“Former Detroit Red Wing Bob Probert is passed out on a couch, wrapped in a blanket, a man struggling with addiction, as his children come down the stairs.
“Good morning!” Dani Probert, his wife, says sweetly to the children. “Merry Christmas!”
The kids bounce around the Christmas tree and look at the presents. As the children approach their father, once named the greatest enforcer in the NHL, Dani says in the background: “I wouldn’t get too close.”
It is painful to watch — a raw, honest look at a man with flaws and demons, who had bounced in and out of rehab centers. Probert rolls on his side and looks totally out of it, his eyes closed, as his kids celebrate Christmas.
The heart-breaking scene was captured in a home movie that is included in a new documentary, “Tough Guy: The Bob Probert Story,” which will premier in his hometown, Windsor, Ontario, on Dec.13 (it is sold out).”
“When the movie fades to black, your eyes fill with tears and you are left with a mix of complex emotions. Sadness. Frustration. Emptiness. And a horrible ache.
For his family.”
