

It's on Boulevard Hamel around 4.30 p.m. He shows up. This is like down the street from the strip club where the girlfriend worked and all that. His face is bruised up

and his knuckles are bloody. He shows up. Who knows? Fight club. Clearly he's been in a fight. Don't ask questions. Don't ask questions. He can't tell you.

No. They said he's also out of breath. So he just got in a fight uh-huh so it's just he just got in a fight outside the motel just fought meatloaf and then came in hopefully because fucking that guy deserves to get punched he apparently uh pays the clerk with a hundred dollar bill apparently had a crumpled up hundred dollar bill yeah pays with that they put him in room 205 uh this is a marlene bouchard is the uh her parents own the place she's the person who's in the front desk at the front desk and sees him she said that she knew him he'd been there about

nine times in the previous year and but never looked like this he always looked you know like a normal person she said uh or not she said at this point he's about 30 pounds more than his normal playing weight fat no roy oh he's roiding still he's fucking right oh he's getting ready for his for his tryout yeah yeah the pre-season's coming up he's getting ready to go to edmonton and be the baddest motherfucker on you know in western canada uh now she says of him quote he had a hard time breathing i never saw anyone breathe so hard he was leaning forward against the counter to support himself she said she suggested maybe he should check himself into a hospital, but he said he just wanted to sleep. She said, quote, he kept hitting his chest like, you know, like, you know, I'm fine.

Starting it. No, I think one of those like that. Yeah. Like you would do like a fucking like fucking Wolf of Wall Street style. Like, you know, stupid shit. Yeah, exactly. So she said because of the cuts on his hands he was unable to sign the registration card that's how cut up he was uh she did it for him

uh he said you know who i am uh she also said it was like he was proud to be known not for this condition here um so the uh she said a taxi driver helped him up the stairs with his luggage cause he had a hard time carrying it cause his hands were fucked up. It was in the back of the motel. Uh, so a couple hours go by. Yeah. He's in the room hanging out.

Out of nowhere. He just starts making calls to the front desk yelling at them. Yeah. Just hostile, angry, cursing, yelling calls at the front desk. Just really for no reason. It's like you motherfucking bastards. How dare you? And he's like he's like hang up like it was really weird they didn't know what to do this is between nine and ten uh so they said that he was talking to people with hard words is the way they put it so uh he was making what they called vulgar abusive phone calls to the front

desk finally about 10 p.m they called the police were like, I don't know what else to do. They go up to his room to see what was wrong. The staffers do before they call the police. And when they enter the room, they find him in a crazy state. They see that he has ripped

a picture down from a wall. And in motels, it's not just a picture hanging on a nail. It's fucking bolted to the wall. So if you rip it out, you're ripping chunks of drywall out with it that's what he did he ripped a fucking picture off the wall maybe it reminded him of his dad i'm not sure what it was but fucking ansel adams goddamn bastard uh ripped it out from the wall and also had damaged some furniture

so they said you know what the fuck uh He, at that point, cursed the employees, screamed at them, threatened them, and accused them of putting drugs in his luggage and traces of drugs on his money. They did that. All my money I have has traces of drugs on it because you planted it there. All of you people who were in the office of the motel while I was here with my money in my pocket. What a weirdo. That's crazy time. I've been hit in the office of the motel while i was here with my money in my pocket what a weirdo that's crazy time that's um i've been hitting the head a lot and i'm on a lot of drugs and i don't know where the fuck i am right now is what that is uh they um uh they ended up uh trying to calm him down they said he was walking around the room obviously agitated he kept punching himself in the chest in the head he was swearing. He ripped the door off the closet right off his hinges.

Also broke a mirror and started pulling more pictures off the wall. And at that point, too, they noticed there's blood all over the bed sheets. Like, he's a fucking disaster. Like, this is dangerous. You either lock this door and don't go back for about 48 hours or you send in the SWAT team. One of the two there. Because there's a problem. So they called the cops police show up uh they see him in there and they see the size of him in his state and they go we're gonna need some backup yeah uh they get seven more officers to

come and a net nine officers total right apparently as they come in uh they left their weapons in the hallway this is a weird canadian tactic uh they left their weapons in the hallway. This is a weird Canadian tactic. They left their weapons. Basically, it's like prison style. Like if we go in there and he gets one of our weapons, we're in deep shit. So leave your weapons out here, which is very strange also. But now you don't have a weapon. We'll leave these on the ground out here where a child can access them.

Hopefully they left someone out there to keep an eye on them. They're just like, they'll be cool out here. There's no kids up at 10 o'clock, right? No, it's fine. So apparently he was screaming fine so apparently he was screaming don't touch me don't touch me as they came in uh wow uh he was loud and agitated um this is about 10 40 so finally nine officers enter the room one of the cops said it was very hard to control him this is a strong guy they finally wrestle him to the floor and shackle him uh they need two pairs of cuffs because uh the you know such a big guy they tied his feet up with a rope

too they like hog tied him basically and uh this is crazy man shackled him to a stretcher that ends up coming okay uh because they called an ambulance because they didn't know what the fuck is wrong with him and they think he might need an ambulance so the ambulance goes to uh uh to the hospital this is 11 04 a p.m they get him into the am into the ambulance he's all shackled and tied and everything they go uh the cops said card cordic was okay at this time a few minutes later he started to get major trouble with his heart uh according to police he was given a heart massage on the way to the hospital but he after he gets to the hospital after 30 minutes he's pronounced

dead at the hospital what 27 years old what the fuck dead at the hospital um yeah um from a heart problem here apparently now there's more to this we'll get into in a second uh in his hotel room they found 40 unused syringes and seven or eight bottles of steroids uh some of them had had been taken already yeah uh you know i've been a little bit have been used out of them now the autopsy show he's going to die of heart and lung failure and uh we'll talk about drugs here um yeah so god what a terrible way to go this is fucking crazy man um one of those somebody says here if we take care about what witnesses just told about the way he was acting and if we consider what the police officers think uh john was on the drugs it's a fact yeah we might think

a lot of things. Steroids, drugs, alcohol. The fact that he was wrestling pretty hard with police officers. He got tired. All of those might have resulted in his death. Now, his fiance, Nancy here, says that he was claustrophobic

and she thinks the paranoia in the ambulance might have led to the heart attack. Being cuffed and being in a box here. She said, though, in the last few weeks she could hear his heart beating faster than cuffed and being in a box here. She said though in the last few weeks. She could hear his heart beating faster than normal. When they were in bed together. And that he was perspiring abnormally. Which could be signs of heart trouble.

Or could be signs he's on coke at that moment. Right. Those are both things here. Fusing up all his pumps. Yes. Now he was supposed to appear in court that Tuesday. For the assault charge against Nancy here. They also found needle marks all over his arms and all over him pretty much, which people dispute that actually.

Now, it was said what they found. Jesus, all these steroids. The league at this point. Jesus Christ, man. The league's interim president at the time,il stein promised to immediately after this to push for a clamp down on the use of steroids now now okay now that it's all good okay good uh whoa this is fucking ridiculous they said that quote everyone knows that steroids can enhance the aggressiveness the temper the sexual drive this is the nordiques team doctor for people who are

already aggressive human beings steroids can put them over the edge he was 238 pounds of muscle at this point the excess fluid found in his lungs during the autopsy could have been uh from the steroid use they said uh but the track marks on his arm are unaccounted for his his fiancee nancy said quote john only shot the steroids into the left side of his butt so that's not the steroid so we don't know if he's gone to right shooting coke or heroin or if he's we don't know fuck uh for the the autopsy reveals he died of lung failure related to the malfunctioning of his heart uh now she said nancy said quote she would say this to him i said john you're killing themself you're killing yourself but i didn't know it would be that true so soon he used to say i hate myself for hurting people john was like a little bird who fell from the nest uh she said she didn't believe that there was needle marks

on his arms meanwhile he's been gone for 10 days going from motel for motel you know what he's got somebody introduced him to that i could that's possible who knows we don't know though um yeah they she said she didn't you know he would inject the steroids somewhere else. Also, a former roommate of his said that he was using cocaine that night. Now, they said they found no cocaine in his hotel room, and his former roommate said, quote, that's probably because he took it all. He used it, yeah. And we'll find out, yes. He said, this is his former roommate, that cocaine is responsible for his behavior.

When he was doing cocaine, he would become very, very paranoid. When he saw those policemen there, he must have gone crazy. This is the boxing guy. He says, quote, he was a drug addict. I'm sorry, this isn't the boxing guy. This was his Quebec City roommate. He said he was a drug addict. He was addicted to cocaine.

Had been since he played for montreal he said it was a big thing with the canadians which is yeah and uh grant fuhrer it was grant fuhrer grant fuhrer said quote what happened with johnny is just is the result of having a policy like that you would sacrifice your career trying to get help because guys were afraid they didn't want to get help because that meant you were a fucking piece of shit now and yeah i'm glad that he said that now david poyle who is the general manager we talked about a lot before he said quote he was a troubled troubled young man a lot of times he was great to be around uh we tried a lot of things with john a lot of people tried to help him financially we sent him places to get help whatever his problem was whether it was a disease or not he just couldn't see the light it's a shame it comes as a great shock it's a tragedy for his family i sympathize with them

i know how difficult it is to have a son that young die uh because uh um yeah i don't know how he would know that he must yeah i don't know but i bet his that. He must. Yeah, I don't know. But I bet his mortgage is paid. Yeah. So apparently Dan wasn't that close with him, but everyone said he was heartbroken about the whole thing here. Now, steroids here. Obviously, he wasn't the only one using steroids. The Whalers general manager, Brian Burke, said, quote, It's not a widespread problem. Why don't we have a problem?

Because it's possible to be great without physical strength. Yeah, but isn't it easier to be great with physical? Suppose you have all those skills and you're really strong and fast. Isn't that better? That's why people use steroids. Barry Bonds was a fucking MVP before he ever took steroids. Before anyone's even accused him of taking steroids, he was a block Hall of Famer MVP. And he wasn't big.

No, but he was a 30 home running year guy that would steal some bases. Then you put someone with that much talent and ability and you give him steroids. Now he's hitting 75 fucking home runs because, holy shit, it's crazy. So he says, this is what this Burke said. This is what a silver-haired middle-aged asshole this guy is he said quote i do think john was an aberration but there's only one way to know the only way you can know is to have a testing program he doesn't think there's anybody else he says uh but he does say that he came up with a different rehab policy for the whalers oh let's

hear it thank fuck he said if a player has a problem we pay the full cost of. We will also pay for follow-up therapy and put the player on partial salary while we do that if the league allows it. That's a big if. So, yeah, because they're going to go around the collective bargaining agreement here. Now, funeral-wise, there's a funeral for him. The funeral has a black and white picture of him holding the Stanley Cup with the Montreal Canadiens. Damn it.

Yeah. So, man. The man had a ring. And he died in a fucking motel that was $100 a night. $100 a night hotel. Oh, my God. It's really sad, man. Nancy was there.

She was identified in the program as, quote, very close friend Nancy of Quebec. Oh, you bastards. That's shitty. She has an engagement ring on her. Right. They live together, you fucking jerks. Come on, man. That's ridiculous.

Very close friend. Yeah, give me a fucking break. Nancy of Quebec. Oh, boy. They were planning on getting married. Not even a last name? Just a first name? Of Quebec.

Oh, boy. Of Quebec. She's in the Bible. Right. You know, of Quebec. Yeah. It's fucking ridiculous man the reverend in the sermon spoke of what he called the hypocrisy in the sports world they where he said they used men like john misled them and discarded them he said let he let he was without sin cast the first stone

got all religious on their asses uh so there were no comments from family members uh apparently dan was really having a problem here oh i'm sure later on he he had a written statement uh i'm sorry lillian cordick one of one of his sisters had a statement quote my brother was alive he was frequently the object of media exposure both good and bad the difference was out uh at times he was allowed to speak for himself. That is no more. As a family, we feel that he's gone. He should finally be left in peace. They had him at the Croatian Catholic Church there.

You know, had his cemetery, had his funeral there. And they brought him back to Edmonton to bury him there. And, yeah, it's rough. So February 11, 1993, his family files a lawsuit against the city. Uh-oh. Oh, yeah. The lawyer here is talking about, you know, they didn't handle this properly. They had a person with a medical issue, and they did some things that we're going to find out about here.

The coroner's inquest here, they always do one for the suspicious deaths. One cop says he really didn't do anything wrong court he just didn't do anything he said he didn't want to leave his room he was shouting and not wanting to leave his room that was all john was pacing the room and shouting and the manager asked that he be taken out that's why they were even there they said he really wasn't really doing anything to be you know whatever he said we didn't know uh what he would do he was aggressive and we didn't know how he would behave outside what would we have done once he's out there they said that's what i mean they had no idea like when they got him outside then what right so you know jesus

so uh uh they had to take him that's why they took him in an ambulance they said what they push him outside the room and then he's just out there right great now what we left the light on for him that's how we do it. Now, the post-mortem test shows Dr. George Miller, who's a pathologist, described as, quote, an enormous amount of cocaine in his system. Oh, boy. He said that he, quote, has never seen so much cocaine in a person's blood in 20 years of practice. Right.

They said he had 10 times the amount of cocaine that should kill you in his system. I drained him, and it was just powder. He was a giant pixie stick. That's it. He was like a beanbag. Right. They said that they talked about him in this court case, about him like he was hysterical, and it was like he was living in another world.

They said apparently an officer stood on his back for about 10 seconds. Oh, you can't do that. While they had him pinned down. Well, they put their knees in his back and people's backs all the time. As the stretchers came in here, he was breathing, but his face was red and he did not respond to commands. The ambulance attendant testifies that he wanted to thoroughly examine him in the room, but the police were anxious to get him out of the room. He wanted to check him out. He said it was the only he said that once they got into the ambulance, the attendant noticed that his face had turned blue and that he wasn't breathing and that he'd gone into cardiac arrest.

So the medical director here said that they could not say that he would have survived had his conditions been different probably i mean it wouldn't hurt to not stand on him and shit um they said that you know court he was he was confused and paranoid uh but they said that that wasn't it wasn't justified they said that uh the bluish color of his face should have tipped them off that he was in trouble. That's what the lawyer says. Quote, it seems John had a progressive loss of consciousness in the room and everybody missed the boat. When skin color becomes dubious, you have to act quickly.

I would say when you become blue, that means you really have no air. You're in trouble. You're in fucking trouble. in trouble you're in fucking trouble uh they said he suffered a pulmonary adena uh usually due to fluid in the lungs called by caused by harsh partial heart failure which is a key factor in his death in his death um they yeah the family maintains that it's the police doing this a hotel employee witnessed this whole thing really yes uh uh brassard is his name he says he wonders uh whether the police should have been called sooner or whether something else should have been done to help him he said that that john was having obvious breathing problems and was wheezing heavily this is he could see this outside

the room right and they were on top of him the guy says quote i was traumatized by what happened we blamed ourselves for not acting sooner. I thought about it over and over. I couldn't sleep. He didn't want the guy to die. He said that this Broussard said that he constantly recalls one police officer who asked a colleague to apply more pressure to John's neck with his knee because he was moving. Oh, you dick. John was face down on the ground after being restrained.

he was moving oh you dick john was face down on the ground after being restrained at one point the same officer asked him to ease the pressure back back because john's face was turning black so they knew that in the room this is what this witness says hotel employee said that was said in the fucking room but not black not told to the attendance medical attendance they just tossed him outside he wondered why the police didn't transport him to the hospital earlier because his legs were fastened and his wrists wrists were handcuffed he said a quote i see that routine that scene repeatedly i see the knee i hear the words stop he's turning black he's coming around give him some more pressure so he said he put it on him and he said stop he's turning black and then he started to move he said put it back on there give him more pressure that's how it would be a pathologist testified that he died of a heart attack from fluid in the

lungs and all that cocaine uh but yeah he was no longer moving when he was put in the ambulance and he was already blue uh the ambulance they said ambulance attendants didn't take his vital signs at any point during the police action or following the pressure on his neck uh at one point they said he spit out a white liquid mixed with blood oh no yeah it wasn't normal saliva he moved a certain way and at the same time the policeman put his knee back on on his neck i turned away i just couldn't watch it that's what they're fucking saying which i will say this yeah if you watch any cop show watch live pd i saw a guy they were chasing a motorcycle he hit a car fucking flew yeah flew through the air like superman crumbled to the ground on the concrete may have been hit by a car i'm not sure when they got to him he was a pretzel and they

immediately put a fucking knee in his neck and jacked his hands behind his back they could be paralyzing him for life that man could forget that he could have in uh internal bleeding and you're just mushing bones they just do that they get him they had to search him oh boy once they make sure he has no weapons then they'll get a medical attention which is like i get that you have to protect yourself but at the same time you're potentially killing someone right so it's you know for for riding away on your motorcycle isn't it really enough of a he wasn't riding away from a mass murder. He just stole a motorcycle.

So is that worth death? That's wild. So lawyers for Quebec City, for the police force there, objected to the whole thing. But the coroner said that Broussard could relate his impressions of what he saw. That's fine. The police also testified that they took his pulse or i'm sorry the medical attendant testified they took his pulse once he was in the ambulance and they found that he had no heartbeat um so uh the ambulance attendant though could not explain why they thought he was still breathing

as he was carried from the room on a stretcher when he was not fucking breathing they were carrying a corpse in there uh he said that he didn't examine him thoroughly because there was too many police in the motel room and they were so agitated that they forced him to hurry yeah they they made this guy far he should have said hey motherfuckers this ain't your job you did your part i'm the medical guy unless you guys know shit about it fuck off right the fuck away from me i'm heartbroken this is horrible yeah so bad this is i'm getting some jerry lawless and brian all the way around though from, from the start to the end so far. This poor fuck just never had a chance. No.

I didn't make a complete examination because of the uproar. I was never informed about the state of his health. They just said that he was agitated and had taken drugs. That's that. They traded him like a piece of shit. They traded him like a piece of shit, which I mean a lot of people are and that's why they do it but uh so he's dead yeah that's that the family sued for i think 1.8 million dollars and i won i think there was a settlement eventually i hope so to to out of court or something because i could not find the resolution of it so usually that

means there was a settlement he never got his baby ivan he never got his baby ivan and uh he didn't get a lot of things right can't get enough well uh something very interesting came out yeah not sure how true this is but uh rds in canada aired a documentary about him in 2016 that alleges that like i said alleged alleged alleged former winterhawks portland winterhawks owner and gm brian shaw remember him may have sexually abused john oh you dick so that's what they're that that came out we don't know if that's true right like i said that's that came out in a documentary 20 years after he's dead he may or may not have we don't know butthole looker no we don't know but if john if he was

abused by a gm at that point because i mean he was only 16 17 years old he's living the rest of his life trying to forget that shit chances are he had been abused before to allow that to happen because a big 17 year old kid on steroids who's never been abused before you try to touch his butthole he's gonna snap your fucking head off and spike it on the floor that needs to be someone who's primed for that abuse at that point so that would explain a lot of his behavior and his anger and his just as you know issues and his yeah you know stuff like that but that came out in 2016 so we don't know who knows but uh also if you want to read more they have the john

uh cordick story the fight of his life by mark zwolinski uh here and i hear it's not a good book everybody says it's just kind of shitty and cheesy and kind of whatever. So not great. I didn't read it. I went by everything else. Somebody likes hockey. Wasn't trustworthy. And his sister, Tony,

her daughter is a hockey player with Colgate University. So I think she graduated now, but that's good for her. No cavities. It's a hockey family. No cavities. They're not a crest family indeed.

So that is John cordage cordage whatever the hell it is and uh what a crazy fucking story i feel so bad we had to do that because that's the opposite of floyd mayweather yeah floyd mayweather was you know came from shit yeah made it kept making it still has 400 million ignores his problems doesn't give a fuck this guy engulfed by them you know came from a better situation but then it just engulfed by his problems doesn't give a fuck this guy engulfed by them you know came from a better situation but then it just engulfed by his problems and didn't make it to the point where died broke in a shitty motel the other part is like floyd will threaten to to ruin anybody that is making money off of him yeah uh whereas this guy is just ruined by people that are making money

off of him mainly the nhl fucking guy it's brutal man i this is one of those guys that was around pre uh when we kind of knew shit yeah this was a guy where everybody just kind of everybody did coke and he winked and nodded and was under the table and steroids were considered i mean who's not doing them jesus you're not trying if you're not doing them it just came from that era and if you get hit in the head you just get back out there and you know you skate it off man that's how you get rid of that thing you're not trying if you're not doing them. It just came from that era. And if you get hit in the head, you just get back out there and you skate it off, man. That's how you get rid of that thing. You're high paid for what? Let's go.

This was the time, remember the Rudy Pochek episode where we talked about, you know, it was like 92-ish where he would get concussions and he actually had the self-awareness to ask the doctors, repeated concussions, is this going to be bad for my brain? And they told him, no, it's fine. Once you recover, you're recovered. And then the next one's a totally separate incident. Complete bullshit. And they knew better at the time, but they lied to him. So right now it's a toss

up as to which league was scummier than the NHL or the NFL. Not sure. It's hard. Nowadays I don't know enough about the NHL to know. I know the nfl is a pile of scum shit but all just bastards yeah here it's wow it's a it's a fucking mess yeah they're nice bastards like canadians that's the thing here so that that is that uh if you like that show very easy way to tell us about it get on itunes apple podcast that purple icon

give us five stars doesn't matter what you say. Say you're following instructions, following directions. It doesn't matter. It just really helps us on the business end. Head over to ShutUpAndGiveMeMurder.com for everything crime and sports and small town murder related. Listen to small town murder if you're not because it's getting crazier every damn week. And you should really check out some wild murder stories of crazy panhandlery there's guys

with samurai swords and people it's just so ridiculous you got to check it out listen to small town murder like javelins like javelins do all that get your tickets to live shows definitely especially february 15th and 16th in indianapolis and louisville yep uh denver and salt lake are sold out right, March 13th and 14th in San Francisco. Baby, up at Cobb's. Cobb's is a great, first of all, great club. Wonderful club in a cool area.

If you go there, we're doing our shows, I think they're 10 o'clock shows. They're late shows. Both late shows. You can go down. It's like a walking distance to Fisherman's Wharf. I can get some food. It's down at Chinatown, baby. Chinatown. That's where that.

Yeah, man. That's where that coronavirus is at. It's all in China. It's all in China. Yeah. Staying. Everything that has a Chinatown, you won't find me there. No, that's not.

Jimmy's going to be staying in the Irish section of town. I'll go to the Haitian town before I go to Chinatown. You should. Probably good food down there. Oh, I'm sure there is. So come see us at those shows and check us out. And we put on a hell of a show. Even if you're a crime and sports fan you don't really listen to small-time murder that much we we wreck those live shows man they are really funny you'd really need to check out a live show if you enjoy listening to this you will love a small-time murder live show

give it a chance it's really good shit so uh check that out it's a it's a lot of craziness also if you want to be or if you want to follow us on social media, very easy to do that. We are at Crime and Sports on Twitter and Facebook. And we are at Small Town Murder on Instagram there. And if you want to be a hero, so heroic that we're going to talk about you for a few minutes here. We're going to have a list of you fine people. If you want to be one of our producers very very easy way to do that you can just go to patreon.com slash crime in sports or you can head over to paypal and use our email address crime in sports at gmail.com and make a

one-time donation honestly we can't tell you how much we appreciate everything you guys do for us it really it really is ridiculous and this show if you might be listening this show right now i don't know later on they might insert ads or something but right now it's an ad free show right so the only money we're making off this show is the money you guys give us so you know what thank you for that thank you for making this show viable yeah because honestly otherwise i don't know what we've paid my salary yeah thank you guys for that so much i need to hear them you know what we've talked about all this negative i need positive. Hit me with the names of the best people around, Jimmy. I need them now.

This week's executive producers are Cameron Cushwara, the brain damage enthusiast Fantasy Football League wrapped up and the winners were some other teams. I didn't write those down, to be honest with you. I'm full disclosure around here.

I like it. Another executive producer is Karen Porchiello, that Holly Davidson, the one that sounds like somebody named her Harley Davidson. They didn't name her that. That's actually her married name. So she used to be something else.

Adrienne Thomas, and she said go Niners, obviously, because her old man worked there. Yeah, we love her. She's great. Tanya Volanek, and I'm rooting on them, too. Me, too. They got an Italian quarterback, because her old man worked there. Yeah, we love her. She's great. Tanya Volanek. And I'm rooting on them, too. Me, too.

They've got an Italian quarterback, so I'm rooting on them. And I like Mahomes. Mahomes is great, but I'm getting a Guinea quarterback. I just want the Niners to win. Jordan Bennett and then Shannon Russell, obviously. Thank you guys so much for everything you do for us. We can't thank you enough. The producers this week are Mikkel Kennedy,

Marianne and Jeff Aiken, Michael Haven, I think, yeah, Haven, Logan Henneman, Becky Estes, Marissa, no, that's Melissa, Melissa Winkler, Meredith King,

Joel or Joelle Okumu, Jenny Smith, Jennifer Hanley, Taylor Seaman, that's unfortunate, Kaylee Stillions, She's happy with it. She's thrilled. She's fine. They're allians. She's happy with it. She's thrilled.

She's fine. They're all love. Kaylee Stillians, and that's her maiden name. I forgot to write down her married name. Sorry, Kaylee. That's my mistake. Kelly with no last name. No, Julia?

Julia Hardenberger. Yeah. Is that Hamburger? No, that is definitely Harden. We'll go with Harden. Harden. Peter Cantor. Oh, Cantor. That's what that is. Matthew Carr. Harden. Peter Cantor. That's what that is.

Matthew Carr. Oh, shit. Carl Johan Larson. David Tuzolo. Doug Fay. Bridge. No, Brooke. Brooke Kale.

Victoria with no last name. Ashley Rowland. Luke. Oh, boy. Luke Benfield. Marcy or Marchy. It could be a guy. It's probably Marcy. It's probably Marcy. Right. M-A-R-C-I. Yes. Luke Benfield. Marcy or Marchy? It could be a guy. It's probably Marcy, right? It's probably Marcy.

Right. M-A-R-C-I. Yes. Bromis. Daniel. Daniel Arthurs. Matt Olson. No, Owens.

Michelle Stevens. Alexis Westerhaus. Brittany Gore. Lori Joseph. Courtney Teteralt. Teteralt. Kasper Pouncey. Keala. No, Keala. Ke Kayla Beach, Courtney Tetrault, Alicia

Campbell, Amanda McConnell, Emma Anderson, Eric Darnell, Mel Jays, Jesse Pitts, Hannah Brock, Melissa Chapman, Melissa Butler, Nathan Nolte, Janine Cladd, Jennifer McIntosh, Katie Lundquist, Kelly Peterson, Maddie Garrett, Megan Boris. No, Borels. Boreys. That's it. Jorbert? Jerobert?

Jerobert Green? Is that what I wrote? Amanda Hirsch, Dustin Locke, Dwayne ryle rice sorry dwayne evan evan van vandevent van vandavender yeah yeah christian christian cobra that's the coolest fucking name cool name that's a wrestler i think i don't know i hope so he should be if he's not jesus or she christian i don't know what it is christian cobra that's badass that's a wrestler, I think. I don't know. I hope so. He should be if he's not. Jesus. Or she. Christian.

I don't know what it is. Christian Cobra. That's badass. That's a name. Gleana. Cobra. Gleana Tompkins. Take your shirt off. Put these overalls on.

Brittany Francibus. Franci. Franci. What is that? Franciprus. Franciapacrus. Franciapacrus? Franciscus. Franciscus. Got it. franciferous fran sapocras fran sapocras franciscous franciscus got it what is happening not even no tyler baldwin lindsey lindsey martin oh samsonite i got it

there you go right uh lindsey martin Lindsay Martin, Nicole Curtis, Teterbris. No, Taternuts. Taternuts Fleming. That's legit. That's really what I wrote down. That's beautiful. Tyler Musburger. No, Nuss Bomber.

Rebecca Ward. Not Brett Musburger? No. Rebecca Worlds. What did I do? Woods. Okay. You are fucking struggling this week.

Ariana with no last name. John McCarthy. I don't know why I wrote these so small. I don't write like this. What did I do? It's one name per line. I know. No matter what you're going to squeeze extras in there.

What are you doing? Abriana Van Hoose. Montana Keeg. Luis Dominguez. TJ McCollum. Shelly Skillern. Kate. No.

Naylee. Hayley. Hayley Irwin, Ashley, I'm not doing this again like this. Ashley Conrad, Jeanette Selfin, Jason Ventry, Melissa Rowler, Adrian Ramey, Elise Pantino, I think, Mike Johnson, home stretch and I wrote this one bigger. Bobby Martin, David Carrington, Clay Thorson, who sent us an unbelievable gift. Thank you, Clay. You're a fucking hero. Gerald Fleming, Jeremiah Manchester, Michael Brett, Thomas Smith, Jama Gilbertson, Tasha Watson, Cody Crome or Cromey, Patrick Lau,

Augustine Martinez, Desiree Norman, Janice Hill, Sydney Steele, Sarah Acosta, Dina Grimes, April Moreno, Dylan Irish, Amanda Knight, L'Oreal Mitchell. That is fucking L'Oreal and Paul Mitchell marrying. Devin Holdsworth, Lisa Dunton donated for her mom Ann Dutton, who passed away just like two months ago. Oh, we're sorry about that. I'm so sorry. Thank you so much. Keith Foster donated both ways. Thanks, Keith.

Ashley Veo, Jennifer Plague, I think, Plagie, Devin Holdsworth, Haley Garina, Gary Howard. Thank you very much, Gary. He started a podcast, too. Good for him. I appreciate you, Gary. John Betancourt, Jamie Knight, Douglas Cordy, Alicia Oakden, Ronnie Kumar, James La Russa,

Stephanie Mears, Lindsay Powis, Sonny Johansson, Andrea Strapaluso? Strapalos. Strapulos. Andrea Kalkins, also. Tamika Fane-Lovett, Corbin Brown, Amanda Rutherford,

Kristen with no last name, Courtney Brand, Caitlin Ballantyne, Jackie Sukup, Kate Graham, Amanda Cassidy, Crystal Walker, Jesse Hartman, Robin Anderson, James Marder, Kevin Coffey, Dan and Perry. No, Dan Perry and Aaron. Aaron Perry, right? Yes. Okay. I think so. Susanna Platt, Rosemond Gatt, Iron Tree Craftworks, Aaron, no, that's Andrew Ebel, Jeff Rash, Kelly Higby, Peyton Meadows, Ben Saulnier, Douglas Porter, Reagan Shelkley, John Rogers, Autumn Uplinger, and Jude Kendall.

Thank you guys so much for everything that you do. Thank you. And there's a guy with a kid in the fucking ICU, man. Jesus Christ. And it's brutal. But we donated to him. GoFundMe is up on my page if you want to take fucking ICU, man. Jesus Christ. And it's brutal. But we donated to him. GoFundMe is up on my page if you want to take a look at it. Yeah, do that.

Thank you guys so much for everything you do. Go get them, Jackson. Kick its ass. Thank you, everybody, so much. Honestly, man, from the bottom of our cold, non-cocaine ravaged hearts, because neither of us like coke. I don't got liquid on it. No, you know.

So thank you for every damn thing you do for us. Honestly, honestly man you guys are the best and we we can't tell you how much we appreciate it jimmy what if they want to talk to you how can they do it you can find me at whisman sucks whisman sucks on twitter instagram and snapchat what about you you can find me at jimmy p is funny and quickly i have to just say one thing i don't care what the fuck you say to us you can say hey like the show you can say hey hate the show don't care what the fuck you say to us. You can say, hey, like the show. You can say, hey, hate the show. You can say you suck and you're not funny. We don't give a fuck.

We're comedians. So comedians, I mean, people will yell, you suck at you. I mean, we're a thick skin when it comes to that shit. The only thing that annoys me on social media is when you couch an annoying fucking insult in the form of this is constructive. Go fuck yourself. If you have that, I will call you a cunt on Twitter and tell you to go fuck your mother every single fucking time. And then I'll block you, too. You can fucking eat shit.

Guess what? And shout it into the void. This is show 193. Do you think that you're going to have a fucking suggestion that we haven't thought of and fucking dismissed already the show developed naturally this is the show this is how it works no matter what you say we're not gonna do it no i'll tell you that right now just because you said it on there on spite i'll never fucking do it and i don't know what the fuck makes you think you have say in the fucking show

fucking jimmy doesn't even have say in the show and it's half his fucking show and i sit here and he sits here and it's half his goddamn show and i even dominate that on you think you're gonna fucking tell me anything no jimmy will do anything jimmy wants that's not true but you know what i'm saying it's fuck man stop with that shit stop i get oh i would like it if no this is the show like it or don't right that's it it's your choice it's your choice you don't have to you don't have to i don't care honestly we don't give a fuck if you do or not to be honest we love it we love it and there's a lot of other people that love it so if you don't love it stop listening but don't tell me what you'd

like better eat shit tell gordon ramsay that it needs more salt he'll kick you out of his fucking restaurant do this go make your show That's the other thing. Do that. But don't copy this one just with your changes to it. Come up with your own idea and then wait for people to give you constructive criticism. Then you can tell them when you've got something scary creative, show it to me and show me how

perfect it is or I'll give you your constructive criticism. Thank you. With that said, everybody, I think it's time to go live from the Crime and Sports studios. We will see you next week. 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. The wait is over. So far, you're not losing. The only thing you're losing is my patience. Quickly, I see that. Ding! The queen of the courtroom is back. I didn't do anything. You wouldn't know the truth if it came up

and slapped you in the face. I see he's not intimidated by anything. I can fix that. New cases. She wanted to fight me. Leave her alone. Okay, so, um... This is not a so. This is a period.

Classic Judy. Did you sleep with her? Yes, Your Honor. You married his cousin. His brother. That's not him. Yes, ma'am. I would make a beeline for the door.

The Emmy Award-winning series returns. How did I know that? I have a crystal ball in my head. The Emmy Award winning series returns. How did I know that? I have a crystal ball in my head. It's an all new season. It's streaming. You can say anything. Judy Justice. Only on Freebie.