He decided on the mixed green salad with basil vinaigrette, was sipping a Coke and had been chatting for 30 minutes while overlooking the 18th hole at the TPC Scottsdale from the patio at The Grill before he was interrupted and discovered.
"Are you a Coyote?" asked a nearby patron, a cigar-wielding Canadian man who had taken a break from searching for property in Scottsdale to lunch with his wife.
"New Coyote," Mike Ribeiro clarified.
It was unusual that he was spotted and identified as a hockey player.
The crisp white shirt with perfect creases through the sleeves, a Louis Vuitton belt and Gucci sandals — not to mention the white Bentley parked in the front lot — suggest the wealth of a professional athlete, and yet Ribeiro is more likely to be confused for an underground rap star than the Coyotes' new prized centerman.
But Ribeiro is a bundle of contradictions — dripping in six tattoos that are mostly portraits of his children.
The 33-year-old with the bad-boy reputation, public intoxication arrest and two-karat diamond stud in his left ear, a rock that was previously nestled in his wife's engagement ring, also speaks three languages, enjoys painting and drawing and watches Good Luck Charlie on the Disney Channel with his 7-year-old daughter Viktoria whom Ribeiro wanted to name Viktoria Star.
His wife politely declined.
Humble beginnings
Much like he performs on the ice, Ribeiro is difficult to solve. And he's completely comfortable living behind a curtain of smoke and mirrors because those who matter know the truth.
"People are always going to talk," Ribeiro said. "It doesn't matter how I'm going to dress or not, they're still going to find ways to find something negative. If you're listening to that, you're just wasting your life.
"I'd rather just let people talk. People are always going to talk. Thick skin — you have to have it. If it affects you, they get the best of you."
The self-made All-Star has had this philosophy for much of his life because adversity has been the norm.
He grew up in downtown Montreal with two older sisters and Portuguese immigrant parents.
His dad, Alberto, was a concierge. His mom, Maria Estralla, worked in manufacturing.
Ribeiro spoke Portuguese with his parents and learned French in school. Girlfriends and episodes of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air taught him English.
"I didn't have parents to help me do homework," he said. "So it was harder for me in school to keep up."
Growing up in a townhouse that was immersed in the city's nightlife hub led to questionable decisions that would plague his personal and professional life into his 30s.
He hung out with troublemakers, stayed out late in parks and sneaked into bars at 15.
"Instead of playing Legos, I used to go out," Ribeiro said.
Ribeiro considered his family poor, but he still played hockey and emerged as a goal scorer. Eventually, rival coaches would have one player trail Ribeiro the entire game. He started to pass the puck to his teammates, and playmaking became his strongest skill.
Video: http://bcove.me/d91znf4h
Even so, Ribeiro's potential was discredited. Coaches and scouts called him too small and too slow.
"I didn't care," he said. "I took it more to motivate me."
That worked out well for Ribeiro. He was drafted 45th overall in 1998 by the hometown Canadiens.
A year later, he met his wife, Tamara, in a Montreal bar. Seven months later, they were pregnant with their first child, a son named Mikael.
"If I didn't have my son, I don't know if I'd be here right now," Ribeiro said. "If I didn't have (Tamara) when I started, 20, 21, 22, I might have ended up somewhere else. They kept me on a straighter path but with small zigzags in it."
Arrest and a new start
Even with a son and Tamara, who married Ribeiro three years after Mikael was born, Ribeiro still couldn't shake the party lifestyle.
Ribeiro certainly delivered on the ice, but it was his off-ice behavior that was grabbing headlines. What was once a childhood dream had curdled into unwanted attention.
"It's always who can come out with the best story, and most of the time the best story is the negative story," Ribeiro said.
In September 2006, Ribeiro was traded to the Dallas Stars. The change in scenery helped, somewhat. Ribeiro had another son, Noah, who's now 8, before welcoming Viktoria a year later. And his public profile shrunk.
"If you wanted to go have a beer, no one cared," Ribeiro said.
But he was arrested in October 2010 for public intoxication. And after eight years of marriage, Ribeiro and Tamara divorced.
It wasn't until another change of address, this time to the Washington Capitals, that Ribeiro was able to rebuild his family.
He and Tamara remarried last summer.
"Yeah, I changed. I matured," he said. "But geez, it's hard. The life that I lived in my 20s and having a kid and deal with girls after you, it's hard. It's a hard life."
And it's that struggle that has perpetuated the conflicting images of Ribeiro.
The popular misconception is "my attitude, maybe," he said. "That I'm just a douche, I guess. Then they come to know me, and I'm really funny and I joke around and sarcastic jokes. I really like to relax and just enjoy my day."
But untangling fact from fiction isn't easy, especially when what you see isn't always what you get with Ribeiro.
He loves Prada and sport jackets and watches that cost six figures but donates his children's toys once they've ignored them for two months.
He shared his rags-to-riches biography at a golf course when he can barely stand nine holes because he'd rather spend the time at the lake with his kids.
And he's arrived in the desert, of all places, to perform on ice.
"It's great," he said. "It's a great life we have."
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