Head Injury Wednesday
Posted by BMT on November 18th, 2009
After discussing the issue of concussions and the long-term damage done to football players like Brian Westbrook, we thought we’d extend the conversation to hockey. As the Dave Schultz celebration at Monday’s Flyers game reminded us, South Broad St. has been the headquarters for brain damage in the NHL for the past 30+ years. Hits like the one Mike Richards applied to David Booth of the Florida Panthers are exactly the kinds of things the NHL needs to cut down on. We’re not going to say the hit was overtly dirty (though Richards did receive a game misconduct for intent to injure) but it certainly was borderline. Either way, what was going on in Mike Richards’ mind is immaterial compared to what was/was not going on in David Booth’s as he lay on the ice.
As in the case of football, hitting is an integral part of the game of hockey. The NHL deserves credit for making strides to protect its players and the integrity of its product by slowly enacting rule changes that reward skill play as opposed to the style of hockey that was on display at the Spectrum in the 70′s. But more needs to be done.
Hits like the Richards one and the hit on Chris Drury by Chris Neil from a few years back are examples of plays that are not blatantly dirty but still have devastating effects on the recipients. Taking the hitting out of hockey is the last thing we’d advocate. And again we’re not necessarily saying Richards’ hit was dirty, but going forward hits like the one Richards delivered should be punished in a draconian fashion. Players initiating contact with an opponent’s head using their shoulder or any part of their arms should be suspended 10 games for a first offense.
The beauty of contact sports is the gracefulness that exists in the context of violence and chaos. This will always be the reason people watch and play games like hockey and football and why boxing is the “sweet science.” But there has to be a limit in terms of what players of all ages are allowed to endure for the sake of theirs and our entertainment. Continuing to condone and facilitate what we now know to be life-threatening violence for the sake of amusement says a lot about who we are as a society. And while these elements of risk will always be inherent in our more ferocious sporting endeavors, we have a responsibility to the participants and to our own social fabric to limit the amount of damage that is done.
November 19th, 2009 at 3:39 pm
I don’t think sports can legislate in slow motion. And that is what I fear we’re heading towards. The d-back who is supposed to stop in mid-air as a receiver’s trajectory changes as he is hit by another player gets suspended. The skater who has to anticipate the unexpected turn of an opponent’s head when he’s 1/10th of a second away. It can’t be anticipated and certainly shouldn’t be punished.
November 19th, 2009 at 4:46 pm
What you say is all true about the way things happen in sports. So much of it is instinctive and decisions and outcomes are determined in fractions of seconds. The problem overall is that we now know what happens to athletes when their heads are traumatized. Weighing that against the competitive nature of the game is a difficult yet necessary endeavor.
To say that the outcome of something like the Richards hit “can’t be anticipated” is simply false. Richards anticipated delivering a huge blow to Booth well before the impact as he lowered his shoulder and had a good 10 feet of ice to cover as he came in on Booth. Booth certainly could have done a better job protecting himself but in the end, he laid on the ice unconscious because of a very intentional decision made by Mike Richards.
I don’t know if making sweeping changes in sports is the right thing to do but we should at least be honest about what’s going on: for every season the leagues decide to allow these things to happen, countless players will endure serious head trauma. That is the reality as is our growing knowledge of what that trauma does to a person. I guess leaving things be or not “legislating in slow motion” means we’re ok with having our ex-players walking around with absurdly high rates of mental illness, something that in several instances has resulted in lethal harm to themselves and others.