Crime in Sports - Cocaine In My Shoes, Needles In My Veins - Steve "Mental Case" Durbano - Part 2

Episode Date: February 17, 2026

This week, we finish up this wild story with Steve, getting back into the NHL, only to barely play, and end up unemployed. He fills in this employment gap by going down to Bolivia, and trying to smuggle cocaine into Canada, with a wild & fun excuse. He does his prison time, only to get back into drugs, and end up in more trouble, including running an "escort service" that definitely wasn't legal. All of this, and his sad, pitiful ending!   Keep telling NHL teams that you're ready to stop getting in trouble, tell a judge that you didn't know there was a lot of cocaine, in your shoes, and destroy your body with drugs with Steve "Mental Case" Durbano - Part 2!!   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 & YSO merch at crimeinsports.threadless.com   Go to shutupandgivememurder.com for all things CIS, STM & YSO!!   Contact us on... instagram.com/smalltownmurder facebook.com/crimeinsports [e-mail]

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Go to eat IQbar.com and enter code bar 20 to get 20% off all IQ bar products plus free shipping. Again, go to eat IQ bar.com and enter code bar 20. Hello, everybody and welcome back to crime in sports. Yay! Oh, yay indeed, Jimmy. Yay indeed. My name is James Petrogalo. I'm here with my co-host.

I'm Jimmy Wiseman. Thank you folks so much for joining us today on another crazy edition of Crime and Sports. Yeah. This is episode 4. 99 next week. Wow. Our 500th episode celebration where we have a guy that I'm pretty sure most people have heard of because he's been in the news a lot for the last 15 years and keeps fucking up and won't stop. And a legendary player too, that's the sad part. You're like, oh, this guy

was one of the best ever at his position and now he's just a complete fuck-up. So you guys can try to guess from there who we're talking about. I bet a few people will get it. Before we start, though, definitely head over to shut up and give him. Me Murder.com. Get your merchandise. All that is there. And also get your tickets to live shows for small town murder and the one year stupid opinions live show as well. Coming up here, we have this weekend in Nashville. You can get your tickets right now. That's the 21st in Nashville in February. March 6th in Durham, March 7th in Atlanta.

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And you get a shout out at the end of the show. Wild. Well, Jimmy will go ahead and mispronounce your name, even though he'd love to get it correct. What a damn deal. It's a good deal there. Get in there and do that. That said, let's dive back in here. We're going to finish up with Steve Durbano.

When we left off with Steve Durbano, he was having quite the time here in the 70s. He's got hair. He doesn't have hair. He's a mess. Later on, he gives up on the hair, by the way. Well, good for him. But the time this episode's half over, he's just a big fat bald guy. That's all there is too.

A lot of fun there. He was kind of out of hockey for lack of a better term when we left off. Nobody really wanted him and everybody thought he was done. And then on July 15th, 1977, the Red Wing sign him. So we talk about that here. He signed a free agent contract with the Red Wing. They had finished last place the year before, haven't made the playoffs in like five, six years, which is hard to do in hockey. There's a lot of playoff spots.

You've really got to do that. So the coach here of the general manager of the Red Wings said, I know he's got a controversial reputation. But that doesn't bother me. There's been a lot of productive people with controversial reputations. I was one of them, but he's matured. He knows he has to make it in the next couple of years. If he can control himself, I think we'll have a gem of a hockey player for the next 10 years. A gem.

A gem of a hockey player. And he also said, I've spent some time with him at his home a few months ago, and I know what to expect from him. This is not a gamble. He was playing junior A hockey in Toronto when he was 15, so the talent is there. Steve said, I think I can help strengthen the club in a couple of ways. I've been called a goon, but I play through intimidation. and there's not many in this league that can check or hit like I can. On skates, I'm 6'6 foot 6, and one of the biggest players in the league, plus I'm pretty quick for my size.

Sure. Yeah. So, there you go. Now, 77, 78, he never plays a game with the Red Wings, by the way. No, never plays a game. They sign him, he never plays. They go 32, 34, and 14 that year and finished second and went to the playoffs, but That really doesn't matter because he was on the team, but nothing really happened here.

September 27, 1977 here. Apparently, he is in the minors at this point here, which is interesting. I guess they put him in the minors. And because they have a minor league team that needs some fighting, basically. Sure. This is the way it looks like here. So that's what's going to happen. they also talk about this game had Dave Hanson in it who was in Slapshot, one of the Hanson brothers.

Oh, a real handsome. Yeah, because those guys are actual hockey players, as you can tell by their skating and shooting. They actually knew what they were doing. Their behavior. That's what's tough when you make a movie like that. You can't just get the best actor. You've got to get the best actor who also ice skates well and can look, you know, reasonable using a hockey stick, which is. Paul Newman did a fabulous job for a guy.

It was just an actor. Fuck, he can do everything. But he ice skated a ton when he was a kid. Ah, that makes sense. He played hockey and ice skating. So that's why he wanted to do it because he liked ice skating and shit and he could do it. And otherwise, there was guys who weren't great skaters in that movie. And that's, it's surprisingly tough to ice skate.

Yeah. You can you can do it even if you don't know how. But it's, it's tricky. To do it fast and well, you've got to do it since you're a kid. It's all there is too. It's one of those things. You've got to be, it's like skateboarding. You gotta just be able to skate at any skating.

Yeah. Like a skateboarding, I'd say, it's one of those things that, like, if you've never skateboarded, you can't pick up a skateboard at 35 and start skateboarding. And that's a different skate than any other skate. Totally. Totally different. That's a crazy skate. It's totally different.

I think ice skating's the same thing. If you haven't done it, if you're not already doing it by the time you're 12, you're never going to be great at it, probably. You know what I mean? It's one of those. Baseball movies are hard, too, because you never know. the mechanics of a swing is different too to do it properly and make it look convincing is not easy

like in major league you'll never see Wesley Snipes throw in Major League no the reason is he throws like a fucking like an old woman they said he couldn't throw for shit he looked terrible throwing so they would cut away when he's about to throw they cut away always and caught to the ball flying because he just cocks it back and he looks terrible throwing

ready to drop the three feet He said he got his stance and a swing down, okay, but he could not throw worth of shit. And he looked weird doing it. Like smalls and sandlock. Yeah, totally. But then again, white men can't jump. He was great at basketball. He's amazing.

Good at basketball. Anyway, so they said with Durbano, as their new spiritual, appointed spiritual leader, the wings reportedly had a half dozen fights during their first scrimmage and have picked up the pace since then. Yeah. So, yeah, this was an exhibition game. Did I say a minor league? I meant an exhibition when I said minor league. I just thought of that.

Now, November 3rd, 1977, he's just on the bench. Okay. He's just on the bench. They said that, remember Steve Durbano? Here's an article. Christ, he looks 58 years old in this picture, too. He's got, his hair is terrible. It's gone.

It's all, like, kind of combed over. He looks like a 58-year-old accountant. He's like a 27-year-old hockey player. It's crazy. Remember Steve Durbano? he's the too tough guy. Ted Lindsay was going to salvage. The once promising defenseman had fought himself right out of the NHL,

indeed out of hockey at any level, but he wasn't too terrible for Teddy. Apparently, though, nine games into the season, Durbano is yet to play for the Red Wings. Play, he hasn't even dressed. They said, the only checks he's thrown have been

when he was picking up the tab somewhere. Ah, okay. He said, I think it's taking his toll, is what they said. What can I say? I think the handwriting's pretty much on the wall, you know. They don't have any plans for me as far as I can see. He said, I just don't know what their plans are.

I figured by now I'd either be in enough games for them to really have truly judged how well I've played or, you know, not have come here at all to Detroit after training camp. Since training camp, I'm just sitting around and waiting. That's all. I'm just waiting to make a move. He said, it's not too bad living in the motel. That's part of hockey. That's just part of the business, one of the dirtier parts of the business.

There's nothing I can do about it. I need the money and I need the paycheck. I feel I'll get a couple of games in anyways, two or three games, just so I'll go out and play as well as I can. And if they decide to keep me around, great. There you go. But he's getting a little bit disappointed sitting there. Here is November 16, 77. The Red Wings sign a couple more guys here.

and it looks like they made a trade here. It will bring a couple of center and a right winger to Detroit in return for Steve Durbano and Dave Hansen of Slash. Okay, yeah. Hanson was playing for the farm team. Durbano had not seen any action in 14 games yet so far. So he ends up on the Birmingham Bulls roster. Yeah. The next year, 77.

Isn't that the name of the team in Slash? Slapshot? No. No. What were they? Johnstown. Johnstown, right, right, right. Yeah.

Birmingham Bulls was actually a USFL team, weren't they? Why do what? Yeah, it sounds very familiar. No, they were the Birmingham Stallions, the Jacksonville Bulls. That's what they were the Bulls. Were they not the Bulls and fucking slap shot? Was there a movie with a team in Birmingham Bulls? Maybe.

That makes sense. A movie, maybe, with a team. By that. I'm not sure. It's going to drive us crazy. God damn it. That is going to drive us all. Now we're going to get all kinds of comments.

God damn it. Sons of bitches. Look it up. Birmingham Bulls movie team. Birmingham Bulls? I mean, there's the hockey team and that's about it. That's it. I can see, well, they're in Alabama.

Yeah, Birmingham, Alabama. Yeah. Hockey is obviously king. That's where it's at. That's all it is. It's just the fucking hockey team. Or all they want is hockey, obviously, down in Birmingham. Big hockey fans in Birmingham.

Clearly. Huge. Oh, that's. That's hilarious. So the Birmingham Bulls here. This is in the WHA, which at the time the Winnipeg Jets were in. They lost in the playoffs to the Winnipeg Jets, who then went to the NHL, like very soon after that, I believe. It was in the next couple of years.

Yeah, this team and a lot of Canadians, again. December 4th, 77, Durbano, here's the Birmingham News has an article. Durbano, riot looking for a place to happen. Okay. Jesus. Pulling on a hockey uniform brings an amazing job. transition in the personality of Steve Durbano. They said the defenseman who came over from the NHL in the whatever the fuck trade of some

Russian guy and some fucking other guy becomes a volcano about to erupt, a riot looking for a place to happen. Off ice, Durbano is pleasant, an articulate man who enjoys, who's an enjoyable partner in a conversation. But there's something about the heat of battle that flips a switch in Durbano. Either way, he hasn't played a lot. lot of hockey here. I mean, he didn't play much last year. And now this year, he's not, you know, he's in the minors. He said that he has mixed emotions about going to the World Hockey Association here.

He said, those are good points, there are good points and bad points. I had five years in the National Hockey League toward my pension. Maybe that league is a little more secure, but I wasn't getting a chance to play in Detroit. So I sure wasn't hesitant about Birmingham. But Detroit opened the door for me to come back after sitting out practically the entire season last year. I'm grateful for that. I believe I can help the Bulls. Maybe the trade will benefit both clubs. So he's trying to play. He's basically trying to look like I'm a nice guy who can do this and, you know, I can play nice, basically. He said it's not right for a guy to make 80 grand or so just for going through the motions. The coach sees it. His teammates see it and the fans see it. The organization here figured it was time for a

chance and they got guys who'll give the fans their money's worth. He's saying other players are lazy, whereas he'll go out and fight. Yeah. Yeah. Literally will. Absolutely. He said, I need to gain that vital split second, and it's a little difficult when you're learning the team.

My teammates are learning too. He's trying to make a go of it. Wait, the WHA, that wasn't minor league? Wasn't that the actual alternate hockey league? Yeah. I think that was the alternate. That was like the WFL or the World Football League or the. You know, there's a bunch of soccer league.

There was a bunch of like alternate leagues in the 70s, the ABA, all these different leagues. Yeah. And I think that's what the WHA was. It's professional. Yeah. It went from 72 to 79. Yeah, I think not. Yeah, it was a, the actual like not, I mean, minor leagues is professional, but I wasn't

a minor league. Right, right. No, WHA was designed to compete with the NHL. Yeah, an alternate to the NHL here. Now, this is good for Steve because he's going to need it here. The sales, Jimmy. It says, if you want or need more hair. I think want is the key.

Who needs more hair? Everybody that wants it. I have to have hair for my job, you know, and I soak up the oil. I don't know why you need more hair. I want more hair. Because I want it. Because I want it.

But you never need it, though. It's not like if I don't have this hair, my kidney shut down. Like it's not like that or anything here. It said, don't be fooled or disillusioned. You've seen fantastic claims advertised in other hair replacement ads, but in reality, it's only a poor substitution for only one of our nationally known methods. Truth is, our superior hair replacement far surpasses the so-called new methods. Others offer which are actually retreads of methods we have discontinued. You got lame shit is what it is.

Yeah. It said, you can have the best hair available in the world today. The best hair. You don't have to take our word for it. We'll prove it. The rich centers for hair replacement is where that is. So you can check that out in Birmingham, Alabama, of course. Now, here is something interesting.

This is something different here. Let's not kill Steve yet for this because we're going to find out that it might not have been him. But there's an art. In the paper, it says Steve Durbano, then with. the Birmingham Bulls once choked his wife's dog killing the animal. Wait, what?

Okay, that's what it says in the newspaper. Uh-huh. Which is a wild accusation if it's not true, obviously. Terrible accusation. Not just wild, fucking vicious. And probably, you know, legally spurious as well here.

Once choked his wife's dog killing the animal. That's in like a about crazy he is, an article. Okay. Then December 2nd, This is from 2002, now way later, but somebody in retrospect talking about him. This is one of his friends, or was this a coach, somebody from the hockey team, quote, yeah, he was a loose cannon, but I had a genuine concern for Steve. He was a troubled young man who had a lot of turmoil in his marriage, too.

I remember once his wife couldn't get a hold of him on the road. Guess he was out dancing and she had a, quote, no dancing rule. Ha. No dancing. Some sort of weird. I've got that same rule. Religious sect here. Yeah.

No dancing because you look like an idiot. You look like a fat bald man dancing. Don't do it. Not you. I'm so embarrassed. Don't dance. And she left a message that she was throwing out his clothes and strangling his dog. Oh, boy.

That is well extreme. I mean, not just, I'm going to leave your clothes out in the yard. I'm going to kill your dog. I figure that's what everybody should do with my dance. Jimmy, don't dance her. We're going to kill your dog. We will kill your puppy. Stop it.

He said she wasn't bluffing about the dog. Steve left the team and flew home. They made up some excuse that he had the flu. And when he got home, the dog was dead. That's a former teammate of his that said that. Wow. So we don't know who killed the dog, but somebody in this sick, twisted, fucking relationship

strangled a dog because they, They were mad at the other person, which is... A dog was strangled regardless of side. Wild. Yeah, we're not sure who did it, but that seems like a pretty well-told story. I'm going to believe that one. January 16th, 1978, the World Hockey Association announced that Steve has been suspended for four games and fined $1,000. For deliberately hitting referee Bill Friday with a puck.

That's hilarious. Fired through it or off the stick. Fucking shot it at him, apparently. Which is a pretty good shot. Not bad. They said the defenseman deliberately attempted to injure center Terry Ruskowski of the arrows during a fight between the players.

That's what a fight is. Yeah. I mean, you're deliberately. Who's ever thrown a punch and went, you could have hurt me. Yeah, that was the fucking point. Like, every fight is trying to hurt somebody. December 2nd, 2002 again.

Here is a more retrospective. here is a guy that says, quote, I remember Steve walked into our office one day in Birmingham and went up to John Brofe, our assistant coach, and said he owed him $400. Steve got madder and matter and finally said, look, if you don't give me the $400, I'm going to break both of your legs. Okay. All righty. This is a scout saw this.

He said, Brof ran next door to our secretary and said, did you hear that? Write it down. Then he came to me and asked me what I should do. I told him to pay the $400. I said, look, it's only $200 a leg. This guy's going to fucking murder you, for Christ's sake. For $200 a leg, man. That's it.

February 5th, 278, here, supervisor of officials, Art Scove, was in attendance as the Bulls provoked five altercations. Steve Durbano, Phil Roberto, and Dave Hansen all drew game misconducts. Yeah, Durbano mouthed off enough to Harris for a misconduct, then got involved with a fight. He was mouthing off to me and we sort of shoved each other, the other player said. Then he shoved me from behind. So

yeah, there's apparently all sorts of, they said, would Durbano skating to the dressing room, another exchange of words, set Roberto off, he went for Morrison, Glassbow tried to retard him. That's an odd way to put that. It's another thing you're trying to do sometimes.

Yeah, that's another thing punching and caused, and shoved into the boards for his efforts. Okay. March 15th, 1978, they hand down all sorts of fines. Durbano was cautioned by the league's executive director that the next overly violent infraction he's involved in might result in a lifetime suspension from the league. Oh, boy. Too rough for hockey. Yeah.

A little too rough. He said, when Durbano returns, I sincerely hope he'll play hard and clean. If not, this is the fourth time that we have suspended him this season. and the next time will be the last. Jesus Christ. I guess there was a big brawl, and Durbano got a 12-game suspension, which is a lot.

March 24th, 1978, regular payday, not future, worries Bulls Durbano. Steve Durbano is walking on eggs with his steel-bladed skates on. Fucking ridiculous. So they said, you know, he's going to get kicked out.

of the league forever. Steve said, if I wanted to pursue a career, then I would challenge it in court. I could sue for a couple million, and I don't think the league would want to get into something like that. The way I understand it, any kind of incident on my part would lead to suspension. I just don't think it would hold up. I don't think I have done anything that serious to pick up suspensions. I don't abuse the officials, and I've not yet hit a player with a stick.

Not yet. No, don't tempt me. Yeah. He says, officiating is never the. same two nights in a row. He said, but officials are under a lot of pressure too. It's a tough job for them to do a good job with. And he said, it hurts me in more than one way for not playing. I'm not getting paid. I'm not getting conditioning. It really gets tough when you know there's no pay coming in. Since I'm not getting paid, I've been doing nothing as far as hockey's

concerned. I'm not hanging around the place here and doing a little running around. He said that I'm more eager to break up a fight. I'm just too easy. It's just too easy to get injured. I'm always eager to get to the box. He said, once I hurt my shoulder and I tried to get over a linesman and a player, that's stupid because that usually gives the other guy a chance to get his best shot in.

I know that anything that happens out there, I control. From now on, right or wrong, someone will have to start it. It won't be me. He's not going to start fights, he said. He said, anything I can do will help. Anything I can do to help, I will.

I haven't played that much in the last month, but I always tried to keep the player's spirits up. Boy, was it great to see them do well this week in Quebec and Edmonton? They didn't play so well at home, but they really turned it around on the road. It's got to give them a big lift. So there you go. Now, Steve this year, he's still somehow, he plays in 45 games, six goals, four assists, but has 284 penalty minutes, even though he's suspended a lot. Yeah.

Jesus Christ. He is a monster. Still fighting no matter what. Yeah. June 17th, 1978, he's going to leave the Birmingham Bulls and he's going to sign with the St. Louis Blues. Oh. He said, I've been guaranteed a contract by the Blues. After quite a bit of negotiations, I have verbally agreed to terms. It's a good contract more than I could hope for here in Birmingham. So he's getting a contract and that's that, basically. I mean, he's going to want to go to the NHL anyway. So there you go. August 12th, 1978. He returns to the blues. And so he's a former player back with them. And so it's a homecoming. Sure.

The blues this year are fucking terrible, which is probably why they got him. 18, 50, and 12. 18 wins. 18 wins. 50 losses and 12 ties. Finished third in the division somehow with that. I don't know.

Is that? I guess that's the writing out. Yeah. That is not good, man. That was a bad, bad fucking time. That's not good at all. Not good at all. Looking at the...

50 losses. 50 losses. I'm looking at their roster. Nobody you would have heard of here, probably. Only a few guys I know, even, that I've ever heard of. Never mind, no. November 10th, 1978, Durbano to make debut as Blues Play Colorado. Okay.

Steve says, I think I can help the team. Now, he missed the first 14 games of the season due to a virobin. viral infection of some kind. I don't know. Yeah, he said, actually, it was a form of hepatitis. That's what a virus at all, is it? Actually, yeah, I got the hep actually, as a matter of fact. Matter of fact, it's beating me up every day.

It's pretty bad. I wonder which one, A, B, C, what do you got there, Chief? Either way, it's, they all target the liver, right? Hepatitis Q. Kidney? I mean, it's like, it's a, yeah. I know C goes right after the liver. That's where you get, like, uh, hepatitis A to zinc.

fall out. He had a zinc. He said there are all sorts of theories as to how I might have contracted it. One of them is that I got it from an infected tattoo needle, but I don't believe that. I do. I believe that for sure. Especially in the 70s. And it's like now it's, you know. It's a blood-borne virus, man. Now I know tattoo shops are. You got to get it into your bloodstream, right? Yeah. Yeah. Tattoo shops are way different now than they were in the 70s. Oh, for sure. Yeah.

Yeah, they break the needle in front of you. Yeah, 70s was a, it was a totally different time. I mean, this was like an underground scummy thing to go to a tattoo parlor. People were like doing drugs out in the open because that's how it was in the 80s when I was a kid. They'll open the needle in front of you, put it in like some of that fucking barbicide shit. And then when it's done, they fucking bend it and throw it in the trash. Yeah, yeah, that's, I assume what you should do. So he, he's not sure.

He said, but I don't believe that. I was in Jamaica last summer and I think I picked it up there, possibly from the water. I don't know if you can get hepatitis from water. I don't think. Yeah, I think it's got to be. I think it's got to be blood contact, right? I know for C, it's got to be blood contact because that's what all the junkies get. That's a needle disease there, C.

But also B, right? B is a B, yes. And B also goes for sexually transmitted as well. Uh-huh. And C, it's always been up in the air, whether it's sexually transmitted or not. I don't know what they finally figured out now, but for years, that was a big... They say, James, it's possible if the fecal oral route... I don't like that word.

No, not at all. That means... I mean, that means your poop water got into your good water. I'm going to say that the entire island of Jamaica would have hepatitis if that was the case, whereas he also went to some probably scummy tattoo shop in the middle of the night. But the virus would have to... It would have to be able to survive in the environment. So it would have to be warm.

You know what I mean? It's... Well, you make us warm. Yeah, but not the... I don't know. I don't know. That's a tough one. I don't think all water that you're drinking is warm.

I don't know. I just don't think it's possible. I think he either had some sex he didn't appreciate it or a needle that he didn't appreciate. Seems more likely the tattoo or some road trim that he fucking got a little too deep into there. The vending on which strain he's got. Yeah. Steve says, I feel like I have something to prove both to myself and to other people. How many times have we heard him say this?

Right. It's constant. He said, it's not as though I'm at the end of my career. I'm only 26 years old. He looks terrible. Holy shit. Wow. And I still feel...

Brimley and Cuckoon. Dude, he looks worse. He looks worse. It's Wilfer Brimley looked... He looks so fucking bad, dude. It's wild. He's so bald and fat. It's weird.

I still have a lot of good years yet left. He said, I've done some crazy things over the years, but not everything that's happened to me has been. my fault. I think I've settled down over the years and I realize what an excellent opportunity this can be for me. I intend to make the most of it. Sure. You can just rinse and repeat that phrase. Every time he goes somewhere else here. This is funny. He said I was off skates for six and a half weeks before I could resume skating with his illness. And he said, fortunately, I had been working out and was in good shape before training camp. My weight is just about where I'd want it to be.

It's just hard starting a season under these circumstances. All I'm asking is for a chance to show what I can do. Yeah. I'm sure there'll be some people who will be down on me because of the things that happened in the past. But as far as I'm concerned, this is a new beginning for me. Sure. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

He said he thinks he can help. November 14th, 1978. He's out with a broken hand. Uh-oh. Six weeks, they're saying here. How do you do that? He'd been working out. They said, I'm not sure.

Sure. Oh, injured his hand while punching the bag in the blues dressing room Sunday. Okay. There's a, they have like a boxing center back there to train. There's a heavy bag in the... Well, I mean, that's part of the game. I guess you should. Yeah. It's part of the game. You get your punch in. He returns in January, late January. And so he's been had a virus and now he's got a broken hand. So he hasn't really done much. and then February 24th, 1979, the NHL suspends him for five games. So it's Steve. It's just regular old Steve again. Seems as though, yeah, he hasn't changed much.

Yep. They called, he was involved in a stick swinging brawl that cleared both. Hey, you did it. He did it. He said, I haven't done it yet. Good for you, Steve. Good, yay. They said in reaching this decision, we considered Durbano's previous record.

Durbano has quite a record as he has been suspended on three previous occasions, dating back to 1974. it's obvious that the discipline he's received has not proved to be a deterrent. It hasn't. March 4th, 1979, this is amazing. St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Will Durbanos, quote, moon cause eclipse of his career? What is that?

What do you think it is? Is it head? No, Steve Durbanos' first reaction was not surprising. I've got nothing to say, he said, hurrying into the blues dressing room. No questions, no answers. After a brief discussion with an intermediary, Durbanu appeared again. He agreed to talk for five minutes. He pulled his ass out?

I think so. As it turned out, Durbano seemed eager to discuss how it was that he again had put himself in the National Hockey League limelight, not to mention the doghouse. Durbano, who will complete his most recent disciplinary suspension in time for the Blues game Wednesday night against New York, talked with ease and some anger about how he found himself. in trouble again. He did not proclaim his innocence, but he did say that he mostly was found guilty of having a bad reputation, which is true, because he was fighting and doing all that kind of shit.

They said Durbano sealed his fate when he presented the world a fully clothed moon as he dramatically skated off the ice. Fully clothed. Well, I guess he had his ass. I don't know how you take your ass out in hockey pants. That'd be hard. And how do you do it fully clothed? That'd be tough.

They said it was graceful, albeit a tasteless statement. Durbanos gliding extended moon. He said, you can't gross out the New York City crowd. It was only a gesture. You've seen guys give the finger. Well, this was just a gesture, and it wasn't directed to the people in the building. It was for the league. Oh, so he faked it?

Act like he pulled it down, I guess, something like that. Like fucking Randy Moss? I guess, yeah. he said it's Turbano's belief and likely true that had he battled and mooned in any other city, he would have not suffered the humiliation and suspension. He said anywhere else, there would have been a couple of lines in the paper, and that would have been it. The league would have gotten a report on the paper. On paper, it wouldn't have looked like much.

But he said all the league powers and they got to see it. And he said, the moon was their crutch. The moon was their crutch. He said there was one story where they were asking other people what they think thought of me. They're asking people if I'm nutty. Well, if I'm nutty, those people have to be nuttier because they're paying my salary. They're coming to see me play. He said, I don't know where it goes from here. I don't know what the club thinks about this. I think they understand that it wasn't my fault, but I don't know. Okay. I don't know what Ralston Purina thinks about all

the publicity because I think they own the team at the time. He said, the only way that I'm going to stop getting this attention is to go through the rest of the season without any incidents and go through next year without any incidents. Yeah. Yeah. He said, I've had five operations about his hand. He said, I've got to protect myself. Yeah, okay.

Five operations on his hands. Yeah, he's a mess. Yeah, well, think of it. He's always punching people. Yeah, yeah. And playing hockey. You need those to play hockey. Fuck.

Yeah. Well, he said, now in the old days, I might have started all this crap, but I don't now. Now I don't look for trouble. Well, it finds you all the time here. here's another fight, April 8, 1979, with 418 remaining, tempers flared when the blues Steve Durbano and Chicago's Mulvey clashed in the corner. With Durbano flattening Mulvey with a high stick. Oh, that's not good. Reggie Kerr immediately charged after Durbano and the two wrestled.

When that was settled, Mulvey skated up behind Durbano and belted the blues defensemen across the back of the head. Durbano then knocked linesman Bob Luther to the ice in his attempts to get at Mulvey, but was restrained by his. teammates. This is a fucking disaster. A goddamn disaster. So obviously he's a mess. This year with St. Louis, he only plays in 13 games. Uh-oh. With all the heff in the fucking broken hands.

One goal, one assist, 103 penalty minutes in 13 games, which is fucking impressive. Yeah, I mean, it's almost 10 minutes a game. That's very impressive. Okay. So that is it for hockey for Steve. All done.

No one wants to sign. him again after this. I mean, every time they sign him, it's like, well, he's still young, he can still do it. And he's like, I got to clean my act up, and it's going to be different than this, and now by halfway through the season, he's suspended, he's mooning people, he's punching everybody,

he just can't get his shit together. So he's done with hockey. So about two years goes by where we don't hear much from Steve, assume he goes back home and, you know, collects the corpses of his dogs and his wife is murdered. And his, well, he was gone.

It's his pet seminar. In the military in order. Yep. Then February 10th, 1981, Steve Durbano faces two drug charges. Oh. Not good here. Yeah, he appeared in provincial court in Canada on Monday of charges of importing cocaine into Canada

and possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking. I mean, they need a drug dealer, right? They need one. That's so far from the border. Holy shit. He was being held at a Toronto detention center, but his lawyer said he expects his client will be released within a couple of days on a bail of $20,000. Importing carries a minimum sentence of seven years in prison and a maximum sentence of life in prison upon conviction.

Possession for the purpose of trafficking has no minimum sentence but carries a maximum sentence of life in prison. All right. That is interesting. They said there's a gun. They said there's a ban on publication of evidence introduced at the bail hearing. They said he was born and still lives in Toronto, was arrested by the RCMP after he arrived Saturday at Toronto's International Airport from Colombia. Peru. Peru.

Jesus Christ. Police seized $71,000 worth of cocaine. That's a lot, but it's expensive. So it's, yeah, they didn't move. It doesn't have a ton. It's still very expensive back then. Yeah, that's like fit in your luggage amount. Okay, maybe a kilo.

Yeah, you could carry that. Yeah. A couple of kilos or whatever, something. I don't know what the hell it cost back then. But anyway, he's in a lot of shit now. February 12, 1981, bail delayed, it says here. I guess Durbano and his relatives who were going to post a $20,000 bail had to find another justice of the piece because apparently the, he had to wait three hours. for this because the Justice of the Peace walked off the job.

He just quit in the middle of the day. Can't do this anymore. That is amazing. Yeah, he just left. The walkout came just before Durbano's bail hearing was to take place here. He's like, hey, but come back. What the fuck? I need help.

Yeah. According to Durbano's aunt, Amelia Kassan, uh, Kahnastano, the Justice of the Peace, his coat on his arm just said, I don't like these accommodations. Good night. and left. No. I had enough of this place.

Wow. His aunt said everyone was flabbergasted. Yeah. She called the lawyer and was like, what the fuck, man? So customs officers seized 474 grams of coke is what they got on him. That's a lot.

I mean, it's definitely more than you can use. I mean, unless you were just trying to stock up. Yeah, that's the, unless you're stocking up. You know what I mean? Like trying to just get a winner's worth. Yeah, yeah, yeah. A nice, like a... A good cushion.

Well, yeah, it's like you're hibernating to put in the cave for later, just to have for a while. It's cold in Canada. Yeah, people buy shitloads of towels at all those. Yeah, toilet paper you stuck up on that. Yeah, shit you know you're going to use. I know I'm going to use this game. So it's fine. Because what, a quarter pound is...

Eight ounces? No, no, no, I'm thinking of QP in terms of grams from weed or number. Oh, fuck. How many grams are in an ounce? 28 per ounce. Seven, yeah, seven per quarter. Yeah, it's eight times four is 32. So, yeah, it's 102.

Yeah. There. So that's, that's, over a pounds? 102 grams. That's all he has? No, no, no, no. That's a quarter. Oh, got it.

Okay. Yeah. Yeah. 28, four. So, yeah, 70. Okay, there we go. This is at the airport. half a half a quarter. It's just three and a half grams. It's a eighth. Right. Yeah. It's an eighth.

Right. Half a quarter. Yeah. Half a quarter is an eighth. Yeah. Three half a grass. Why do I say it like that? Half a quarter is a half a quarter. Oh, man. So his, his trial is going to be set for March. And here we go. In March here. He's appearing in court on all these charges. And here we go. September 25th, 1981. It says Durbano committed to trial. That's good. I'm glad because it's a set date. Yeah, you're going to have to do it. They're committed to it also. It's a hard date.

He said he's committed. He's going to be there. He's going to do it. October 4th, 1981 here. Derbano trail set. The Daily Times can't spell the word trial in their fucking headline. How did they spell it? Trail.

Durbano Trail set, it says. They mixed up the A in the eye. Maybe don't get a dyslexic copy editor next time. Yeah, let's not do that. I understand we want to help people, but this might be a little much here. That's absurd. Yeah, January 26, 1983, Durbano denied. This is one of the best ever.

Hockey players, they get hit in the head a lot. That's true. Their excuses are pretty silly. Do you remember Bob Probert got caught with a bunch of coke in his underwear and said, that's not mine? Right. It was nestled against his nut sack, and he said, I don't know where that can. came from. It's touching you. This guy said he didn't know it was hidden in his shoes.

Steve Rubano. What? He hid that much coke in his shoes and said, I didn't know it was in my shoes. How many? How many grams? 174. Two, two 30 a shoe. A fucking pound of coke he had.

He said, I put half a pound of coke in each shoe and didn't realize it. If I get a pebble in my shoe, it will drive me crazy until I get that out. You know what I'm saying? Accidentally stepped on a couple of... You would notice just an extra half pound of weight in your shoe. Why is my shoe so heavy? Your shoe, what the fuck, man? That's awesome.

He said that he had no idea that it was hidden inside his shoes when he was arrested at the airport. He was returning home from Miami when he was arrested. Peru to Miami, Detroit, or to Toronto here. They said that he refused to tell police how the cocaine got in his shoes. I know how it got there. It's crazy. In Peru, it's wild. They pin you down and put shit in your shoes and you're not allowed to check them, so it's weird.

And I didn't know. I didn't know. He said customs officer Michael McCrae told the jury that just before the arrest, Durbano reacted to a search by quickly pulling a gold pendant out of his pocket. and saying, you've got me now, I didn't declare this. But customs officials continued the search. He thought that would be the end of it. They'd stop and go, oh, here it is.

We found the fucking, you know, we found the undeclared gold. Yeah, totally. Yeah, we found the contraband. Here it is. A little pendant. And they went, we're going to keep searching. And found four bags of cocaine in the soles and heels of his shoes. Wow.

He said, I just bought these. No wonder why they were so expensive. Jesus. I said, man, shoes are expensive. Right. Yeah. This is crazy. January 27, 1983,

Durbano, quote, Big Lug used as classic dupe, lawyer tells drug trial. He's just a moron. He's just dumb. He's so dumb. He doesn't know what's in his shoes. Wow.

Big Lug. He called him a burned out has been. A burned out has been. That's his own lawyer said that. Oh, boy. Burned out has been a big lug who was used as a classic dupe here. I realize you got to defend me, but can you not insult me while doing it? Yeah.

Now they're saying it's $568,000 worth of cocaine. I don't know how it went from $71,000 to $568,000. Peru money. Way less. Raymore. So, yeah, he had 17 ounces on him. That is a pound and an ounce. That's a lot.

99% pure cocaine too. This is not stepped on. It's good shit. Oh, he could have, dude, that is like... He got to turn this into $570,000 worth of shit. Yeah, three times that much here. That might be what it cost in Peru to buy it, but not fucking to sell it. I guess they're talking about him here.

They said that he was set up by friends in Jamaica and Bolivia with hepatitis and cocaine. Wow, he's really got... He said he made five quick trips to South America in the two years before his arrest because he planned to open an Italian restaurant in Bolivia with his friends. It's not cocaine in Bolivia. I know they call it Bolivian marching powder and all that, but I just wanted to give the good people down there a good veal parmesan. That's all I was looking to do. That's it. I just wanted to spread the love of rigatoni throughout the southern hemisphere.

What the fuck. You got to try my pink song. before you start accusing me as shit. Yeah, come on. This isn't cocaine. This is... This is chicken scarpiello.

What are you talking about? It's flour to bread the cutlets. It's powdered Alfredo. Leave me alone. Yeah, come by. I sourced flour from all over the world to get the best I could find. This won, too. I thought it was the best flour I had.

It gives you energy. So they said he went from an $89,000 a year salary as a hockey player to working a $3 an hour bartending job. Ooh. And living in a... Yeah, yeah, plus steps. And living in a $3 a week or $30 a week boarding house, not $3 a week. Oh, my God.

A week boarding house. Steve has fallen hard. What, how do you... Does he not have a family? I think his dog strangling wife and him probably have seen... Yeah. I think they're probably over with with those two. At least that one, yeah.

Yeah. They said he was desperate for a big score and took a gamble because of the huge profits to be made. That's the prosecution. But the defense lawyer said, hey, listen to the jurors, quote, put yourself in Mr. Durbano's shoes, so to speak. Why do you say that? Why every time do they do that? They're heavy, man. Put yourself, I can't.

They're full of cocaine. My feet don't fit. You can't get them in that. It's all full. How do they do it? I don't know every time. have to do it. And he said, so to speak, because you know he caught himself. He's like,

fuck, don't mention the shoes. No pun. I don't know. Wow. And that's the guy that's defending him. That's your defense attorney. Don't bring up shoes. Please don't do. My head would snap. Like, dude, did you just say shoes? Yeah, but if the shoe was on the other foot, no, don't say that.

I mean, you know, if the shoe fits, you know what I'm saying? Shit, wait, hold on. Don't even say we got our marching orders. We might confuse that with the shoes. He said, but Ask yourselves whether you could be duped in the same way. Yeah. No.

There, I just did it. Likely not. Likely not. And that's fucking hilarious. Okay. Now, January 28th. Here we go. He is going to be convicted.

Oh? He is convicted of trying to smuggle $568,000 worth of cocaine into Canada. The jury deliberated for more than six hours before convicting him here. He had pled not guilty, said he was set up by his friends, yada, yada, yada, all that bullshit. The judge also said that Steve should be grateful he was arrested in Canada instead of the United States because Mercury Morris, the dolphins running back had just got busted for

Coke and got sentenced to 20 years in prison for it. Mercury. Mercury. So this time, though, Steve is sentenced to you, sir. May fuck off seven years in prison for Durbano. who we better than 20 but yeah not much not much uh he said that quote he succumbed to the temptation to make a fast buck oh that's what the that's what the judge says i'm sorry uh the judge said that um yeah by the way they said the cocaine in bolivia probably cost about six grand is that right

yeah that's that's why people were in this business that is so cheap down there despite the murders and the killings and the fucking, I'm talking like while you're a drug dealer to get murdered and killed back then and fucking long prison sentences, you can buy $6,000 worth of something and sell it for $568,000. Unbelievable. There's no business that has that profit margin on earth. It's what I mean. You wonder why so many people were doing and selling Coke in the 80s. That's why. There it is.

Amazing. So the prosecutor said that Durbano's savings had. dwindled to $12,000 before he left for Bolivia the last time and that he was desperate for one, one score to set him up for life. They made it sound like a movie. Just one last score, everybody, and then we're all going to retire to Vegas. He said during the wait for the jury's verdict, Durbano said in an interview that he still wanted to settle down with his girlfriend, Lenore. So he's got a new one now. who's expecting a baby soon.

Great. He's about to be a father. Yep. He also wants to open his own restaurant and build a new life. Okay. Wow. He remained impassive when found guilty, but his girlfriend burst into tears

and handed him a pack of cigarettes as he was led to the waiting cells. Oh, my God. Don't forget your cavils. Sell these. What the fuck. Yeah. Buy yourself someone real nice.

Don't spend it all on one ass. Make him call you my name. Yeah, make him call you, Lenore. Okay, so he's seven years, and there's articles about him saying that, what a shame, basically. He said, I guess I really got into it when hockey ended, talking about drugs. He says, I used it a little when I was playing, but really, when you're playing hockey, you don't have the time.

You know, to get into a good, hard drug habit. It takes time. He said, I think hard drugs. are rare in the NHL. If anything, hockey players abuse alcohol, but hard drugs seem to be more common in U.S. sports. That's true, actually. You know, well, look at all the players we've done. There's not a ton of drug-doing hockey players. Just not a thing. They get busted for other shit. They turn into alcoholics and cause fucking mayhem while drunk. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's what they do. That's their main thing. I mean, some guys, we have probert and guys like that. A few of them,

but most of the time, they do other crazy shit. He said that down there, every kid on a college campus is smoking dope and using uppers and trying to get some Coke. In Canada, by the time you're 18, you're playing hockey all the time. But you never expect that your career will end so suddenly. I used to figure I'd play till I was 34, 35, but I only lasted half that long. The game had changed, and they didn't need me anymore. He said, that's when he began to rely on cocaine. Sweet lady, cocaine.

He said, cocaine was a good, easy experience. excuse. All of a sudden, halfway through training camp in 1979, it was over. It was so easy to fall into, I was definitely using it all the time. So he did get the minimum sentence, by the way. Seven years is the minimum. That's the minimum sentence. I mean, he could have gotten life. He said, there were other people involved, but I'm not going to be a rat. He said, I don't want to worry about somebody jumping me from behind or a bunch of guys coming at me from the front. I'd rather do my seven years and walk out, then come down here with somebody else and be carried out. He's not going to rat, which is probably smart because he's dealing with like drug cartels

and shit. Yeah, those are, probably going to be some bad guys. Yeah, let's do that. He said that he, you know, didn't know what to do when he got, you know, left hockey. He tried construction jobs. He did a lot of drinking and he met a new woman who was pregnant now. He worked for 16 months as a Toronto in a Toronto restaurant and was runner up in a bartender's competition last September. Oh, that's great.

So he's a good bartender. They said hockey did not make him wealthy. He signed in 71 for a $10,000 bonus and a $9,000 salary. When his career ended, he was earning $75,000 a year. He said, we can all see that the game has changed. After we played the Russians the first time, after the NHL lost its national TV contract in the States, they tried to tone down on the violence, which I've been trying to do forever,

for the last 50 years, essentially, try to make this more palatable for American TV viewers, which that's what we want to see. Yeah. We want a fast-moving game where people score once in a while and also fight.

That would be ideal to watch. And the fight, we would like it to go for quite some time. Oh, yeah, yeah. No, we want to see a round. Let's go out of it, guys. Want to see everybody clear out? You know what I mean? Fucking give them their space.

Let them do it. He said, but I think all hockey fans like to see a good fight now and then. Nobody likes to see the stick swinging, but everybody likes it when two big guys drop their gloves and go at it. Yes. Yes. And yeah. They do. He said, now they're trying to get away from the intimidation tactics.

It worked for the old Boston teams and for the flyers, but now there's not a team that uses it, which is crazy because there was enforcers in the air. Marty McSorley existed for years. You know what I mean? Jeff Bukaboo, boom, those kind of guys that were just fucking, you know, assaulting people essentially on the ice. Well, they're always set to protect somebody. If you have a Wayne Gretzky,

you've got to have an enforcer that's going to beat the shit out of people for taking cheap shots at him. Or else they're going to take cheap shots at him and hurt him. But anyway, he said, you see one thing I could do was play the same way at home or on the road.

A lot of guys go on the road, and you don't see him in the dressing room. You know what I mean? Not really. No, I don't. I don't know what that means here. That's wild. An old coach of his from juniors said you would see him do these things on the ice

and then you'd meet him after the game and you'd never know it was the same person. He said, I think he had the skills, but sometimes he didn't make the best use of those skills. He had a low tolerance point. I think he scared other teams from the standpoint of being unpredictable. You never knew what he would do. He might cross-check you. He might hurt you. He hit hard.

He was nice to have on your team, but from honorable notions, not for the sake of goon tactics. He wasn't all that bad. Goon tactics. Goon tactics. So, yeah, he said Durbano also told the press that hard drugs lead a man down a street to nowhere. Okay. Which is, I think, a Bruce Springsteen song, The Street to Nowhere, isn't it? It sounds like it.

Oh, the street to nowhere. Certainly half the point of the Green Day song. Yeah. So July 10, 1983, tapes of an interview with Steve Durbano here were seized by the RCMP drug squad according to published reports. Yeah? This is two years after the whole thing. The Globe and Mail says police seize the tapes from the CTV program W5 for its use in a perjury case that are building as a result. of Durbano's trial.

Okay. Wow, interesting. So that's what they're saying. Perjury. Perjury case based on his trial. I don't know. August 27, 1983, Durbano refuses to let prison break his spirit.

Yep. He says, it's not just that he was once a hockey star and everyone in Joyceville penitentiary from inmate to guard can't resist the petty urge to rub salt into the gaping wounds of the fallen big shot, not just that while toiling eight years with five NHL teams, his abundant eagerness landed him 1127 penalty minutes and only 220 games. The secret to the 31-year-old son of an Italian immigrant is his eyes.

Two glistening pools that say only one thing. You've got me down, but not out. That's all they're saying. Glistening pools. Glistening pools. This person wants to be a novelist, and they were like, I still have to write for the Toronto Star or whatever the fuck for a while, the Ottawa citizen. I'm going to just describe his eyes very poetically.

Very poetically. He says that he didn't want to give up. He says he, at one point, his wrist bears the scars from where a doctor tried to reconnect a severed nerve, leaving two pretzels in place of his index and middle finger. But rather than give up, Durbano kept trying to make a comeback. He willingly threw away his 12-year $1.4 million contract because they told him he'd never play again if he didn't sign a three-year pact.

We never heard about that. No, 12 years. He said, I wanted to play. I wanted to see my name up in lights. They were just setting me up, he says. Yeah, he said, because after he signed the new deal, St. Louis offered to buy out the contract for 10 cents on the dollar. When he was refused, when he refused, he was demoted to Salt Lake City,

and that's when he walked away from hockey. It's kind of a re-telling of that story that's not really all that self-serve. It's a self-servicter. Certainly sensationalizing. It never happens at a good time. The pipe bursts at midnight. The heater quits on the coldest night.

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My wife, my mansion, my new car. In my eight years, I made over half a million dollars. And right now, I'd be in the middle of a four-year contract at $130,000 a year. Instead, odd jobs in Toronto, like we said, construct. construction, bartending, assistant manager at a restaurant here. Oh, boy. But it's his own, isn't it? It's his own, yeah.

No, no, no, not his own. He wanted to open a restaurant. He never did. He said, but there was still the habit which consumed him day and night. Wow. By early 1981, he was pumping $1,000 a day into his arms. Oh, my God. Is he shooting Coke?

Evidently. Holy shit. That seems. More likely how he got hep C. Wow. Or whatever. Yeah. So I'm saying if he's shooting up or the other thing, too, guys back then used to also, they used to take tons of injections for all sorts of shit.

They would take weird vitamin injections. Like there was all sorts of weird remedies. Some team doctor would stick it with. That happened all the time back then. He said, I was never a trafficker. I was an addict. And he said he probably could have realized only about $40,000 by selling the drug on the street. No.

It would have been more important. But even still, he was bringing back person. He really was Costco in it. Yeah, he was. He was buying low, selling high. Wow. He said he was reluctant to say whether he took cocaine while playing, but admit soft drugs such as marijuana and hash and alcohol are part of hockey players' life.

They like the weed, too, the hockey players. They do. They like the weed. He said, hockey players in the NHL do what you do after a game of pickup hockey. They get together and drink and do a little. drugs. Yeah. He said he has unguarded optimism about life after prison.

He's eligible for parole on March 24, 1984, even though they could keep him as late as 1990. He said he has his family, his common law wife, his new daughter, and he believes a job is waiting for him when he's freed as well. What's that job? So we don't know that yet, but he said he thinks he can make a go of it. This is all shit. He's got to tell the parole board. Yeah. I got a job.

I got a family and all that kind of. 30, 32, something like that? Yeah, something like that, 32-ish, I think. They said it's the spirit that made him tell newspapers last February of the overcrowded conditions in Toronto jails and against the advice of Joyceville Warden agreed to be interviewed for the W-5 program a few months back. That's the one where the cops took the tapes of. In the interview, he spoke about the dangers of cocaine addiction so as to warn others that anyone can become an addict. However, the RCMP has told him he may be charged with perjury. Uh-oh.

Because he testified at his trial, he knew nothing of the 474 grams of cocaine found inside the soul and heel of his shoe. That's ridiculous, though. It's absurd. We do that all the time. People say all through the trial, not guilty, not guilty, not guilty. They get found guilty. Sentencing is right then. In the next breath, they're saying how sorry they were and they didn't mean to and they have a whole fucking, you know, remorse and this is terrible.

and no one says, well, now you're getting charged with perjury, too. People lie all the time on the stand and nobody ever fucks with them. No, not at all. They should do it more often, I think. I think it should just be the next charge as soon as we've determined that you've lied. That would be fun. That would be interesting if you're under oath. Durbano said the reports filed on him by jailers have gone from excellent to bad since then

because he complained about the conditions. He said he's constantly harassed and accused of selling drugs to other inmates. He doesn't have, does he have shoes that they fit in? I don't think so. He said, they haven't charged me with anything, but when I come before the parole board, they don't have to prove anything. Suspicion is in here is as good as if you were guilty. He said he agreed to do the interview because he wants the public to know his situation.

He said he's been denied supervised leave to visit his common law wife and three week, a three week old baby, Carrie and Amber. Since the interview, he's lost his prison job of sweeping the yard. and was denied the chance of going to a work camp, although he says sexual offenders have been sent to the camp. He's like, I keep my dick in my pants over here. He said, my being Steve Durbano has not helped me in here. It's hurt me.

I'm a straight John. It's a weird thing to say. I go to prostitutes and only prostitutes. I grew up, went to school, became a hockey player, had a straight job, straight living. I was never in jail until this thing. I want people to know that. I made a mistake.

I was an addict, but I've cured myself. Oh, that's good. He's cured himself. Presto changeo. Got it. He said, I haven't done drugs in two years, so what can they do for me? What can they do for me here? I told them when I came here, don't let me rot here for four years because I can only go down and down.

I just want to do my time and get out on parole. What's parole for if it's not for a guy like me who's a first offender that has cured himself of drugs? First offender who trafficked on an internationally. Yeah. That's a crazy first offense, man. That's a big first offense. It's wild. That's a wild first offense, I would say.

Now, he says in another interview in March of 84, that the league has a drug problem. Uh-huh. He says that in his estimation, 20 to 25% of all NHL players use drugs when he was playing. Yeah. He said the NHL likes to fool itself into thinking there's no drugs in the league, but you better believe players from Montreal to Edmonton are doing drugs. The players are doing everything from pot to Coke to speed. If I had to put a number on it, I'd say that when I played, and even now, 20 to 25% of the players are doing drugs.

Yeah. The NHL president told the newspaper earlier in the season that there's no drug problem in the NHL. Really? They asked the NHL president to comment. on Durbano's remarks, and he said, I have no interest in what a convicted felon has to say. I have, how could a guy who does a bunch of drugs know who does drugs? He doesn't know. He's the guy to ask, stupid, the guy who does drugs.

What the fuck? He's got interest in telling a specific story, and we don't want to hear it. And what a felon has to say. Then he hung up, the newspaper said. During a second telephone call, the president said, I cannot rely on information from a convicted drug user. If you want to believe it, then go ahead and print it. Okay.

Yeah. We got cut off, so I'm calling you back. Yeah, hold on. Durbano said, when I was in the league, who do you think I partied with? You think it was just me in a room? Yeah, Ziegler, he's the president. He said, most of the time, there was teammates with me. Without mentioning names, I know there's a 50-goal scorer in the league right now,

who I know does all kinds of cocaine and quailudes. I'd say there are half a dozen guys on every team that smoke pot, And then there's a few heavy users as well. Yeah. There we go. A couple days later, his former teammates of Steve Durbano characterized the one-time hockey player as a bitter man. And they dismiss his allegations of drug use. This is hilarious.

That's very funny. I mean, for him, I guess it's sort of self-serving to go, I'm not the only guy. But at the same time, you think he's the only young, aggressive man with pockets full of fucking money who did drugs? What are we talking about here? Those guys with way more money than him. Yeah, way more. It's just, it's ridiculous. So one of his former teammates here, Ron DeLorme.

This is, we're going to talk to Ron DeLorme. John Garrett, I was the Jason Garrett, like the Cowboys coach for a while there. And Colin Campbell of Detroit. So they all shared, they were all teammates of his at one point. And it says, this is DeLorm, said, I think he's mad at the world. I don't believe that that figure he gave. How would he know? How could he say that, especially from where he is now?

He's guessing. The word is that he's mad at the NHL for the mistake he made. Another, he also said it's certainly not fair for him to say that so many guys are using drugs. He's judging that on guys he played with, and that makes me look bad because I played with him. I don't need that. I was really cheezed off when Johnny Garrett told me about the story. He was cheesed, man. I'm cheesed off.

I mean, I guess that's pissed off and you're just not using the word. But who chose cheese? Cheezed off. I get it in Wisconsin, maybe. Yeah. According to DeLorm, Durbano moved in different circles than most of his teammates. He said he had his own click. I didn't see much of him.

So let me distance myself. Garrett said he found Durbano a little strange and kept his distance from him. Yeah. He said, I had doubts about. his lifestyle and that's why I avoided him. He was more or less a loner. I think he's a little bitter at the NHL and society in general. How anybody could say that 25% of the players in the NHL are using drugs is stupid. Now people will think you're guilty by association. I think everyone concerned in hockey is just going to resent the story, not just the guys he played with. Okay.

I bet. I mean, it seems like that's probably an accurate number that I would guess of One in five guys? Yeah, very wealthy guys that two and five, I think two and five that are very wealthy can, they don't have a drug problem if they can, if everything's going great. And it's not affecting them their physicality because they're 25 years old and you can do that kind of shit. And the other thing back then is when you go out and party and try to get women. Yeah. If you had coach in 1978, you get more women. You get a lot of women back then and shit.

So that's what a lot of guys were using it for too, is just to party to get. women to get more bees with that honey. Be able to drink later at night and do all that shit and hang out. So Campbell, the other guy, said, let's put it this way. Coming from him, it's understandable that he would want to strike back at the league at the players. There were more stories going around about Steve Durbano and the crazy things he'd do than you would believe. If he says 20 to 25 percent of the players are doing drugs, he's way out of line. Take it from me, and I've been on a bunch of teams, five.

The same amount that Steve is on, by the way. Exact same amount of times. I was guessing 40%. 20 to 25. That's probably not that bad. One in five, but that's right. That seems right. Canucks general manager, Harry Neal, says the NHL would be foolish to believe there's no drug abuse in the league.

Right. But feels Durbano's figure of 20 to 25 percent is not close to the actual number. He said, I wouldn't even hazard a guess at the percentage in the league. I don't agree with Durbano. Because I can. It makes my league look like shit. Makes me look terrible. Yeah.

I think those numbers were off the top of his head. He's not a very reliable source to be quoting or believing. Most of the players in this league are a lot smarter than Steve Durbano. Really? Steve Durbano perhaps made up a statistic? Like the other 88% of them that are quoted? Pulled it out of his ass? Yeah.

Big shocker. Yeah. And you're pulling a statistic out of your ass. I don't know the statistic. It's the same thing. Who knows? Every NHL team, says Neil, receives a training camp visit from the league's security office, and the players are informed

the consequences of drug abuse. Oh, well, then none of them will do it. That's all they mean. Oh, they already know? Yeah, they just need some guy to tell them not to do it and it's bad for them, then they'll stop. They know the consequences.

So clearly, they'll never do it. No, young, rich professional athletes never think that they're above consequences and that they can like last through anything. Broke meth-addicted trash knows the consequences. They're doing it because it works. Yeah.

And these people think, well, there is no consequences. I did coke. I banged a hot blonde. I got up. I got in my nice car, drove to the stadium, played a fucking hockey game, and people cheered for me.

What's the problem? Pretty fucking sweet day. Yeah, not a bad day. So, she's stuck my dick for a very long time, and I was on so much coke I couldn't come. I couldn't even feel it.

Sucking. I kept sucking it. I just gave her more coke. So they said, one guy here, the Canucks retain a consultant, Dr. Max Offenberger, for any player who might seek help

confidentially. Okay. So if you're, you know, don't want to announce it. He said, I've said all along since the Don Murdoch case that someone else is going to get caught and I tell my players, don't let it be you, emphasize Neil. Yeah. According to Neil, the symptoms of drug abuse are missing practice showing up late or sluggishness have not been evident. However, Neil realizes that that does not mean that the team is completely clean. No.

No. Just means these people have figured out a way to get it into their lives and, And lots of people show up on time for work and do Coke. It's not a, they don't, not mutually exclusive. He said the coach would be the last to know. He said the drug or alcohol abusers are pretty good at hiding it. Wow. Everybody's doing it.

Yeah, the Canucks assistant to the chairman said the team wouldn't turn its back on a player with a problem. He said, we sure as hell would help anyone who came to us. Drugs are something we're aware of, but not much we can do legally without infringing on a player's Human rights. Right. Okay. A coach here said they talk about Nick Palano, who will be coaching the Red Wings in tonight's game at Pacific Coliseum, says he tries to ward off potential trouble by enlisting

the services of a drug and alcohol rehabilitation foundation. He says, I brought in their speakers during a training camp and they showed a film and gave a talk on alcohol and drug abuse. The reason I brought them in is because I don't know that much about drugs. I have two children myself and I wanted to learn more on the subject. He says, he thinks, yeah, there's a drug. There's guys who do drugs, but he refuses to believe the 20 to 25% claims either. He said, I'm not saying there's no drugs.

I'm saying his figures seem awfully high. If we knew we had someone with a problem, we'd try to help him. If he didn't want help, we wouldn't tolerate him on our team. I haven't seen anything to indicate any of the players are on, my players are on drugs. It's zero on his team. Clean. Every team is clean. There has to be drug use out there.

Just not on any team when you ask them about it. That's all. But it's someone else's team somewhere. Not any team that I'm involved in. Never. No, no, no. Someone else is doing it. Dave Williams of the Canucks said he's full of bleep.

He said the word bleep, by the way. How can you take that guy's word? He's got seven years in the slammer and he's trying to take it out on us. Okay. A Red Wings player said, as far as I know, there's no one on the Red Wings with a problem. I know whether I'm guilty or not. Until someone accuses me, I'm not going to worry about it. A Canucks player said, as far as I'm concerned, it's a bunch of garbage.

We can't be that naive to think there isn't anybody in the league who's doing drugs, but I think Durbano's percentage is way off. And then another player finally said, it seems when anybody gets in trouble, they want to take people along with them. If he makes a mistake, he should say the rest of us have a problem, I can only speak for the Vancouver Canucks, and it's clean here. Okay. Zero around here.

Sure, it is. All right. So here we go. March 27th, 1984. They said some people might consider it a strange twist of fate that a former professional hockey tough guy would find happiness in a new trade in a slaughterhouse. He said, I took the slaughtering job for a reason. He said, it gives me something more.

to take on to the street. I could have taken a cleaning job or driven a tractor, but they're not things I can do on the outside. The outside for Durbano means the other side of the wall at the Pittsburgh institution, a farm camp near Kingston, where Durbano has been serving part of his sentence. He said, they're paying good money in slaughterhouses on the outside. They're paying a living, and that's basically all I want. That's not a great living working in a slaughterhouse.

No. You can make a living. Yeah. He's just, I'm going, I'm trying to just be Johnny Blue Collar, which is fine. So he is 14 months away from being eligible for full parole. He said, I really don't know where my future lies. I won't know until I get out of here. I just can't pick up the telephone and call someone to get a lead.

He said, there are a few job possibilities other than slaughterhouses. He says while on bail, he rose to assistant manager of a downtown restaurant. He says he has contacts that may lead to a sales job with a brewer. besides meat packing, there's always the possibility of landing a job at his father's golf course in Welland, Ontario. Remember, his father's got some dough. He said, I've got potential jobs out there, but whether I'm going to stay in the restaurant business for the rest of my life, I don't know. The thing about the restaurant business is it's all nighttime work, and I'd really like to get away from that, especially if you have a Coke problem.

It'd probably be the restaurant industry is the last fucking place you should be with a Coke problem. It's the easiest way to get and maintain a Coke problem is getting involved in the restaurant industry. Wow. He said, I'm learning a trade here working in the slaughterhouse, which I can apply in the street and it pays pretty well in the street. He says it sounds like he's slaughtering things in the streets. Yeah, is there a black market? You bring up a carcass and he'll take it apart for you right there on the double yellow. He doesn't give a fuck right in the street.

It's so weird. He said, I don't have anything else. To be a welder or start something new, it's going to take four or five years to learn. I'm 32 now. I don't want to start doing something like that. He says he doesn't get annoyed with the media. He knows his arrest and conviction is a skeleton in the closet and the media will never let it die. He said, I can't see anything being available in hockey, scouting, coaching or anything like that.

Like that may be way, way down the road somewhere after this thing is really behind me. The league isn't going to touch this guy. They hate him. for saying that people do fucking drugs. So, but he said, there are drugs. Because they said, everybody disputes your numbers. Yeah, right. Drug users.

They dispute your numbers and most of them even, some of them even dispute that it's even a thing. Yeah, they're like, I don't know what you're talking. You can't do. Play hockey and show up on time and do drugs. That's crazy. Jesus. He said there are drugs in the league. I'm not saying it's a great percentage of guys.

you've got guys who are doing drugs. What do you do with the other 22 hours a day when you're not on the ice when you're making $300 or $400 or $500 a day? There's people out there who can afford it. Yeah, right. Exactly. Right. He said that's where people who are selling it go to, the people who can put cash on the line.

The NHL clubs are going to get one of their top guys busted before they open their eyes and realize they have a problem. He said they should start doing with the NHL and NBA and baseball are doing. They have drug rehab programs for their players. So, yeah, but they, he said, you're dealing with big business and if you don't have big money to sue them, you're stuck because he wanted to sue over a disability claim because they cut off his salary, but his wrist was fucked up. All right, yeah, yeah. He said, I didn't have the money to sue them. I had everything put together, but before I go to court, I wound up sitting in jail.

So they say even now Durbano's forearm is smaller, his left forearm is smaller than the right. and when three fingers on his left hand move one way, the fourth goes another. Nerve damage. Yeah, nerve damage. He said, I'd never recovered. I'd lost my timing a little, my confidence. There were a lot of things I couldn't do anymore. I couldn't be the policeman anymore.

Same with a guy coming down the boards, even the smallest guy, to put your arm out there just to hold him. The strength's just not there. It doesn't take them long to catch on. They throw the puck in your corner and they work the weak part of you. Yeah, they know that you have a weakness. They're definitely going to work it. He says, definitely, I've got something positive from this, meaning the jail time. If you think you meet a lot of jerks out there in the streets, you wouldn't believe the amount you meet in jail.

Yeah. You didn't tell me the worst people are in jail? Weird, strange. Jerks, mind you. Is that right? I think it's jerks ever. Pedophiles. Jerks.

He said, I didn't come this far to go out on the street and do something stupid so I can come back again. He now, by 1985, he's hoping to steer kids from cocaine. Now he's talking a little more. He said, I got started on cocaine socially. It wasn't until I realized that everything had gone wrong in hockey that I got into the stuff heavily. Then it was costing me $3 to $400 a day. Up here in Toronto, it would have been $1,000 a day. That's why I started going to South America to get it.

I thought it was hidden in your shoes. He said that I never was going to be. going to be a great player. I did my thing the way the game was going at the time. One of my problems was that I opened my mouth too much. Like one time when I was with St. Louis and Jean Guy Talbot, one of the two, was my coach. On my first shift, the puck bounced over my stick. Pete Stambrowski got it and is on a breakaway. I had to hook him. For that, Talbot keeps me on the bench. I always was on the power play. When we got a power play. I'm still sitting. The fans are screaming to put me in. I got up and went in the

dressing room, told the press a press I wouldn't play for that man. He says that what Durbano claims his career actually ended in 74, 75 when Moose DuPont. Moose DuPont, that's the best hockey name of all time. How did Slapshot not use the name Moose DuPont as a player? Put him on the boards. He said, a harmless check. I saw it later on video. He said, a wrist was so badly shattered that he was never able to grip the stick properly again. Really? Yep. He said, I never got a dime for insurance. I'm looking at $100,000 in U.S. funds, never had the money for a lawyer. Wow. So he said that the most ridiculous thing was a three-game suspension and $3,000 fine for shooting the puck at an official. That was when

the clubs were touring Japan. He said, nobody seemed to consider. pertinent to ask Durbano, to ask whether Durbano was the ideal type to send on a goodwill ambassadorial journey. Yeah. You send him to Japan? He seems like he is anathom of a Japanese society. Like, he is Godzilla walking around that fucking place. What do you bring back from Japan?

Just sake? What do you bring back that can fuck you up from there? I imagine they've got Coke, right? No, Japan doesn't have a lot of drugs. No? it's an island and it's also insanely strict with drugs in Japan.

Really? Yeah, I mean, I'm sure there's drugs. Don't get me wrong. There's gotta be. They have organized crime, but it's not like it is here with drugs at all or anywhere else in the free world.

There's not just like a nightlife where you could just... No, there is. There is, I'm sure, but it's not as casual like Coke is not as casually. I'm sure it's insanely expensive out there too. Oh, I'd love to know.

You know. So it's tough. So anyway, he's at a halfway house now where he's able to hold a job with a construction company. He claims he kicked the Coke habit forever. Okay. Yep. He said he even kicked it before he even went to jail. He said, once he got busted, it was over.

He said, I'm living with a fine woman. She was three months pregnant when I went to jail. We have another child on the way. Oh, terrific. She never gave up on me, but she offered me the choice of quitting coke or getting out. He said, when you're on this stuff, you're in constant fear. Don't answer the phone. Keep the drapes closed.

I realize I could do one of two things. Quit the drug or become a bum in the streets. All I want now is to be a citizen and a taxpayer. Wow. That's it. And he said that he has a message for the kind of kids he saw out there on the ice. But he's not asking the hockey people for a chance to tell it. He said he has his pride.

Hockey will have to come to him. He said, I'm not going to go talk to these kids. But if they... Hockey knows where I'm at. Hockey knows. But he's the guy who should be coming into fucking training camps to talk to people. That's the guy. Yeah. Tell him.

Listen, I know what it's like to be after a game and you're going out. You can't bring some fucking just drug counselor guy. They ignore that fucking guy. He's not in the league. He doesn't know what the fuck we're doing. Try going to Japan with no coke. It sucks. Yeah.

It sucks, dude. It's not fair. Let's see here. March 6th, 9th. 1985 here. There is a, like, a charity game, I guess. Toronto Maple Leafs charity. The alumni will take on the Mississauga NHL All-Stars in a charity game for some trust-fund thing.

And Steve Durbano is going to play for the Leaf, so he's in a halfway house. Yeah. But he can do this. Evidently, that was a military outfit, the Maple Leafs. Oh, was it? Okay. That makes sense that. After him, it was like an homage to him.

Good for them. Interesting. So the government couldn't figure out what the plural of leaves was. That's even sadder. At least the hockey players had a fucking excuse. They could hit in that a lot. The best and brightest, called them the beliefs. Beliefs.

Okay. Now, April 28, 1985, he emerged from the Joyceville penitentiary outside Toronto three months ago after serving 15 months of a seven-year sentence. And he emerged from a life when another gram of cocaine for another spree of banging or injecting cocaine and was bloodstreamed with a syringe was all that matter. He was fucking injecting himself. Definitely where the hepatitis came from, by the way. They said, but he did not emerge as a born again evangelist of goodness. He is not a sugar-coated,

he's not a sugar-coated tail. It is real, stark, stunning, and disturbing. It's an accurate reflection of the world in which gray predominates over black and white, in which those who suffer only stagger, not sprint away from tormented paths. Jesus. Durbano, who played eight years in the league here, says he still likes his cocktails, still smokes his marijuana, and still fights his demons. Okay. I am certainly not sober. I'm a mess.

No, not sober. That's not even California sober. No. I don't even know what you'd call that. That's doing all the drugs. Greenwich Village sober, I would call that. I just smoke weed and drink fucking booze. I don't even know what you'd call that.

That's a Seattle soap. A different type of thing here. He says, I'll admit it. I never had any discipline for anything I've enjoyed. He said, and until the end, when cocaine so dominated him emotionally that it was beyond appreciation, Durbano enjoyed the drug immensely. He said he loved the rush. He loved the delusion of omnipotence that the crystals afforded it.

Yeah, Coke makes you feel 20 feet tall. He said it enhanced life when he was. He was a defenseman and enforcer, and it forged the fuzzy reality he craved after he shattered his wrist in 74, and his career went in the shitter. He says, now he bears the scars. Track marks dot both arms. His right arm contains a collapsed vein. Even a leg bears the puncture marks of unsuccessful banging venture. After a while, you run out of places to shoot it, he said.

Okay. After a long while, you run out of places to shoot. That is so much shooting cocaine. fucking bubbles Bubbles could still use his arms. I mean, wow, that's a lot. Poof, he said, but more, the psyche has scars. Once he earned $75 grand a year, now he earns $300 a week in construction work.

Once he drove the best cars, ate at the best restaurants, wore the best jewelry. Now he drives a junker, worries about feeding his girlfriend, Lenora, and their two-year-old daughter and the baby on the way. Lenora said, it's tough for Steve. I know it is. She said that he takes his paycheck and he says, put this much aside for rent, put this much aside for electric. But he's learning to live without. Not about without electric. Without, yeah, without what?

Yeah. She said, believe me, he still has his periods like the last full moon. He has to be out and about or he had to be out and about. But then he says to himself, I've got a girl and a baby on the way. so don't do anything to ruin it. He has stages where he'll never really be, he has his stages and he'll never really be mellow. He has that temper.

He said two nights a week, he can't go home because he's got to be at the halfway house until the end of May. He's got a report to his parole officer once every three months. He can't travel beyond a 25 mile of radius of the city without permission. Oh. He said, people see me on the street and they see me wearing a hard hat covered with dirt in my construction boots,

and they see that. I'm working, working for a living every day. He says, I'm earning it, man. Nobody's given it to me anymore. Yeah, taking what they're giving. Yep. He said he blames no one but himself for his fall, but the injury was a contributing factor. He said, also bad marriage, another contributing factor, which makes anybody want to do drugs.

Or worse. Or worse. He said, I first smuggled Coke in 1970 when I was a first year pro. This is way different now. Whoa. 1970. When he first got in the fucking league, he was doing this. He said, I wasn't even doing this stuff, but a guy gave me an opportunity to make $5,000,

which is a lot of money when you're only making $9,000 a year. So I went to South America with another guy, learned the route, and that was it. And he was just a smuggler from that on. Right. Yeah. He didn't return to South America until his career ended, he said. But in the interim, he developed an addiction that led to his conviction. He said the first time I did drugs was when I was a rookie.

I was brought up to the New York Rangers for the playoffs. And you know, a little blow came up. Some real good Sensi, meaning weed, Sens Amelia. People doing Amel nitrate and some champagne. Amel nitrate. Poppers? What is it going on? A fucking orgy going on?

Right. Locker room? What's happening right now? Wow. He said the real New York lifestyle. Wow. I guess that's a crazy lifestyle. For the next four summers, Durbano and his ex-wife Lisa took their summers in Jamaica

where they had a friend who provided the Coke. Yeah. But again, it was only in the off-season. Once the season started, I was straight, he said, until 74. He said, everybody was doing blow in Pittsburgh. That is true because we know for a fact, Pittsburgh. There's a lot of thing that. Well, we did a bonus episode on it. There was a whole group of people, the pirates, the penguins, the fucking, you know, the Steelers.

I've seen. Yeah. There's definitely a lot of Coke there. Yeah. But I mean, back then in Pittsburgh, that was the center of the sports Coke world back then. There was a whole, we did a whole bonus episode about it. The Pittsburgh 8 or whatever the fuck was car. Oh, right, right, right.

Yeah. But he said, yeah, everybody was doing blow. He said at least the young crowd I was hanging out with. Friends, not teammates, he said. people with those gold straws and gold quailude necklaces. Whoa. Gold quailute necklaces. Jesus, I want a gold quailude necklace.

That sounds relaxing. You put the ludes in like a charm? Maybe it may be something like that. Maybe it had like little things and you pop them. They have little quay lute in each one. I'm not sure. I never heard of that before. Like you bite them off of it like those candy ones?

I am. That's what I'm thinking. That's exactly how I was thinking of it. Except maybe they're in a little like a little case. You pop them open. I don't know. Is it a signifier, like an indicative thing that tells people that I do them? Like if you were wearing a spoon around your neck back in the day and people knew that.

Oh, like the pineapple. Yeah. Or like a pineapple for weird old people in Florida. So wild. So anyway, Durbano said that the 75, 76 season with the penguins before he was traded to the scouts. He said that summer he returned to Pittsburgh only to befriend a cocaine dealer and deepen his reliance. And these dealers were their whole business model was get the athletes into this. Because they're the, you know, the cool people. They're the, you know,

the runners in society. They're the people who are people look up to. And they have the money to afford it. Yeah. Jordan's wearing these shoes, man. Buy it. Well, and the guys wanted to hang out with the athletes too. And that was their way in was they like, I have coke. I can get to hang out with these guys. He says, by then it had become a problem. I was into the downers, the Coke, and the Sincy. So he likes his weed, his barbiturates, and his coke.

They said, one of his friends here said, Steve was a real gentleman, very polite off the ice. Nothing like he was on the ice. But he was a guy who was easily influenced. And I guess he used cocaine as a crutch, he said. That's what he did. He said, as soon as the ink dried on his contract, because he signed a three-year deal at $80,000, $80,000, and $90,000.

He said, as soon as the ink dried, the Rockies offered to buy him out of his contract for $25,000. He was willing to settle for $43,000. The Rocky said, no. He threatened a lawsuit but never followed up, and they just released him. He said, so the first thing I did, I went to the medicine cabinet in the dressing room, grab some syringes, went to my dealer, got two grams, and went to my wife, Lisa, and said, mix me up a hit. So she gave me the hit.

Yeah, these two were a fucking crazy. This is like Henry and Karen Hill in the middle of it. This is insane. Yeah, we're lucky no dogs got strangled and good fellas. He said that I was hooked. I didn't care about anything. I remember we had these huge brown pillows in my house. I took the hit and just collapsed.

15 minutes later, I was like, hit me up again. I had no willpower. It was an instant addiction. Jesus. his first experience with shooting up turned into a two-month run. He said later he would go on six-month runs where he would stay awake shooting cocaine for five and six days at a time before collapsing. Six days straight coke binge? Yeah, people do that shit, especially you're shooting.

You can keep going. He would clean out his body for short periods, but soon he was fucking shooting up again. He said that he never played a game with Detroit and all that. And then he went down to Birmingham. He said, I was depressed down there. Yeah. I was suspended a few times and had to play the goon thing up because of my hand. So I found some guys who liked to party and the drugs escalated again.

And then he signed with the blues. And he said, I was working hard. He said, gave up the garbage. I was running every day. I was there with the best attitude. But he also had hepatitis. Uh-oh. He said, I told them it was from a new tattoo I had put on.

Of course it wasn't. No. No. He said, that cleared, he finally dressed for a game but didn't play. He said, the next day I'm working out on the heavy bag, and then I threw a punch at the wall. I didn't, and I meant to pull it, but I didn't and I broke my hand, which meant more surgery. Yeah. Oh, God. So now I was out another six weeks. They sent me to the minors for 10 games, where I got suspended for a brawl,

and he said, I knew it was over. Yeah. A minor league team in Spokane called, but he wasn't in the mood. He said it was just time to move on. He said, I was programmed to put on the skates and play. I had no idea what I was going to do. So I started smuggling coke. He said it was his choice. It helped feed his habit and there was money to be made. Yeah. I can do it free now. Yeah. He said, of course, I always went down to South America with the intention of dealing and making some big money, but I always ended up either using most of it or giving it away. I was so strung out, I wasn't in control. He said during the next two years, he went to South America, usually Bolivia, to smuggle cocaine five times. He said, he and an accomplice would put the cocaine into balloons,

tie them tightly, and place them in any available bodily orifices. Yeah. You know, we'd use three balloons, nine knots, because if one of them goes, you die. Yeah. Yeah, you got to knot those extra good. And if the balloon pops, you're in deep shit. Yeah. How many orifices do you have? You got one, right? You can swallow them. I suppose you can put it in the bellbell, but... People do that a lot. They get pregnant women and shit to swallow cocaine all the time.

That would be so hard to get it in there. Yeah, you got to swallow. It's not easy. They oil it up. The reflex. They oil it up and reflects. Who says that? The reflex.

Then you go shit it out later, which is also then you got to pick it out of your shit. Or you go up the other way. Yeah. So he says, after each trip, he and his friends, would go on banging binges, and he's shooting him up. He said he alone was using $700 to $1,000 a day of the drug. Jesus. He said, then you'd run out.

Yeah. So what do you do? You got to go back to South America. He said, one time I hung the bag of Coke over the furnace, and one of the guys were living with in this house decides he's cold, and he's going to turn on the heat. Oh, no. By the time I found it, almost all of it had melted. Here I risked my life in Bolivia and it's gone in less than a week.

What a mess. Guy turned on the furnace and cooked all my fucking spoils. God damn it. So Durbano took a room in Toronto then, finally. First, a $35 a month room, then another across the street that was $8 cheaper. Oh, $28 a month room. And he started working bartending jobs. He phoned his Pittsburgh for.

and the dealer he had met in Shadyside, the number in the summer of 1976, and in Goodfellas, that's where they were getting the Coke was from Pittsburgh. That's where they were sending the babysitter-Lowe's. My connection in Pittsburgh. Oh, those guys are creeps. There you go. He said that one that he had met in the summer of 76, and he said he was flat broke. I guess this guy, the Pittsburgh friend, was flat broke.

So Durbano made a deal. You tell me the connection, the root, and everything, and I'll make the run and we'll split the product. So he left for South America for the final time, January 27th, 1981. And he said smuggling's nuts, which is a really clear and present. Yeah, obviously. He said, you don't know who's a cop. I mean, fucking armies down there, machine guns. So you pull it off like a terista.

Stay in the big international hotels, drink beer, laugh with the girls, and don't admit you do anything. Just keep enough cocaine upstairs to get you high. He said he would give this man the money in advance and received the cocaine the day before departure at a farm in the Bolivian countryside. He said, and then came the bus. He said, I know although I can't prove it that I was set up. I know the guy. One of the cops even told me, well, I could put a gun to the guy's head, but it wouldn't be worth the aggravation. So, yeah, obviously somebody set him up because that's how most drug people get busted.

Yeah, that's the thing about all these drug agencies. They rarely just have it all figured out and go get the guy. Yeah. Someone else is in trouble and they go, well, I'll help you get other people. Right. So they talked to his dad, Nick. And his dad said, I had my suspicions about him, but I thought it was just marijuana. I told him once that stuff's going to get you in trouble.

I didn't know it was cocaine. We weren't that close because when you're on that stuff, you isolate yourself. Back then, he was in a fog. Yeah. And Steve says, yeah, my dad hardly drinks even. He doesn't understand any of this. He's like, how can you make all that money and blow a million dollar career? He just can't understand.

Yeah, well, that's what happens. The general manager of the penguins back in the day, Jack Butler, said, somebody once told me that Steve had become some sort of a hardened criminal. But I can't believe that. He was always a very articulate, intelligent person that you like to be around. He had good hockey skills. He said people tend to overlook that. Right. So I guess the money guy, they said, retained a lawyer and Durbano's family provided the bail for Durbano.

He said it was 81 and Durbano was two years away from sentencing. He said at that point, cocaine was still first in his life. And so he and a friend spent almost every evening of the next six months getting drunk and fucking wired up on Coke. He said he had some odd jobs. He and Lisa had separated. And he said he was a nowhere man when he met Lenora at his old. bar the clubhouse. That's when she offered him the ultimatum, me or cocaine?

Can't I have? Yeah. What did you say? Yeah, he said, on the weekends, he and Lenora would head to the country, far from the Toronto nightlife. And on the weekdays, if we went out, I surrounded myself with drinkers. Wow. So, yeah, his thing is if I get drunk enough, I won't want to do coke, which is when people

usually want to do coke. He said, so I'd have my eight, ten cocktails. Ooh, boy. Go home, smoke a jose. joint and crash. None of the other garbage. That's good. He said it's been three years since he's injected cocaine. He said, the crave is still there once in a while. This kid I was rooming with at the halfway house had some coke. So one night he brings out the points, meaning syringes. And he says, want to get high? I thought, if I'm ever going to beat this, this is the time. So I tried to sleep

and I didn't sleep well. I thought about it all night, but I didn't do it. And I felt great the next morning. He said, finally, in 83, he got sentenced and he said jail was what he expected. He said, it's a long fucking day down there. No booze, no women, nothing. Yeah, that's jail. No booze, no women. I mean, what the fuck? It's bullshit. Yeah, it's a lot of shit here. He said, you wonder, is somebody going to try and stake his reputation by sticking a knife in my back? Because that stuff goes on. And as soon as the Valium hits, the Valium, the Valium hit. Those guys get crazy. He said

that he had his own prescription for sanity. He said, this is him saying that, you know, I'm good now, by the way. He said, I took the easiest job they had and smoked hash all day. And prison? Yeah, exactly. He also dealt hash in prison.

This is what's me? This guy's fucking insane. He said that maybe the least comfortable place to do drugs. Yeah, prison. But I mean, you would want to get real fucked up just to check out from reality. Maybe, but you'd be, I think you'd be scared to death to be caught because then you'd have to stay there longer.

Yeah, I guess, but I think if you're in there a long time, I think you get a, like, look at like the wire with like DeAngelo Barksdale shooting up heroin, or snorting heroin and shit. And it's like, yeah, if you were stuck in this fucking locked room all night, you probably go, let me do some shit that'll take me to another place. I can see that. Yeah, definitely. I got fuck I wouldn't want to sit there just being bored he said so he got hash from visitors that brought it in for him right he said I got hot in the end there real hot but I never got pinched so people suspected him

he said Lenora and his daughter born while he was in jail drove two hours to prison each weekend for two Saturday visits and one on Sunday oh god wow she said, I resolved that I would stick by him and support him. So he was released from jail, initially couldn't find a job, then bounced around a number of jobs as part of a halfway house program, finally latched on with the construction company, knocked his girlfriend up again, and, you know, all of that. So he said his ex-wife remained in Toronto and has her own problems. He said, she's over for Christmas every year. This is what Lenora says, the new girlfriend.

sometimes she's okay. Other times she's paranoid and strung out. She's in a world where the first thing you do in the morning is have a drink and smoke. So they also say, you know, I've got all the pictures up on the wall at home and I look at the one picture, one in the Pittsburgh uniform, and look back at this guy 10 years ago. And I think, what the fuck happened to that guy? He had so much potential. He says, but I guess it wasn't meant to be. Now I've been through the worst I can go through and have a good attitude.

I'm starting to get over things. Things can only get better. Okay. And he doesn't fear the future. He says that, you know, he says he fears that other young men will end up like him. He said, it's so easy for these kids to fall into the same traps. They're spending $3,000 for jewelry, buying drinks for everyone all night. Look, how do they keep control?

He said, look, drugs in hockey are no worse than in any other sport. My only criticism is this. In other sports management says if you have a problem, come to us and we'll clean you up. In hockey, they say, we catch you, you're out of hockey. Oh. And that's wrong. He said he's seen, he has not seen any reason to speak in front of youth groups, reasoning that, quote, a 16-year-old kid is going to do what he's going to do. He'll either he'll handle it or he won't.

That is a wrong. Wow. And you know, American sports, the big three, they certainly say, you know, you know, you're not. do those drugs and we'll throw you out of here. But it's very obvious that it's... After like seven times that we catch you. There's that. And then there's also the,

depending on how fucking talented you are. That's the other thing. Yeah. Lawrence Taylor's in the Hall of Fame. Yeah. Oh, Christ. It happens. So he said, I did a show in Canada,

sort of their equivalent of 60 minutes. Yeah. He said, the police wanted to seize the tapes and nail me for perjury. But what sense does that? make. I've done. I've paid. I've done my time. By my talking, I'm helping them by showing the kids, hey, stay away from the Coke because drugs lead you nowhere but jail. Yeah. Yeah. He said that sometimes a smart mouth in a bar will remind him of his past and he will steam with the knowledge that a right

hook to the teeth could land him back in jail so he doesn't do anything. Yeah, but also you can't take something somebody said in an interview and run that as perjury. That's the other thing. Because it's not under oath. They can be saying, what the fuck they want on TV. They're saying that if he's saying what he said in the interview is true, then what he said on the stand was false. And I'd say, well, one was under oath and one wasn't. Right. So take that one under oath is true. Fuck you. Yeah, this isn't under oath. I could be spinning a yarn. So what the fuck I want on TV. It's for, this is an entirely different venue and reason for me to be on here. Yeah, Barbara Walters doesn't swear you in before you sit down. That's not how it works back in the day. He said, I just tell

him, hey, I never saw you on the other bench when I was playing. You only dreamed your dreams. I played the game. He said, I'd rather be a has-been than it never was. Okay. That's fair. So they said, soon the blue bomb Durbanos cracked and dented 72 in Pala is wending

its way through the back streets of Toronto's Yorkville neighborhood past the Ritzy boutiques and yuppified row houses. Yeah. Durbano stops twice to show off two houses he and his partner have helped to restore. I thought he was going to say ones he used to own, but no, ones he worked on. He said, right now that would go for $400,000, he says, smiling broadly.

By now the car is coughing, a wheezing tribute to the utilitarian, if not the aesthetic ideal. Durbano shifts and Toronto nightlights escape the rearview mirror. There's work early tomorrow, responsibility, a family, and the fervid promise of a better life. And there's a picture of him looking real fat and real bald kissing his kid. Leaning it against a shitty embolet that barely runs? Barely runs. He's just standing there shirtless with that. He's got a tattoo of like, those are tits.

I see nipples. There's a woman with nipples actually. He has tits on him? Oh, boy. His tattoo goes from his top of his shoulder to his elbow. Whole fucking area there. Half sleeve. And it is fucking like a woman.

She's got looks like a dress on, but her tits are out and I see nipples and clear. Yeah. Clear his day. A lot of people have that man's ruin tattoo that's like there's a woman with a lot of times with her tits out and then like a whole bunch of things around it that like will spoil your life. You know what I mean? It's just her. That's all he's got. He's got a half sleeve of just tities.

Just a woman with her tits out. Wow. Just like a sexy woman with her tits out. Wow. June 25th, 1985, Steve and Lenora announced the arrival of another daughter, Carly Marie. Wow. here. Yep, she weighed eight pounds. So, there you go. June 14th, 1988. He's putting prison and drugs behind him. Oh, Steve. That's right. He's packed on 20 pounds onto his bear-like frame since his

playing days, but his eyes are clear and he's articulate. He says, I used to go into these periods where I'd go in and out and out. I'd get into it heavily for a while, then never see the stuff for months. I'd get this craving, this urge, and I'd clean myself up and figure out if I was all right. A few months later, I'd fall into the same trap. It takes you a long time before he can put it down completely. It messes you up. And when you know you're messed up, you've got to have it. Sure. He said, though, he insists this will be his last interview. He says he hasn't used cocaine since he went to prison five years ago. And now finally, he says he wants to put the past behind him. He was the first professional athlete in Canada

ever to go to prison on drug charges, by the way. Is that right? That's amazing. What year? Fucking 83. Wow. 82. Yeah.

Yeah. So, yeah, they said that, you know, that's, that's amazing. That's wild. We had a lot of them put in jail by then. For sure, yeah. Christ almighty. He says, though, Coke at first, when he first started in his first season, he called it his Friday night sweetheart.

He said that then he became a regular user. He said, I saw my buddies doing it, so I thought it was okay. But it's highly addictive. Right. In the 70s, that was one of the perks of Coke was people said it wasn't addictive. Unbelievable. That was the big, until the 80s, that was like the early 80s. That was the big selling point.

Makes you feel good. You're real social. You can drink more. It kills the alcohol. And it's not even addictive. Great. Crazy. That would be great if it was true.

He said, but it's highly addictive. I never went for help because I didn't think I had a problem. After I got out of hockey, I didn't know how to deal with it. So I got high. He said, if I was a drinker, I would have just drank more, but I was a non-drinker. So there you go. He's out of hockey. I don't drink, so I just do Coke.

Just do Coke. I just shoot Coke into my arm because there's no drinking. I don't know. What are you going to do? He said he'd do it right around the clock. He said, I was doing a gram every hour or two. for 24 hours. Holy shit.

A gram or two every hour? Yeah, for 24 hours. Holy shit. That's a shit. Half and eight ball every hour. That's a lot. How many, that is 12, 8 balls a day? Well, if he said, let's say he does one and a half per 24 hours, one and a half an hour for 24 hours. That'd be 36 grand.

of Coke in a day. That's so much. That's over an ounce of Coke in a day. That's so much. Shooting it, too. Yeah. Wow. He's been hanging out at the Riverview Golf Club, which is his father's golf club where he and his brother John are now running it. So now he's running

a golf club. They hope to own it within five years. Lenora also works at the club, and the two girls are there too. Lenora said, I didn't know him when he played hockey. He said he had some emotional problems, but there was something special about him. Now he's really gotten things back together.

He's really in his element right now. This place is in his life. I don't think he ever wants to go back to that city, or back to this city. Sorry. Durbano said he prefers to talk about golf courses today. He boasts of the layouts facilities and even the low dining room prices. He said every Saturday this month is booked solid. The reservation book is full.

So, yeah, that's pretty fucking funny. April 23rd, 1991. Durbano's arrested again. Oh? Yep. He is arrested and he receives a suspended sentence after pleading guilty to stealing five shirts from an Eaton store. Oh, no. Shoplifting, Steve.

Five shirts, James. Five shirts. A week's worth of shirts. Yeah. I need some more shirt. And then he went there. Yeah. Oh, my God.

What a fucking mess this guy is, man. I mean, Jesus Christ, his life is a goddamn disaster. He's stealing shirts hanging out at the golf course. He's trying to get. What the fuck? He's trying to get clothes now. This is so strange. I mean, and afterwards, too, he just goes back to the golf course.

Yeah. And so what else are he going to do? Driving ranch, babe. It's cheap. I mean, it's cheap. I know he owns it. Or he, at least his dad does. He's got to work there for price sake.

He's got to go back to work. And one day he's sitting. outside. All of a sudden, he hears some dogs barking. And it's Bobby Colorado, animal trainer from Fredericksburg, Texas. And he says, How is it you come to arrive here? Seriously.

Hey, they'll stay to fuck away from my dog, by the way. I don't know which one of you's killed the last one, but you can blame it on your wife or whatever, but, you know, you're shooting up coke, you're strangling dogs. You keep away from them. Don't pet them right now. But seriously, what? the fuck is wrong with you. What's wrong with you?

Hey, listen, I've been in the joint. You know what I mean? It's not, we all got a pest. You know what I mean? You know, mine, a little more mysterious than others possibly. But still, you're fucking up, mister. Let me tell you something. First of all, leave the fucking dogs alone.

Get your little mower out and trim your goddamn greens down real tight. It's quite worrying about this bullshit. Trim the tiff. You're a fucking jerk off. What's wrong with you? God damn it. What are you got? It's on your arm.

You're holding a two-year-old with fucking tits hanging out of your arm. You look like a jackass. And then poof in a cloud of marinaris sauce and dog shit. He's gone. And Steve is very confused. He has no idea what happened. He's like, did I just inject myself with cocaine again? That made me do see shit, for Christ's sake.

I want to see this fucking tattoo so bad. I'll show it to you. I'll put it on social media, too. It'll be up there in a minute here. So he received a suspended sentence after pleading guilty. to shoplifting. Yeah. He had, apparently was five shirts from an Eaton store.

He had $12 in his wallet when he was arrested with $168 worth of shirt. $168 worth of shirts? Which in the night, that's not a, those aren't cheap shirts. No, that's a $35 shirt. This is a decently expensive shirts. And he only had $12. So that is not good. He was not buying that.

He did get five days in jail and then a suspended. sentence. So May 25th, 1993, he's in trouble again. Uh-oh. The Niagara regional police have charged Urbano with uttering threats and two counts of breach of an undertaking. What is it? Breach of an under? Does that mean a funeral? Did he interfere with a funeral? Right. What does that even mean? Or does it mean cops like they were doing their duty, like in obstruction of duty. Okay. All right. Instruction of justice, maybe. That's all I can imagine. They said he was arrested Sunday morning at his home.

No other details were available. We'll find out, though. He is due in court on June 9th, accused of threatening a bar owner. Okay. They said that, yeah, they arrested him here for that. He says he was uttering threats, two counts of breach of an undertaking. Police said the arrest stem from separate charges laid May 16th against Urbano for allegedly threatening the same well-in-law. bar owner. At the time, he was ordered not to talk to the man or go near the bar. And he went there

and threatened him. That's what it is. That's not good. He breached a restraining order of some site. Yeah, they told him, don't do that, and he went and did it. That's right. I don't really know know what the fuck happened in the outcome of that. I can't imagine he got a lot of time or anything like that, but we don't know. Now, by the mid-1990s, this is bad. He has about a $300 a month hockey pension, which isn't going to cut shit in the 90s. And he's also on welfare now. Oh, God, damn it. Yep.

He's doing odd jobs. He helped his father build an executive golf course. He is struggling with other physical issues from substances. He has alcohol-related liver damage at this point. Oh, no. And probably HEP is not helping it. That didn't help it. No.

And he was basically told at this point, You got to stop fucking drinking or else you're going to die. Yeah. Your liver is not doing well. And liver's a bounce back. That's the thing about a liver. They can regenerate, sure. They're like cats.

They have nine fucking lives. But once you get it past a certain point, you're fucked. That's it. That's called cirrhosis. You're done. Yeah. You get it. I mean, you can really fuck your liver up and it'll keep coming back.

But there's a point. Have no return. So September 1995, oh my God. He's arrested again. Turbano placed personal ads in the newspaper seeking women for what he advertised as a quote, escort service. What do you think that is, Jimmy? He's buying them or he's doing, he's pimping. He's a personal ad.

He's saying I'm starting an escort service. So he's looking for women to pimping out. Recruiting them, yeah. An undercover female police officer described in reports as a blonde posing as a potential dancer slash employee responded and met him. The meeting took place. Of course it did because it's Canada. At a Tim Hortons. That's where they had the meeting.

Going over to the Tim. To the Tims, let's get some Timbits and talk about this. What the fuck and talk about you. Touch them with Timbits. During the conversation, Durbano detailed prices for various sexual acts provided a code name for her and offered her a job that explicitly involved prostitution. Wow. Yeah.

This was procuring for the purpose of prostitution under law at the time. He was charged with attempting to procure a prostitute or related offenses like procuring a prostitute for operating an escort service, illegal shit, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, and not good is what it is here. Terrible. So I've been a drug dealer. Let me try pimp at this point now. So, I mean, for a long time, he kind of, I don't know, I kind of liked him when he was playing. I like an enforcer.

I like a crazy hockey player. They're fucking hockey players. They should be crazy. That's what they should be. When I see slap shot, that's how I want all the guys to be. I want this guy to be nuts and this guy to speak French. That's what I want. Need some fucking lunatics.

It's a crazy sport. It should be lunatics. It doesn't make any sense. Yeah. I need a guy that just loves, has a suitcase full of small cars. Small cars and very few teeth left in his head. No clothes? Just these cars.

All right. All right, fine. So just these cars? I love that. much that them just watching the slot cars go around until 50 times. So, you know, I feel bad for the guy because I thought, I think he got kind of a bum rap in the league because everybody brought him in to be an enforcer and then he'd be an enforcer and then they would be like, oh, this guy's out of control.

He's doing too much. That's why you hired the fucking guy for Christ's sake. And also the Coke thing, the league hung him out to dry and acting like he's the only, yeah, good thing we got rid of him because he was the influence and all that, you know. I mean, I feel bad for him, Jimmy. but not nearly as bad. Oh, boy. As I feel for Steve Durbano,

chef at Rigatones. Where's that at? In Haverville, Massachusetts. And it's Rigotony's, R-I-G-A-T-O-N-Y-S. Like, his name is Tony. Jesus Christ. So even if his name wasn't Steve Durbano,

I'd feel bad for the chef at Rigotones either way, because I bet their food sucks. I don't know, but I'm assuming by the name, it's not good. Yeah. Doesn't forebode well. I wouldn't eat there. I know that much.

Steve Durbano, senior manager of network security at engineering and engineering at Forcepoint. It's in Herndon, Virginia. I don't know what that is, but he went to the Catholic University of America, whatever the fuck that is. April 16th, 1998. Now it's coming out.

There's a big headline, ex-NHL or Rand Sinbin. What's a Sinbin? Ben. That's fun. Former player Durbano caught hiring an RP police officer as hooker for escort agency. Yeah. Oh, man.

So, yeah, they're talking about all this. He took another step down in the world by pleading guilty to hiring a woman to work as a hooker for an escort service, quote, unquote. He ran from his townhouse. Wow. Oh, God. He will be sentenced on April 21st. I guess the Vice Squad began getting complaints last summer that Durbano was operating the five-star escort service in Welland and was using five stars. I can give it one star.

And it was using the agency for purposes of running a prostitution ring. I guess they did advertising and recruiting by placing personal ads in the Welland Tribune and the standard. And so the cop came over like we talked about. And he described very, very specific things that were part of the job. And that's interesting. So talking about him in his hockey and everything else and they're saying a hard fall from the NHL. Steve Durbano sat in a well-in townhouse. On the table, there was a stack of unpaid bills.

I'm afraid to answer the phone. I've got bill collectors chasing me and there's no hope of paying them. There were two newspapers on a table nearby, and he was front page news in both. St. Catherine's Standard headline read X. NHLer ran Sin Bin, and he says, my life's a mess. If I went to bed tonight and never woke up, that wouldn't be such a bad thing. That's getting suicidal now. But he was wide awake sitting nervously in the prisoner's box waiting for a provincial court judge to dish out a penalty. He pled guilty to attempting to hire a prostitute to work for his escort service, and the Crown and Defense jointly recommended a $1,000 fine.

Oh. And he said, quote, it might as well be a jail term. I'll never be able to raise $1,000. Oh, my God. Think about this. I'll never be able to raise the kingly sum of $1,000. If your life depended on it. You've been a pro.

I get there's people out there right now listening that can't. can't raise $1,000 either. Ever? And they weren't NHL players also. Ever? Ever. That's, yeah, you'd be, if your life depended on it, you could probably, and it's a one-time thing, it's not like, oh, it's rent, and then I got to get it again next month.

This is a one-time thing to keep me out of jail. You'd probably find it, I would think, somewhere. Ever? Ever. I'll never be able to raise a thousand dollars. I've been in some very dire situations and circumstances. is a thousand dollars was never out of my reach. I could figure that out one way.

You could figure something the fuck out. There are people that are in a position that they can't, but I don't think he'd and sell it, James. We'll sell it to anybody. Yes, someone will buy that little fucker. I mean, a guy who, like, has connections around and knows a lot of people. He should be able to pull together. Can't get a grand together? Yeah.

They say he doesn't have to worry about finding the money. Judge Baldwin sent him to jail for three months. She said he's not a first-time offender. We know that. Wow. Yeah, Mr. Durbano's lawyer told the judge that his client is recovering from substance abuse, including cocaine and heroin now. Boy, oh, boy. Apparently, he dipped back in here.

He said the escort business was closed after the charges were laid, and Durbano is now living on a hockey pension of $300 a month. Good fuck. He said a fine will create sufficient hardship, but the judge said a fine would be little more than the cost of doing business. She said, this was not a momentary lapse in judgment. In my view, a period of custody is required. Yeah. I would say so. So, yeah, he talks all about, they talked more about drug addiction and everything else.

And he talked about at one point he turned to hard liquor and was drinking 40 ounces a day, not a 40. 40 ounces of booze. Yeah, Jesus Christ. Went back to drugs in 1990. That's when he got caught shoplifting. That's when his, remember his relationship? Lenora, that's over. When that ended, that's when he went back to drugs and went to shoplifting.

He said, I thought I was stealing fancy shirts. They turned out to be pajama tops. That gives you a pretty good idea of what shape my brain was in. Oh, he was dealing. What? He thought he was stealing fancy shirts. shirts and he was stealing pajamas. Ah, they were Pendleton brand, man.

I thought they were expensive. I saw little pillows and clouds and shit out of him. I thought that was just the design. He said L.L. Bean. I thought they were expensive. They are expensive, just not for what you thought they were for. Exactly. Just overpriced pajamas is when he stole.

So he said, when the highs wore off, I'd start feeling suicidal. I didn't think I had anything to live for. I hacked at my veins twice. Jesus Christ. He said he applied for a spot in an employment training program but was turned down. And he said, I can't blame them. I'm not young. My hand eliminates me from a lot of jobs and I've got a criminal record.

They probably felt there were younger people that were more deserving. Probably. He said his liver has been damaged by the booze and about with hepatitis caused by his drug use. He lives in his father's townhouse and says he's off drugs, takes the occasional shot of hard liquor but still drinks beer. He said, I need something. Yeah. Occasionally. He said, I need something to numb them.

the pain. Right. This shit's ridiculous. He said he was unable to find work in the Welland area, so he decided to open an escort service last year, as one does. I mean, that's... I sat around thinking about the skills that I've got. Yeah.

I came down to, you know, I'm a pretty good judge of pussy. I know pussy when I see it. Imagine that, like, that's fucking crazy to be like, I don't know, I can't find a job. I'll just pimp women. That'll be fine. That's the next logical. progression there. I'll be the liaison between penis and vagina.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He said that, you know, he said he drove the women to their dates and they turned back to him a percentage of what they earned. You know, a pimp. It's called a pimp. There's no, you could, you can put it in like a title.

You could break down how it works and stuff. And then you go, so you take the women there and then they give you some of the money they made fucking. Yeah. That's called a pimp after you arranged it. Yeah. I think that's a pimp. Not positive.

Yeah. So what I was doing was giving people drugs in exchange for money. So you were a drug dealer. No, no, no, no, no, no. I was just procuring. This is the best. This is his explanation of it. I'm going to do it in their own words because it's the most ridiculous fucking thing I've ever heard. It's so goddamn funny.

In their own words, quote, everything was on the up and up. I had a business license. I wasn't running a prostitution ring, but I can't control what people do when I'm not with them. Oh, my God. What did you think you were dropping them off for? Fucking Monopoly? What were you think they were doing? Oh, I'm going to go over here and play Candy Land for a while.

This guy's going to pay me some money. I'll give you a cut. He's there to hang out. Wow. That contradicts evidence from the undercover policewoman who said that, you know, he laid everything out. And Durbano said there's not much more I can say, I pleaded guilty. Yeah. Mr. Durbano called his daughters, who now live in Western Canada.

he phoned his father who spends winters in Florida where he owns a golf course. And he said he doesn't need this crap. I can't imagine him coming back to Welland. This is a small town and I've embarrassed him pretty good. Yeah. He expects his father will sell the townhouse where he lives now. He said, if he sells, I have no idea where I'll end up. I'm in way over my head.

I've got a pile of unpaid bills. I want to go bankrupt, but I don't have the money to pay the trustee. I can't afford. He's too broke to be. bankrupt. That's a new one. I can't afford to financially file the paperwork to be bankrupt. To be bankrupt. He said, I'm not looking for pity and I'm not blaming anyone for this mess. I've made a lot of stupid decisions and now I'm paying the price. You bet. All right. December 28th, 1998, here we go. The headline is a fresh start. He's good now. Yeah. Good now.

Brand new story. He's 47 and lives in Yellowknife, Northwestern territories. Northwest Territories. That is, a middle of fucking nowhere. Yeah. Where he sells cleaning goods and shampooes, carpets, and rugs. Oh, God, Jesus, that's a miserable existence. He's the oxyclean guy with no television commercial.

Yeah, with no product to sell. Just showing up with some oxycleans, trying to clean your floor. When he did time in an Ontario prison for drug trafficking, only one former visit, teammate came to visit him. Ken lines, uh, Lindsman. Derbano on his new life. I gave myself a year of real hard work, a lot of promotion, pounding the streets, handing out flyers, knocking on doors, introducing myself, not as Steve Durbano, the ex-hockey player, but as Steve Durbano with Electrolux Electroclean. All right. I'm not Bobby Orr in this town. They don't know me. November 16th, 2002. Here he is. Steve Durbano.

is dead. What? He has died from liver cancer at age 50. Ooh, we. In 2002. That is sad. Oh, my God. Liver cancer killed him when he was 50?

The hep and the fucking booze. Oh, wait. Can't do that. Can't abuse yourself like that. That's sad. Oh, my. Yep. His former teammate, Dale Tallon, said he was a good-hearted guy who made bad decisions,

but he was easily misled. He wound up in the wrong crowds, hung with the wrong people, did the wrong things. He was a little crazy, but more than that, he was fearless. It's good to be fearless in hockey. I don't know if you can live like that, though.

No. No. Another teammate, Steve Shutt, said he just couldn't control himself. It's too bad, really, because he had genuine talent. The thing is, he didn't have to be a fighter. He could play the game. Another teammate, Mike Murphy, said,

he was the most raucous player I've ever seen. He was an elite character right out of the movie Slapshot. You think those guys are invented. You didn't know Steve Durbano. Live fast die young. That's it. He scared me when he played with me and when he played against me.

He was very, you don't hear that he scared me when he played with me very often. He was very likable, funny, funny, friendly, and genuine, but he used his stick in vile ways. Jesus. Right up the butt. That's the only way it could be. I was so scared when he played with me.

He's going to stick that stick up. My ass. November 26th, 2002, the headline is, long, wild ride was all downhill. And it's just kind of a general overview of, you know. Life being a disaster. Just his fucking up so much. And at one point here, this was later on, a friend of his said that he wasn't looking well. You could tell just by looking at him, his complexion had a sickly yellow tinge.

So did the whites of his eyes. He said it wasn't long before Durbano was confiding to his friend that he was terminally ill. Doctors had given him a year to live. He figured he had six months. So his friend asked him, are you still drinking? Yeah. With advanced liver cancer? He said, you're damn right, Durbano said.

At that point. That's why it's six months. Yeah. Buck it. He said, I'm not going to sit on the couch and wait to die. If I want a beer, I'm going to have a goddamn beer. I was bad all those years. So what do people think?

all of a sudden I'm going to be God's angel. He makes such great points. Yep. He had liver cancer and cirrhosis. He needed an organ transplant, but because of his past of drug use and his age, he was low on the priority list, basically. And he said, I'm not Mickey Mantle, in other words.

Mickey Mantle was famous and he was a drunk, but he also, you know, was a world famous drunk, so you could get a little more pub there. He said it was a long, wild ride. that Durbano told his friend that day in Yellowknife. They said, what happened after your career ended? And Durbano said, what didn't happen? I had blown every cent I had in my career.

I thought I'd have 14, 15 years and have plenty of time to save for the future. I was wrong. And he described his drugs and janitorial work and all that kind of thing. He said, he was playing in one of these old-timer games. And he said, this is the best thing that ever happened to me. I just wish I was going to have more time here. I wish I got more pay here. And also I got the liver to go.

And a new liver possibly. Do they have those? He said he was dying and he had no one to blame for himself. He said, so what do I have left? I have memories of the past. That's it. Memories. Jesus Christ.

Somebody asked one of the old team general managers why he employed Durbano. And he said, when it comes to push and shove, we want to be the ones doing the shoving. Uh-huh. Which makes sense. They said he made about $526,000 in his career, which I mean, not terrible for back then. No, but that's not going to fucking last.

You got to buy a house. You got to buy a house. You got to buy everything else. So can't get enough of Steve Durbano. Well, get yourself a 1973 Opeche card. Steve Durbano rookie near it's only $3.75. For an Opeche? Those are, there's not a lot of those anyway.

No, it's a 73. It looks like it's in good shape, too. It's got to be fake, man. It has to be. Also, an extremely rare Steve Durbano, Colorado Rockies jersey. It's pretty fucking sweet. It's $200. $200.

And finally, Steve Durbano, just a signed three-by-five index card. Apparently, his autograph is rare because people were afraid to fucking ask him for one back in the day. This is $319. cents. He's done a great job keeping the market void of his shit. He kept the market strong for his shit. So there you go, everybody. There is Steve Durbano. We gave him the appropriate do this time. Our first episode on him was an hour in like eight minutes. That's not enough time to cover all this shit. So it's not. We didn't have all this info. So there he is. Now he's dead and there you go. If you enjoyed this episode or any of the previous 498 before it, get on whatever app you're listening on.

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You're the best. Other producers this week, Peyton Meadows, Ryan Bender, Happy Hour, checking in Midland, Texas. I think he's home. Janice Hill, Melanie Highsmith, James Pinson, Kaybury Stanton, Becky, Ireland.

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