You may already be sick of hearing about the Ubergate story coming from Ottawa, but we don’t seem even close to this saga coming to an end following this latest report from the Ottawa Citizen.
As you know, a viral video released earlier this week, several players of the Ottawa Senators openly joked about their penalty-killing abilities, mocked one of their coaches, Martin Raymond, and laughed at the ineffectiveness of special-team meetings in a candid video from their Uber car ride during a team’s road trip. The video — since taken down — appears to have been shot in Phoenix on Oct. 29 or 30 during the team’s western road swing. While forward Mark Stone revealed that the team was aware of the video before it went viral, it does not change the fact that head coach Guy Boucher feels embarrassed by its content and takes it personal.
“Marty Raymond, the only coach in NHL history to have the worst power-play and the worst PK within a calendar year,” says Sens forward Matt Duchene, in reference to Martin Raymond, an assistant coach in charge of the team’s penalty-killing this year and power-play last season.
“Here’s the other thing, too. We don’t change anything, ever. So why do we even have a meeting? I haven’t paid attention in three weeks.”
Since then, the players involved, Thomas Chabot, Dylan DeMelo, Matt Duchene, Alex Formenton, Chris Tierney, Chris Wideman, and Colin White issued a statement to apologize to Raymond and the rest of the team for their comments.
On Friday, it was revealed that James Sparklin, the Uber driver who posted the video ,wasn’t in the “right state of mind” when he was putting the video up on YouTube.
Speaking to the Ottawa Citizen’s Kelly Egan, Sparklin expressed regret for what he did, calling his decision to out the video up “the dumbest decision” of his life, but also attempted to defend his actions.
The driver also revealed to Egan the reason why he chose to post the video, saying he wasn’t prepared for a seven-person passenger pick-up and was concerned his $1-million liability coverage wouldn’t be enough.
“What really upset me the most was, if I were to get in an accident, I don’t believe the insurance would cover it,” Sparklin told Egan. “The million-dollar policy would go very fast.”
While Sparklin admitted he did not recognize any of the players, he says he wanted to show other drivers the behaviour of his high-profile passengers the stress they caused him and so that’s why he opted to post the now infamous video while he was in an intoxicated state.
However, now, he is paying the price, as he has been widely criticized and also was fired from being an Uber driver under conditions that he had violed their terms of service after being one for the past two and a half years.
“I didn’t think about my actions at all. I wasn’t trying to get money or anything like that. I got contacted and took it down right away.”
“I’m worried about my name getting out. My life being ruined and my children.”
