OT: Red Wings fired Al Sobodka for peeing into drain
I mean who hasn't urinated in a drain. No link because freep.
Ex-Detroit Red Wings Zamboni driver Al Sobotka fired for peeing into drain
A lawsuit has laid bare the reason Al Sobotka no longer drives a Zamboni for the Detroit Red Wings: He got caught peeing into a drain and was seen by another employee.
Sobotka's lawyers state in the case filed in Wayne County Circuit Court that Sobotka's rights were violated under Michigan's Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act, arguing that Sobotka was discriminated against on the basis of his age (68) and disability.
According to the lawsuit, Sobotka has been diagnosed with benign prostatic hypertrophy, which causes a frequent and uncontrollable need to urinate.
On Feb. 2, Sobotka drove one of the Zamboni machines into its garage at Little Caesars Arena after cleaning the ice at the main rink. Sobotka, according to the lawsuit, experienced at uncontrollable urge to urinate. The nearest facility was 60-70 feet away, so instead, Sobotka used one of the drains that lead into a sewer, designed to handle the ice runoff from Zamboni machines. The area is closed to the public, and access limited to the all-male ice crew.
Sobotka was urinating between two Zambonis when he was seen by a male employee.
Two days later, Sobotka was called into a meeting with his supervisor and a human resources representative. Initially suspended for a week, Sobotka was terminated Feb. 17.
It's amazing this is even a lawsuit. 99% of employment disputes are handled through arbitration.
Imagine being the douche that ran straight to management and tattled on Sobotka. I bet he was from Ohio.
You do realize that this is only Al's side of the story right? Lets see what the other side is, this could be a situation where he's been warned or had a history of doing some sketch sh!t and this was the final straw/ or not. Of course his own lawsuit would not mention that.
Eagerly awaiting the other side of the coin. We knew there was something behind his firing and I have a feeling there is more.
I have a feeling the Red Wings are going to say he was caught jacking off.
Let's all hope we're still jacking off at work at age 68.
Surprised we haven’t had a thread about jacking off at work, given some of the topics that have arisen on the blog.
I would have made one but I was busy at work and didn’t have a hand free.
When you've gotta go, you've gotta go.
that's lame. give Al his job back and fire the dude who snitched.
Never drain into a drain.
And never cross the streams.
Alright, important safety tip, thanks Egon.
In the old Joe Louis, you used to piss next to 10 other dudes in a trough. Times are a changin'.
"IT'S ALL PIPES, WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE?!"
I'm surprised this story wasn't leaked earlier.
He was 60-70ft from a bathroom? Must be a nightmare to sit next to on roadtrips
Well, it's not like they get last ice cleaner change on the road.
This is Sobotka's side of the story, so of course it's going to sound like a lame reason he got fired. You don't file a wrongful termination lawsuit and include a list of terrible things you did on the job to get fired.
I don't know when the Red Wings' side of the story will come out, but I expect we'll find one of two things will be true:
- Sobotka did more things and/or worse things that led to his firing.
- Drain peeing is the full story and the Wings are dumb.
The earlier thread on this topic (when the story first broke) contains some smoke pointing towards #1.
Yeah, what if he was shaking it for an hour after he finished urinating?
Either way, this thing is about #1.
This seems weak. Clearly they were looking for a reason to fire him. Unless he'd been warned many times and this was the final straw. You can't have some old man going around peeing everywhere, but the toilet.
Speaking as an old man I can tell you first hand that the problem isnt finding the toilet the problem is finishing up the job when you're at the toilet.
I figured out once that I've probably pissed about 150,000 times or so in my lifetime so that's a LOT of muscle-memory at work. And for the first 140,000 or so the process was pretty straightforward. I'd stand at the urinal, unzip my pants, pull my dick out, piss till my bladder was empty and then my brain would tell my hands to put my dick back in my pants. Simple.
Now that I'm north of 60 my muscle memory works perfectly but the communication path between my brain, my bladder, my dick and my hands does not always work as it should. Bladder sends message to brain "we're done down here - you can put the dick back in pants now" but dick and bladder conspire to send a message "not so fast, we got just a little more" immediately afterwards. Which leads to some unfortunate complications afterwards.
Now I KNOW this can and does happen with some regularity but remembering this and overcoming the 150,000 time plus muscle memory before it happens can be a challenge.
Hilarious.
diary worthy....
Yeah I could do a whole diary on the stuff nobody tells you about as you get old(er). I mean everyone knows about the blue pill and why that's needed sometimes but does anyone talk about the fact that your toenails crack and break constantly? And that every morning some random part of your body will hurt like hell for no reason whatsover when you wake up?
The last three days, for example, my right sholder hurts like hell so i've been pounding Advil & Tylinol to deaded the pain. What did I do to injur it? No clue - didnt lift anyting really heavy so maybe I suffered a sleep injury - again, I have no idea.
But as my now deseased father used to say when people asked him "How's it feel to be 80 Bruce?" he'd answer "It sucks but it beats the hell out of the alternative."
Or my Dad's favorite line: "It's better to be seen than viewed....."
My Dad's favorite line about getting old: "You get to the point where sex takes a back seat to a good bowel movement."
At 25, I thought he was out of his friggin' mind. But at 61 ...
Luckily I don't have the issues with toenails but I can attest to the weird, random body aches and pains that don't seem connected to anything that I've done. It's like I've been abducted by aliens for three hours while I'm asleep and they don't bother probing me, they just use me for a punching bag.
One thing that keeps me from feeling sorry for myself is watching my FIL deal with being 97. He doesn't have any cognitive problems (thank God) but he's continually appalled by the decline of his body. He's had multiple falls where he literally can't get up to his feet by himself. I think it's more than a little humiliating for him to be so weak.
Hey, I'm 55. I don't want to hear this shit. I'm too close, man. Too close...
Just wait till you're 69. A big box of fun.
2069, bones.
avatars don't lie...
It doesn't improve after 69 ...
April 21st, 2022 at 12:18 AM ^
I'm only 46 but I just pissed myself reading this comment. Is it a good sign that I emptied my bladder completely, or a bad sign that I couldn't make it to the nearest drain, I mean toilet, before relieving myself?
Depends.
Underrated comment of the day! 😁
Seems harsh but I've seen rumors that his co-workers thought he had to go even before he went.
I've seen rumors that his co-workers thought he had to go even before he went.
Are you talking about the firing or the pissing? Because the latter would be really, really awkward....
I had the same question. I was trying to imagine people in the organization sitting at desks near his over the years, occasionally whispering, "Hey, he's looking rather anxious now. I bet he has to go..."
"Are you gonna tell him?"
"No way, man. I told him this morning. It's your turn. Better tell him quick. And whatever you do, keep him away from the drain between the Zambonis."
"Why?"
"Trust me."
Dude is from a different generation. Back in the 80s it was common to see dudes peeing in the sinks, on the floor, anywhere in the bathrooms that wasn't the toilet/troughs at Tiger Stadium/Palace/JLA/Silverdome.
Al used to be with it. Then they changed what it was.
and it will happen to you
No way man! I'm going to to keep rocking forever.
FOREVER
Forever
Forever
One of the exciting aspects of peeing in the old Michigan Stadium and Tiger Stadium troughs was when some drunk stumbled in next to you and then proceeded to spray uncomfortably close to your shoes.
Or that time I froze up at the trough and stood there uncomfortably for ten minutes as people came and went from the line.
My best pissing at M Stadium story is the Nebraska game when they honored Lloyd and there was a blackout. I had to go anyway and was pissing in complete darkness with metaphorically crossed fingers that I wasn't crossing something else.
This reminds me of my favorite Silverdome story. Lions / Bucs, sometime when Barry was having an amazing game in the early / mid 90s. Bathroom is packed during a timeout and a guy comes barreling in, yells "sinks are open" and starts pissing in the sink. My friend and I still talk about that almost 30 years later.