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Report: Uber driver leaked secret Senators video because he wasn't tipped

chase kell


UPDATE: The Ottawa Citizen has rejected the Senators’ request to take down the secret Uber video, which captured several players criticizing the team and coaching staff without their consent.

“The public interest in the Senators as an organization extends beyond the team’s performance on the ice,” said Michelle Richardson, Editor-In-Chief of the Ottawa Citizen, in a statement.

ORIGINAL STORY: Two days after a secret video featuring several Ottawa Senators players ripping their team and coaching staff was released to the public, we have some clarification on how this shocking story came to be.

The Uber driver was reportedly angered over a lack of a tip, according to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman. He began shopping the video to various reporters via Twitter, writing that the players — Matt Duchene, Thomas Chabot, Alex Formenton, Dylan DeMelo, Colin White, Chris Tierney and Chris Wideman — were “cheap entitled kids.”

Friedman goes on to note that the Ottawa Citizen story that accompanied the video was published with a staff byline, an indication that none of the Citizen’s reporters were interested in writing the story despite the fact that the newspaper clearly was.

Seven Ottawa Senators players were secretly recorded criticizing their team in an Uber.
Seven Ottawa Senators players were secretly recorded criticizing their team in an Uber.

And as we learn more about this story, the Ottawa Senators have already begun to take action. The team has reportedly demanded that the Citizen take down the secretly recorded video, according to the CBC.

Lawyers representing the team reportedly sent a letter to the Citizen, stating that the video was recorded and posted on the newspaper’s website without the players’ consent. The letter, addressed to the Citizen’s editor-in-chief, says the video isn’t a matter of “genuine public interest” and is a clear violation of the players’ privacy.

Seeing as YouTube has already pulled the video from its site, the lawyers are demanding that the Citizen do the same. Nicolas Ruszkowski, the Senators chief operating officer, says the team is aiming to protect their players’ reputations by ensuring that they are not “impaired by voyeuristic journalism.”

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