Bob Probert was cuffed with his hands behind his back. He was
facedown on the ground with a cop's knee on his neck. Probert told
him he was probably the fat kid in school that was always picked
on, and that's why he became a cop. Probert's face was a mess after
that comment. The worst part was that the cop took his $600
sunglasses.
Tough Guy is the no nonsense expose that's part Animal House and
part Slap Shot. This is a story of a time in sports that is so
different from today that it's hard to believe that it was only a
couple decades ago. Probert was such a hard party machine that he
would stay out all night, till 7 A.M. dress for practice and play
that night. He was a smoker. He microwaved his urine to fool the
testers into thinking it had just come out of his body and yet he
occupies some interesting spots in the record books.
The book opens with an emotional narrative of that last day of
Probert's life. Kirstie McLellan Day stirs the emotional soup by
quickly shifting the book to Probert's voice and taking us back in
time to a fight with Tie Domi. Probert tells us of Domi's first
shot at fighting him, filling the page with four letter words, you
are suddenly jolted out of the opening passage of the book. You
know you are in Probie's world now.
Probert's ability to party was stunning; it's amazing he had time
for hockey. An example of Probert's thought process: when meeting
the press with fellow draft pick, Steve Yzerman, Probert assessed
him as "fairly serious...and not someone you would expect to be
sitting next to in a jail cell, laughing off a hangover."
But he did have time for hockey. In the 1988 Playoffs he broke
Gordie Howe's playoff record of 21 points. Probert held that record
until 1995. Probie's chapter about his friendship with Sheldon
Kennedy is particularly heart warming. It was his first really
successful attempt at staying clean after a major scrape with the
law.
Probert said he was most happy when he was playing and fighting.
The thing you will see over and over with fighters is pride. That
blue collar ethic applied to their job as the enforcer, the man
that provides protection. Probert was no different when it came to
protecting his guys off the ice. In an incident at a bar, Probert
engaged in a street fight to defend a teammate. After the fight he
went back in the bar to have a couple more beers before going into
the emergency room to get stitched up.
Bob Probert was clearly a troubled man. He struggled with
priorities and even as he looked back on his life he alternately
took responsibility and dodged it throughout the book. Two things
kept Probert on the straight and narrow, the game and his family.
And he did manage to keep clean, now and then. It's a crazy ride
through the life of a hard partying and hard hitting hockey player.