Bob Probert's new book
"Tough Guy, My life on the Edge"
Forward by Steve Yzerman.
A review of the newly released autobiography by Bob Probert. The book was almost complete at the time of Bob's unfortunate and untimely death.
We just got an advanced copy of Bob Probert's book that he was working on entitled "Tough Guy." I will be reading and posting tidbits from each chapter. Just started reading but the prologue gives you a detailed first hand account of what happened July 5th, 2010, the day Bob passed away. VERY, VERY SAD!
Review
by Jack Rosenberg
In Play! Magazine
One of the best hockey books I have ever read. Bob's brutal honesty is what makes this book believable. He held nothing back when talking about infidelity, the drugs, the boozing, his legal issues and the love for his wife and family. Bob's premonitions of an early death bring an eerie element to his story.
Caution: Quotes are un-censored
Prologue
This is saddest part of the book. It's a first hand account of Bob's last day. It puts to rest all the rumors and sets the record straight as to what really happened July 5th, 2010. I remember that day clearly as the rumors hit the internet like a buzz saw. I thought for sure that it was some prank or sick joke, but it wasn't.
"Penny (Dani's aunt) thought it seemed like an eternity getting the kids home and picking up the car before she and Dan (Bob's in-law) were finally headed to the hospital. When they were about five minutes away, Dan's cell phone rang. It was Leslie (Dani's mother). "He's gone," she said.
Chapter 1 - Probably the most famous of all NHL fights was between Bob Probert and Tie Domi. Arguably the two toughest NHLer's to ever lace em up and ironically they are both from the Windsor area. "Tie Domi was a little fucker, and I figured "Why not?" You know? I didn't have to fight him but I said "Aw fuck, let's go. Give him a chance for the hell of it." - Bob Probert on Tie Domi breaking into the league.
Chapter 2 - The old Olympia was located in a bad part of Detroit towards the end of it existence. "When my dad took Norm and me to games, he'd bring his little snub nosed .38. He'd drive across the border with it in his belt. He'd whip open his coat, show his badge and say "I'm going to the game." When we walked to the car after the game he'd have it in his hand, dangling at his side. - Bob Probert on his Dad.
Chapter 3 - Bob gets his first taste of booze at fourteen...and likes it. " I wondered what that tastes like? So I opened one (beer) and knocked it down. Nothing happened. I had another, and another. After drinking about five of them I started getting a buzz, then it really kicked in. I was like Wow, this is pretty neat. But I knew I had better get to my bedroom before someone saw me staggering and falling down." Bob Probert
Chapter 4 - Bob tells the story of Todd Francis taking a shit on the hood of Shane Corson's brand new Z28!"
"So many guys were doing it - banging land-ladies. It's still happening today...I told my wife, Dani, this story and she said "Can we billet a couple of Spitfires next year." Bob Probert.
Chapter 5 - Bob talks about one of his first big bouts with Ken Baumgartner while playing with the OHL Soo Greyhounds. "You motherfucker, as soon as we get out (penalty box), were gonna go right here! Right here buddy, right here." - Bob Probert
Chapter 6 - Bob tries blow for the first time and is hooked. "He handed me a rolled-up bill and I did some lines. It was an instant love. Oh yeah. I had been kind of slurring a little bit from drinking, but all of a sudden, I wasn't as messed up. And it gave me this energy. I felt like Superman. It was just like WOW! This is awsome."
Chapter 7 - For those of us who lived in Windsor and were into the bar scene at the time we heard all the stories of Bob getting into trouble, bar fights, cops, you name it. "In October 1986, I was sentenced to two years probation for assualting a police office the night I refused to leave Tune-Ups tavern." "That whole year was fun, but I got into a lot of trouble. I was red-flagged at customs, red-flagged with the Windsor Police, and red-flagged with the Wings." - Bob Probert
Chapter 8 - "I had a philosophy when a guy took a dive on me. Next time, you won't need to be diving, because it's really going to hurt." - Bob Probert
Chapter 9 - "Probe, I've had it with you. You don't wash your underwear. You're eating a hamburger, you're not taking this serious, and I've just had it." - Red Wings Assistant Coach Colin Campbell.
Chapter 10 - While holed up in the Relax Plaza in Windsor because he was suspended by the Wings and the US Government pulled his visa Bob meets his soul mate Dani Wood. "It wasn't so bad because it was full of beautiful girls, especially the blonde at the front desk named Dani. I kept looking at her. She was incredibly hot-drop dead gorgeous, actually. I called up my buddy , Dino Rossi, and said I've fallen in love and found the girl I'm going to marry, and it turned out to be true."
Chapter 11 - Bob goes into complete details of the night he got busted at the Windsor/Detroit Tunnel with 14.2 grams of Blow. "On September 26, 1989, at 2 PM I was sentenced to six months in jail by U.S. District Judge Patrick J. Duggan." - Bob Probert
Chapter 12 - Bob tells the story of how gave Sheldon Kennedy his nick name. "I called Sheldon Mo Melly. One time we, were singing the name game, and I had a Mo Melly moment - "Shelly, Shelly, Mo Melly, banana-fana, bo-belly, fee-fie-fo-Felly. Shelly" I mean we would laugh all the time I would wake him up by jumping on his bed at like five in the morning. "Wake up Mo Melly! Wake up, Mo Melly! Let's go (water) skiing!"
Chapter 13 - Bob's legal battles continue from his tunnel bust and they're starting to weigh on him. "I was feeling pretty stressed about the whole deportation issue. Our first game in Canada was October 13, and I was refused permission to cross the border (back into his own country) to play. Then the Immigration and Naturalization Service sent me a letter ordering me to turn myself in - they wanted to put me back in jail until my appeal went to court." - Bob Probert
Chapter 14 - Anybody who ever saw Bob fight knows he was all business and no theatrics. Although Bob liked Tie Domi he didn't care for the show boating and the whole "Heavyweight Belt" nonsense from their bout on February 9, 1992. "I didn't care for that, or the way Domi acted after. I didn't like the way he was building himself up And when people start going to the press and mouthing off, well, that's not cool" - Bob Probert
Chapter 15 - After three and half years of not being able to play a Canadian team due to his immigration issues Bob was finally cleared to cross the border. "On Monday December 7, (1992) James Montgomery, the Director of the INS's Detroit district office, cleared me to travel back and forth across the border, which meant I would be able to play in Toronto two nights later...and I liked playing the Leafs."
Chapter 16 - One of the all-time top fights in hockey was the February 4, 1994 merry-go-round between Bob Probert vs. Marty McSorley. The fight lasted over a minute and a half and Bob tells it from his perspective. "I was just bagged after that one. It was the most tired I had ever been after a fight. When I came off, Mo Melly (Sheldon Kennedy) patted me on the back and said, "You are a fucking machine to pull that out of your ass."
Chapter 17 -Bob tells his side of his departure from the Wings. He says it boiled down to a clerical error that made him a restricted free agent, which opened the flood gates for other teams to make him an offer with the Wings having the option to match it. The entire situation is disclosed including how much money was offered, the contracts and ultimately Bob's move to Chi-town.
Chapter 18 - "Bettman is an asshole. A frikkin asshole. I think he's ruined the game of hockey. He's supposed to be impartial. He's supposed to speak for the good of the league, but in my opinion, he's strictly behind the owners. Those 1996 rule changes are a joke" - Bob Probert
Chapter 19 - Bob parts ways with long time lawyer/agent Pat Ducharme and decides to handle all aspects of his NHL contracts. Bob explains monetary and bonus conditions such as body fat %, bike endurance, weight and oxygen consumption. He really shows the business side of hockey in this chapter.
Chapter 20 - "That was it, the game was over, and I was the last guy to score at Maple Leaf Gardens. It was a big thrill for me. One of the top ten best things in my career." - Bob Probert
Chapter 20 - This passage really foreshadows the future to come. "I hope that at my funeral, people who helped me don't go yapping about my problems. Shut up, you know? That's why I am writing my own book, to tell it my way before someone else screws it up."- Bob Probert
Chapter 21- Bob talks about how he beat piss tests by microwaving "clean" urine for 12.5 seconds in order to get it to the correct temperature. "I'd take it out, test the temperature and pour it into a little tube with a stopper. Then I'd stick it inside my pants beside my dick and go and answer the door." - Bob Probert
Chapter 22 - The thoughts of death keep haunting Bob and his premonitions continue to foreshadow. "What was I going to do for the rest of my life? I had reached most of my goals. What was left? And in the back of my mind I couldn't shake the thought that the doctor's weren't telling me everything. I had this feeling something was seriously wrong. I never thought I would live very long anyway. I was thirty-seven. I figured I might have three year left" - Bob Probert.
Chapter 23 - After Bob has retired his wife Dani confronts him about why he still parties so much and asks him if it is something she has done or if Bob is not happy with her. "That shocked the shit out of me. Dani and I were soul mates. Dani had been though the worst with me. She stuck it out and stood by me. She was my lifeline to normalcy." After this Bob wants to enter into rehab...again.
We will continue to pdate this as we make our way through the book.
Chapter 23 - Again, the best thing about this book is Bob's complete honesty. Onother one of Bob's highly publicized run in's with the law was the taser incident down in Florida on June 4 , 2004. Bob explains how much fun it was getting tasered three times. "It did get into the news that I tried to flood the toilet at the jail, but that's not what happened. When they tasered me the third time I shit my pants. So when they booked me and put me in a cell, I tried to wash out my shorts and the bowl flooded." Bob was eventually found not guilty on the original charges.
Chapter 24 - In July and August of 2005 Bob was arrested two more times. Once was an incident at his home and the other was in downtown Windsor after partying at the Windsor Bluesfest. Ironically this was the fist time I met Bob when we were both backstage at Bluesfest that very night. He explains what happened later on that night and the consequences. "That twenty dollars worth of coke cost me twenty grand. Paying Pat Ducharme to defend me again, cost me $14,000, and I got fined and put back into a rehabilitation diversion program for the rest. - Bob Probert
Chapter 25 -In 2006 Bob is starting to get his life back on track. His kids are getting older and he cannot hide his lifestyle from them anymore. After a breaking a vital commitment he made, Bob's daughter wrote a letter to him that changed his mindset "I couldn't get that letter out of my mind. I always wanted to be a hero to my kids." - Bob Probert
Chapter 26 - Bob made two trips to Afghanistan to support the troops. While on his second trip he begins to realize how important his family is to him and how he has been living his life. "We phoned a bunch of families, and then I called Dani and the kids. Hearing their voices kind of choked me up. She and the kids were safe. I had to go all the way to fucking Afghanistan before I finally understood, that is what it's all about." - Bob Probert
"Tough Guy" leaves us on July 1, 2010 with Bob describing a boat outing to Peche Island with his family, laughing, joking around and watching his kids play in the water. "It was a perfect day." Four days later, Bob would be gone.
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