Jeff Dubay gets fired from his podcast

While very rarely does anyone deserve to be fired, when it does happen at least have the decency to handle the event with some grace. Jeff Dubay, though, obviously never learned that part of how to handle getting fired and with this rant on his now-deleted Facebook page has seemingly managed to blacklist himself in the Twin Cities media.

"Sean Barnard informed me today that he was terminating the agreement for me to be part of the Tom Barnard network. When pressed on the matter Sean said if I passed a drug test he would allow me to continue. This was as insulting as it was unw...arranted.Nonetheless I went to Walgreen's and purchased a test at my own expense, knowing I had nothing to hide. I returned home and phoned Sean to tell him I have met his demands and was ready to take the test and would wait for him if he wanted to witness it. He then went into a new set of conditions that included me going to a clinic and getting an expensive test at my own expense and missing my show on the evening of 4/18. A shouting match ensued as I now saw that I was being given a run around and the rules were changing all the time. Sean hung up and refused my calls, referring me to his attorney."

As a bit of background, Dubay had been fired from his dream gig on KFAN-AM 1130 in 2008 after an arrest for possession of Crack Cocaine. Following his conviction and time served in jail, he entered treatment and bounced around  in different treatment programs before announcing that he had kicked his addiction in his own way and was now clean. Dubay resurfaced at KSTP-AM 1500 as co-host of another sports talk show in 2013 but was let go due to budgetary issues early in 2014. He again managed to land on his feet with his own podcast bankrolled by KQRS-FM morning drive personality Tom Barnard.

As you can see from the above excerpt, Dubay seems to have a grudge against Tom Barnard's nephew, Sean Barnard. While nobody will likely ever know the full truth of the reasons behind the demands made by Sean Barnard, the way in which Jeff Dubay handled his exit from the Tom Barnard network  makes me feel that Dubay has other issues that go deeper than simply a grudge. His previous drug use and addiction sends up immediate warning flags that he may have again slipped back into using drugs. The other possibility is mental illness. Dubay has a history of anger issues and while anger itself isn't a mental illness, his history of drug addiction and sometimes bizarre on-air behavior seems to somewhat fall in line with the behavior of someone struggling with mental illness.

I hope that he has a support system -- mainly family who cares about him -- because a string of bad luck like Jeff Dubay has experienced this year could easily trigger a relapse into the world of drug abuse if he hasn't already relapsed. Or maybe Dubay is telling the honest truth in the only way he knows how. We'll probably never know.