The lawyer for Al Sobotka,the popular Detroit Red Wings Zamboni driver fired for peeing in a drain, said he’s struggling to deal with how his five-decade career has ended.
“Al is devastated by this,” Deb Gordon told the Free Press on Wednesday. “He thought this was his family. It was his family since he was 17. He’s been with the Red Wings for 50 years. It was so important to him. It appears to me he’s just been unceremoniously dumped.”
Sobotka does not dispute the event on Feb. 2 that led to his dismissal — in fact, he admitted to peeing in the Zamboni garage at Little Caesars Arena — and, according to the lawsuit filed against Olympia Entertainment in Wayne County Circuit Court on Tuesday, told his employers he has been dealing with benign prostatic hypertrophy, which causes a frequent and uncontrollable need to urinate.
More: Ex-Detroit Red Wings Zamboni driver Al Sobotka fired for peeing into drain
“He didn’t know there was anybody else in there,” Gordon said. “He parked the Zamboni and dumped the ice. He has a urinary problem, and had an urgency. He was behind the machines and urinated. We believe it was somebody he worked with who decided to report it.
“Before he was fired, he told (his bosses) about his medical condition. He admitted it right away.”
Sobotka’s legal team argues that Olympia Entertainment has discriminated against Sobotka on the basis of his age (68) and disability.
“Al is utterly devastated,” Gordon said. “I’ve represented a lot of people that have been fired, but this isn’t a situation where he can find another job. There will be nothing comparable to his 51 years with the Wings. He’s 68. He’s lost his career, one of the huge loves of his live, his community, his friends, the fans he interacted with. Everything about his life with the Wings will never be repeated.
“It’s bizarre. He wishes the team extremely well. It’s a sad way for him to end a really great career. The Wings have lost probably their most loyal employee.”
The Free Press has reached out to the team for comment on the lawsuit, but has not received a response.
Gordon said multiple former and current Wings players have reached out to him, “including from Russia.”
Sobotka was in his element in the late 1990s and early aughts, when the Russian Five (Sergei Fedorov, Igor Larionov, Vyacheslav Kozlov, Vladimir Konstantinov and Slava Fetisov) helped the Wings end a 42-year drought and bring the Stanley Cup back to Detroit. Sobotka became the most famous Zamboni driver in the NHL when he started twirling the octopi he’d collect after fans hurled the creatures on the ice.
To have it end like this — a week-long suspension, a meeting with his boss and human resources, and then, on Feb. 17, the news he’d been fired — has been hard to digest.
“If they were so upset about him urinating in the drain, it’s too bad they could not have allowed for a more gracious ending to his career,” Gordon said. “They put him off for a week, never questioned him, and then he was out. Why — what’s the reason for that? Tell the guys six more months, let him take a victory lap.’
“It was in private space. Where is the harm?”
The lawsuit notes Sobotka had “excellent performance” records through 51 years of employment. Sobotka is seeking damages for lost wages, and emotional distress damages.
Contact Helene St. James at hstjames@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @helenestjames. Read more on the Detroit Red Wings and sign up for our Red Wings newsletter. Her book, The Big 50: The Detroit Red Wings is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Triumph Books. Personalized copies available via her e-mail.