Colorado Avalanche: Facing Concussions in Modern Hockey
Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports
The Colorado Avalanche, like every other team in the NHL, is facing issues with concussions. The year is 2015. There are no more excuses for ignorance.
Science and medicine have caught up to our favorite pastimes. What they’ve found is unsettling.The facts about what happens to the human brain when it smashes against the front of the skull repeatedly are all out there for the world to examine. And it’s worse than we thought.
In fact, it’s really, really bad, and we need to rush now to figure out how we can stop millions more brains from being permanently dismantled by the highest pedigree in popular sports. Are we really ready to accept the facts? Where do we even begin to address concussions and brain disease in the realm of modern athletics, particularly hockey?
Mile High Sticking editor Nadia Archuleta and I are attempting to take on a behemoth of an issue in this post — how concussions are changing the present and future landscape of sports. We’re unearthing the past. It’s a tough process because the subject matter is so vast.
The more you scratch at the world of concussions in hockey and the medicine being closely examined behind it, the more you find out that the information is seriously under-broadcasted and frightening.
I’m not an alarmist. So, I have no intention of stirring up any air raid sirens on the issue, quite frankly, because I’m still forming an opinion on this subject matter myself. The information presents a complex atmosphere.
The following slides in Mile High Sticking’s investigation into the world of brain trauma in hockey and modern sports in general don’t really have a definitive beginning, middle and end. As much as I would like to write an article examining a profound issue that I can magically tie into a solution with a neat bow at the end – that’s not how this is going to work.
Because concussions aren’t simple. The science is complex and evolving, but what’s more complicated is how we’re going to adapt now that the information is readily accessible and there’s no excuse for ignorance anymore.
Nadia Archuleta, resident editor and avid historian of the Colorado Avalanche will join the discussion, putting the microscope about brain trauma in sports directly over our favorite team. It’s a painful road to walk, but things need to change soon.
So, before we even begin, we need to look at the first piece of news that fans have gotten wind of in the last few months. I warn you – it’s unsettling. The ramifications of all this new information cuts deep. It gets into the roots of what makes the sports we like enjoyable. There’s also an incredible amount of information.
As fans, we kind of owe it to the players we adore to become aware of the dangers of the professions they take on – so we can process their excellence in context. Modern sports are hard and violent, and the skill that our favorite players exhibit for us – what is needed to perform as they do — is requisite knowledge toward appreciating their greatness.
Here are twenty-something things you should know about concussions in modern sports. To start, we need to examine a different league — the National Football League.
Next: 96%
Dec 31, 2014; Glendale, AZ, USA; Arizona Wildcats safety Jared Tevis (38) walks off of the field after suffering an injury during the first half against the Boise State Broncos in the 2014 Fiesta Bowl at Phoenix Stadium. The Broncos won 38-30. Mandatory Credit: Casey Sapio-USA TODAY Sports
96%
A series of new studies from the Department of Veteran Affairs and Boston University set out to examine post mortem brain tissue of former high school, college and professional football players for signs of degradation and disease due to football-related contact with the head, specifically concussions. The results are staggering.
Out of the 165 brains examined, 131 showed evidence of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), a progressive degenerative disease found in athletes that suffered repeated head trauma. That’s 79%. When reducing the study down to former NFL players only, 87 of 91 all showed signs of CTE. That’s 96%.
When I first read about the study, my first thought as a fan of ice hockey was: if 96% of former football players showed signs of CTE and permanent degenerative disease from repeated contact to the head inducing trauma to the brain – then what’s the percentage of hockey players suffering from the same?
And then I thought: 96%?! That’s almost all of them? How did THAT happen? Did they all have one great big really nasty collision to the head which caused them to have lingering brain injuries? Or maybe it wasn’t.
Maybe they all suffered from a million “little to medium” sized head injuries, and the net result has been so particularly awful because of the cumulative affect.
Next: Linebacker Duties
Oct 4, 2015; Denver, CO, USA; Denver Broncos strong safety David Bruton (30) and Denver Broncos linebacker Shane Ray (56) tackles Minnesota Vikings running back Jerick McKinnon (31) in the fourth quarter at Sports Authority Field at Mile High. The Broncos defeated the Vikings 23-20. Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports
Linebacker Duties in the NHL
And being truthful after digging into it some? It’s pretty hard to tell. Imagine you’re a middle linebacker in the NFL. Your job is to throw yourself into violent collisions against the humongous player opposite you in an effort to maul the opposing quarterback behind him. You do this for a high percentage of plays.
Doing this, you’re going to knock your helmet against your opposition in violent variations several dozen times during each contest, every week, for however many weeks your team can stay in the hunt.
Maybe the worst brain traumas are indeed the cringe-worthy ones from the big collision variety:
Those certainly can’t be very good to a player’s brain either. So, how DID we arrive at this 96%? Was it lots of small injuries or several really bad ones that disfigure a person’s brain? Already, the landscape around concussions raises more questions than answers.
We need to keep digging.
Next: What's CTE?
What is CTE?
What’s so bad about CTE? Per the researchers at Boston University, the repeated trauma to the head causes a growth of abnormal proteins in the brain called tau.
The buildup of this protein over time (from days to years) leads to brain degeneration which has been linked to memory loss, confusion, impaired judgment, impulse control problems, aggression, depression, and, eventually, progressive dementia.
But that’s not all. There are headaches and migraines. Some last for years and are reportedly completely debilitating. There are a lot of very sad stories about athletes’ lives ruined by concussions, detailed by their horrible long-lasting symptoms. I’m sure, even reading about this, you’ve already recalled a few.
I’m going to quick look at just three players; a football player, a wrestler and a hockey player, that have been seriously impacted by injuries from head trauma. There are many other stories — Nadia will help me tell more than a few — but these are three that really stuck out to me.
Next: The Football Player
THE FOOTBALL PLAYER:
Mike Webster’s death, at age 50, was a gut punch to a generation of football fans across the country who remembered “Iron Mike” from a fifteen-season career with the Pittsburgh Steelers. He was a Hall of Famer. A nine-time Pro Bowler. Four rings. He was a human specimen as an athlete.
His retirement turned messy quickly. Story after story about tragic incidents involving Webster in his personal life came to light and most forgot about him until his death.
GQ did an incredible job documenting the end of Mike Webster’s life after football as an offensive lineman. Mike was a troubled man. He urinated into his oven, squirted super glue onto his rotting teeth, lost all of his money, couldn’t remember anything and spent the last of his days in a truck with a busted window covered by a trash bag.
After his death, doctors, neurologists and scientists would find that his brain had been ruined by CTE.
Next: The Wrestler
THE WRESTLER:
Chris Nowinski was a former football player at Harvard. However, he is better known as a wrestler in the WWE.
Chris Nowinski had a short-lived alliance with a group named Regal. He also had a legendary who beef with Spike Dudley, and he later got into it with that punk Tommy Dreamer.He looked to be making a superstar career in wrestling.
Then Chris Nowinski got kicked in the chin during a match, and everything changed after that. As he told CNN.com:
“I realized when I was visiting a lot of doctors, they weren’t giving me very good answers about what was wrong with my head. I read [every study I could find] and I realized there was a ton of evidence showing concussions lead to depression, and multiple concussion can lead to Alzheimer’s.”
Next: The Hockey Player
THE HOCKEY PLAYER:
If you were as seriously pumped up about the 2011 NHL Winter Classic featuring the Washington Capitals and the Pittsburgh Penguins as I was, you can recall that Sidney Crosby took an injury during the game:
Former Washington forward David Steckel caught Crosby on his blind side with a big blow to the head. Later, Victor Hedman of the Tampa Bay Lightning would also hit Sidney Crosby in the head.
The rest of the season for Crosby was in shambles. Reports leaked out from Pittsburgh that Crosby had “blackouts” after returning to practice. One of the NHL’s premier players ever was lost for a whole year during the peak of his career.
There had been many profile concussion cases in the NHL to that point about enforcers. However, Crosby’s concussion case was so bad, and it happened to a super star in the league.
Next: Adam Deadmarsh
Colorado Avalanche Adam Deadmarsh
by Nadia Archuleta
When you think Colorado Avalanche greats, names like Peter Forsberg, Joe Sakic and Patrick Roy come easily. Push a little, and you come up with Sandis Ozolinsh, Claude Lemieux and Valeri Kamensky.
It takes a minute, but you might eventually come up with Forsberg’s favored linemate, Adam Deadmarsh, a power forward worthy of being Foppa’s wingman.
Right wing Adam Deadmarsh won the Stanley Cup in that inaugural season in Colorado, 1995-96. He continued to partner Forsberg for several more seasons until getting traded to the Los Angeles Kings.
Playing for the Kings didn’t agree with Deadmarsh, but not because he never got any Cups with them. Not long after the trade, Deadmarsh got into a fight with Vancouver Canuck Ed Jovanovksi:
You should cringe from the very beginning — Deadmarsh starts the fight without a helmet.
Hockey players commonly don’t get concussions during fights, but this one was an exception. Jovanovski knocked Deadmarsh out.
Deadmarsh’s second concussion was even more rare — it resulted from friendly fire. He was practicing with the Kings, he fell, he whacked his head against a teammate’s knee. Bad concussion.
Unfortunately, that would be his career-ending concussion. Compounded with the initial concussion, Deadmarsh’s symptoms still hadn’t gone away after three years.
In September 2005, Adam Deadmarsh had to officially retire from hockey. Deadmarsh said of the decision:
“It’s been the toughest decision I’ve had to make in my life, yet the easiest one. I say that because I’m retiring from a game I love to play and played all my life, but I think three years with symptoms from concussions is a good indicator that it would probably be a smart move to call it quits.”
His last game had been on December 15, 2002.
Next: Jesse Winchester
Sep 22, 2014; Anaheim, CA, USA; Colorado Avalanche center Jesse Winchester (18) moves the puck defended by Anaheim Ducks left wing John Kurtz (41) during the third period at Honda Center. The Anaheim Ducks defeated the Colorado Avalanche 4-0. Mandatory Credit: Kelvin Kuo-USA TODAY Sports
Colorado Avalanche Jesse Winchester
by Nadia Archuleta
On the other end of the spectrum from Adam Deadmarsh, we have center Jesse Winchester. The Colorado Avalanche picked him up as a free agent signing in the summer of 2014.
He has never appeared in a regular season game for the Colorado Avalanche.
During a 2014 preseason game against the Calgary Flames, Jesse Winchester took a hit, and he collided into the boards. It didn’t look bad at the time, but Winchester didn’t clear the concussion protocol.
Winchester started suffering from post-concussion symptoms related to vision. He felt vertigo when in a crowded building — such as the Pepsi Center during hockey games. The symptoms persisted long enough into the season, that the Colorado Avalanche eventually announced he’d miss the whole season. It was hoped a full year off from hockey would allow his brain to heal.
Apparently it did not. Winchester came into training camp looking strong, but his vision problems returned. He’s still on injured reserve.
No one has made any retirement announcements yet. As another season wears on, you’ve got to think it’s only a matter of time, though.
Next: Before Their Prime
Before Their Prime
There are starting to become a lot of guys standing with Sidney Rice, who left football during the peak of his career.
A number of high-profile, promising athletic careers including Patrick Willis, Justin Smith, Chris Borland, Anthony Davis and Adrian Coxson have all walked away from the game in the past two seasons citing head injuries as one of the main (if not the singular) reasons why they ceased their involvement with football.
Studies from Boston University have shown the traumatic magnitude of the impacts aren’t just limited to the adult leagues either. In cases with children as young as nine-years old, studies have found the force of collisions from impacts have the same ratio of force to the players as those in college football.
Youth tackle football, which generally starts in most youth leagues between the ages of 7-12 (depends on the league) happens to coincide with one of the most critical windows of time in a child’s brain development.
Published medical journal studies from the National Institute of Health have examined the brains of children who have suffered from RHI (Repeated Head Injuries) during this age range and compared them to forty former NFL players using resonance diffusion tensor imaging and found troubling results.
The age at which these head traumas start to occur, especially during periods of brain development, can cause long-term damage similar to what has been found in former NFL athletes.
Next: Not Just Big Hits
Repeated Head Injuries – Not Just the Big Hits
RHI’s are not exclusive to football alone. The American Academy of Pediatrics has reported that the amount of concussions suffered by kids aged 8-13 have doubled in the last ten years and the amount suffered by children 14-19 has multiplied by 200%.
Youth football is the most common culprit, accounting for 47% of sports related concussions (33% occuring in practices), but behind football are youth hockey and soccer. They found that the first head injury suffered by children is usually problematic, but the second and third collisions suffered can cause life-long damage.
3,800,000 concussions were reported in children in 2012 alone and the numbers are rising among middle school aged athletes. 90% of these concussions do not involve blackouts, which make them easier to miss doctors say. An estimate 5.3 million Americans live with a traumatic brain injury-related disability per the CDC.
When looking at the amount of sports concussions taking place per 100,000 “athletic exposures” (an athlete participating in an organized sporting event), the study shows that 64-78 end in a related brain trauma in football.
The next most damaging sport? Boys ice hockey accounts for 54, followed by lacrosse (40-46 for boys, 31-35 for girls), then soccer (33 for girls, 19 for boys), wrestling (22-23 for boys) and girls field hockey (22-24).
I couldn’t find numbers for girls ice hockey (something I’m particularly interested in for my daughter if/when she wants to), but we can only speculate that it falls somewhere between field hockey and boys ice hockey.
The numbers are alarming enough for parents with children in youth sports to be seriously concerned. With so many parents reconsidering their children’s athletic involvement in youth athletics, fans can only wonder what affect this may have on the future crop of pro sports superstars.
What if your favorite player’s parents decided that hockey was too risky for him when he first began to show an interest in it?
Next: Joey Hishon
Mar 25, 2015; Edmonton, Alberta, CAN; Colorado Avalanche forward Joey Hishon (38) skates against the Edmonton Oilers at Rexall Place. Mandatory Credit: Perry Nelson-USA TODAY Sports
Colorado Avalanche Joey Hishon
by Nadia Archuleta
You’ve got to wonder if Joey Hishon’s parents don’t wish they’d have discouraged him early on.
The diminutive Hishon (5-foot- 10, 170 pounds) is not a power forward. And he’s barely gotten his toes wet as an Avalanche. Hishon has played in just 16 games for Colorado (three of them playoff games).
Joey Hishon seemed to have such a bright future. He was the 17th-overall pick in the 2010 NHL Draft, just one year after Matt Duchene. He was seen as a fast skater with offensive skills who could maybe skate with Duchene one day.
Instead, Hishon’s development suffered a severe setback thanks to this dirty hit in the minors by Brayden McNabb (Warning — it’s sickening):
Because of this concussion, Hishon missed from May 2011 to March 2013 — 22 of the most formative months of his hockey career. According to CBC Sports, Hishon suffered from headaches and neck pain. He got dizzy. Apparently those were especially scary because he never knew when they’d hit.
Hishon is back to playing hockey, as we know. But the trajectory of his career definitely took a hit. It might have altered his ultimate future in hockey.
Next: Life After Sports
Life After Sports – Athletes Talk.
Chris Nowinski? That pro wrestler from earlier that got kicked in the chin? His career was ruined by concussions. He describes the after effects of a career plagued by concussions and blackouts. He opened up to CNN.
“My world changed. I had depression. I had memory problems. My head hurt for five years…The idea that you can whack your head hundreds of times in your life and knock yourself out and get up and be fine is gone. We know we can’t do that anymore. This causes long-term damage.”
Three time Super Bowl champion linebacker Ted Johnson didn’t retire quick enough. He was forced out of football after suffering two major concussions with the New England Patriots. He’s suffered with the after effects of it for years.
“Really my main reason even for talking about this is to help the guys who are already retired. [They] are getting divorced, going bankrupt, can’t work, are depressed, and don’t know what’s wrong with them. [It is] to give them a name for it so they can go get help.” Ted Johnson
Next: The Big Lawsuit
Nov 1, 2015; Pittsburgh, PA, USA; Detail view of the NFL logo on the field goal padding before the Pittsburgh Steelers host the Cincinnati Bengals at Heinz Field. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports
The Big Lawsuit
Federal Judge Anita Baker just reconsidered her initial denial of the “uncapped” proposal of award money to former players having suffered brain injuries during the NFL. Now, hopefully, some of the loopholes and technicalities present in the deal that NFL cut the first time around can hopefully be reconsidered.
The league’s response to the case reminded me of Big Tobacco’s defense to accusations of being linked to lung cancer. Once they realized it was a losing argument, they scrambled to settlement and insisted that the league be found of “no wrongdoing”.
The deal players got from the league is pretty sheisty at best. There is a sliding scale for amount of money given per disease the retiree suffers from. Then, the league has wiggled out of paying large percentages of those fines with loopholes, technicalities and general scuzziness.
When the dust settled after the case, the NFL announced that it was cracking down on concussions and instituted a bunch of new rules, procedures and protocols, and the media seemed satisfied. The retirees got a crummy deal, and the NFL got to wipe its hands of any responsibility about concussions going forward.
Sydney Rice told CBS News after he retired from football at age 27 that he “wanted to be able to function” later in life. He voluntarily dropped out of football from fear after suffering a number of bad concussions. He wasn’t eligible for any of the legal settlement money though. He retired during the new concussion era. Legally speaking, you’ve been warned.
Next: What's Been Done?
Nov 6, 2014; Denver, CO, USA; Toronto Maple Leafs right wing Daniel Winnik (26) is taken off the ice after sustaining an injury in the first period against the Colorado Avalanche at Pepsi Center. Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports
What’s Been Done?
As NFL referee Walt Anderson told NFL.com, “[Commissioner of the National Football League Roger] Goodell is very serious about this. We’re going to be a very proactive in doing what we can to strike an appropriate balance. We do have a contact sport. At the same time, what can we do to protect the players’ safety?”
So what’s in place to prevent concussions in the NFL? The refs have been trained for awareness. Bans have been imposed for hits on defenseless players. Trainers, specialists and referees have had meetings with the teams. Players cannot lead with the crown and players are encouraged to tackle lower.
In the National Hockey League, organizations have been coming out of the woodwork to discuss the safety of players going forward. Both the NFL and NHL have done incredible work in educating upcoming players about concussions and why they’re detrimental.
By analyzing a lot of video, the NHL found that 90% of concussion related injuries came on direct head contact, typically with another player’s shoulder, elbow or upper body. They found that only one in 10 concussions came from fighting.
Rule 48, along with host of other precautions, has been a major emphasis for referees and the league on a whole. It deems that “a lateral or blind side hit to an opponent where the head is targeted and/or the principle point of contact is not permitted” is punishable by “five-minute major penalty and automatic game misconduct, as well as possible supplemental discipline if deemed appropriate by the League.”
Next: Is it Working?
Is It Working?
In their 2015 NFL Health and Safety Report, the league claim that concussions are down 35% since 2012 during the regular season. I’m skeptical of that, but that’s just me. They are clearly addressing it. It makes sense for the league to be proactive on a matter which could unravel its livelihood. Still though, they’ve done a lot.
Gary Bettman also proclaims that concussions are trending down in the NHL, but some are skeptical of him as well. Dr. Jeff Kutcher, a Michigan-based neurologist who works with NHL players on head injuries told ESPN, “I’m not surprised that the numbers are down, but I wouldn’t read too much into those numbers.”
Others close to the sport have agreed. It’s difficult to tell what impact Rule 48 and the other concussion protocols in place are doing enough to take permanent brain damage out of the game forever. They’re still occurring at a pretty alarming rate.
Next: The Magic Bullet
Oct 23, 2015; Buffalo, NY, USA; Montreal Canadiens right wing Brendan Gallagher (11) reacts after being hit with the puck during the third period against the Buffalo Sabres at First Niagara Center. The Canadiens won 7-2. Mandatory Credit: Timothy T. Ludwig-USA TODAY Sports
The Magic Bullet Doesn’t Exist
What if there was some kind of helmet that protected the athlete’s brain so well, we could point to it, announce its miracle work to the world and declare the concussion conundrum resolved? Well, that will never happen, but I bet the NFL is looking into it.
We’ve seen a few attempts at something like that (which we’ll review in a sec), but for now, it seems that the laws of physics are still relevant when it comes to violent collisions and brains.
Alright, then. What if we make the model of professional football and ice hockey to that of a sport without any allowed heavy contact – like soccer, for argument’s sake. Hypothetically, I guess it could work, although honestly, I don’t think the fans of either sport would go for it.
Imagining playoff hockey without hard checking, or a league where football linemen join in a scrum instead of a upper body crash gives me the feeling like trying to take punching to the head out of boxing. I mean, it COULD technically work. I’m just not sure we’d keep watching. We’d definitely have to adjust.
Again, just my opinion here, but the reaction from the NFL to all of the damning research about concussions reminds me of Big Tobacco. It turns out, that yeah, concussions are bad for business if you’re the NFL.
What the research shows is really awful, but if you make amends now (without admitting guilt) then you can continue to grow your market and legally say that you warned people if it comes up again. Nobody really wins, but it was never a scenario that anyone could.
Next: Reality of Hard & Fast Sports
Nov 7, 2015; Winnipeg, Manitoba, CAN; Winnipeg Jets left wing Adam Lowry (17) is hit by Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Radko Gudas (3) during the second period at MTS Centre. Mandatory Credit: Bruce Fedyck-USA TODAY Sports
The Reality of Hard and Fast Sports
As a fan, I think part of what attracts me to football and hockey are how aggressive and competitive they both are. I certainly don’t want to see anyone struggling to get up after a hit, and I like that the NFL and NHL have tried to address this in both leagues.
Watching when concussions happen a lot of the time though, it’s usually hard to point at the guy responsible for the collision on the instant replay and think that they did it deliberately or out of malice.
I’ve been concussed four times in my own life, two of them from sports. None of those happened deliberately. None of them happened in anger. All were accidents from moving too fast. I hit my head against something I didn’t mean to.
Football and hockey are just hard and fast sports and sometimes, the action happens in the blink of an eye.
I really kind of doubt that we’ll develop some kind of helmet that negates what happens when a non-moving brain goes into sudden motion against the skull when a 200 pound pro athlete hits you at speed.
Maybe they’re working on it, but I just don’t see it happening. So something is going to have to give. And I think it’s probably our duty as fans to keep an open mind on whatever comes next. Tough decisions are coming ahead for athletes, managers, owners and us as fans.
Next: Steve Moore
Colorado Avalanche Steve Moore
by Nadia Archuleta
One thing the NHL has done a good job of getting rid of is the brutal violence once associated with the sport.
On February 16, 2004, Colorado Avalanche forward Steve Moore checked Vancouver Canucks captain Markus Naslund with his shoulder. Naslund had his head down, and Moore’s shoulder contacted with it. Naslund suffered a concussion.
The NHL ruled Moore’s hit legal, and he didn’t receive a fine or a suspension. This enraged the Canucks, who vowed vengeance on Moore.
During the March 8, 2004 in Vancouver, our ever-lovely Matt Cooke (then of the Canucks) challenged Moore to a fight. Steve Moore, not a fighter, nonetheless acquitted himself. The incident should have been over.
It was not. Late in the third period a Canuck who makes Matt Cooke look like a saint took the ice — Todd Bertuzzi. He tried to engage Moore in a fight, but Steve had already answered that call.
So Bertuzzi enacted his vengeance in a more violent way (Warning — it’s sickening):
Steve Moore was motionless for 10 minutes before being removed from the ice. In addition to facial cuts and three fractured neck vertebrae, Moore suffered a concussion.
It was the concussion that kept him from ever playing hockey again.
Next: Concussions and the NFL
Nov 8, 2015; Minneapolis, MN, USA; St. Louis Rams running back Todd Gurley (30) runs for a touchdown while hit by Minnesota Vikings safety Harrison Smith (22) during the first quarter at TCF Bank Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Brace Hemmelgarn-USA TODAY Sports
Concussions and the NFL Horizon
Either the world of football finds a safer way to play the game without the near-certainty of brain damage for certain positions or the immediate and sharp decrease in youth sports involvement is inevitable. Because even detailed modern concussion protocols don’t always work.
As Americans, we love watching football on Saturdays and Sundays (and Monday and Thursday), but as a parent myself, I don’t think I’m rushing to sign my kid up for tackle football. I can’t be alone in that.
That would probably be mitigated some if you could assure me that the repeated head injuries associated with the sport had lessened drastically or gone away altogether.
If that happens, I’m guessing it’ll be due to making more sports non-contact like soccer. Playing soccer is fine, but how many Americans are watching Major League Soccer four times a week?
We would have to manage to reach a middle ground. Parents sign their children up in youth leagues. However, everyone acknowledges that concussions are going to happen and they have ruined many athletes lives, but we can take precautions to prevent them. We could elongate the trajectory of hard and fast sports.
A lot could probably be done with adding more rules into both sports, or changing the current rules to dramatically reduce contact, but I think it’s more likely that the average fans’ mind just comes to an acceptance on the issue. One way or another. That’s up to you. Football is gonna football.
Next: Wes Walker
NFL Helmets and the Wes Welker Connection
Lots of people were watching while this happened here in Denver.
Here's a before/after comparison of Wes Welker's new post-concussion helmet: pic.twitter.com/mNR6B1SwYh
— Paul Lukas (@UniWatch) January 14, 2014
St. Louis Rams wide receiver Wes Welker, who has a pretty long history of concussions during his tenure in the NFL, caught a lot of people’s curiosity about helmets in the NFL when he donned a helmet into the 2014 playoffs that many remarked as looking like a “bobblehead”.
Standoff, the helmet industry jargon for the amount of padding between the hard outer shell and the player’s head, was obviously more present in the Riddell 360 that Welker wore during those games.
Welker seemed a little defensive of the helmet when questioned about it by ESPN, saying “I wouldn’t say it’s a concussion helmet. It’s the next size up. A few players in here wear one. It’s something they had me wear for safety.”
All of the officials agreed with what Wes said. Obviously though, that’s a different helmet in the Tweet, not just the next size up. I’m sure the NFL is very interested in what Riddell can do to add protection to an athlete’s head, but I don’t think the results were as favorable as they’d hoped.
With standoff, as industrial engineer Michael Princip put it, “the larger you get, the more problems you can have with the weight, the balance, and that bobblehead effect, which can work against you. You have to balance everything out.”
New versions of bobblehead helmets are probably on their way. If one worked, the NFL could make it mandatory, but that’s being pretty optimistic.
Another theory proposed takes the opposite approach: What if we took the helmets off? That way, players wouldn’t feel like they have a false sense of invincibility preceding contact, right?
Next: Rugby
No Helmets? Presenting: Rugby
CBS Sports and many other people have discussed the notion of having pro athletes, like those in pro football, remove their helmet so that they feel vulnerable, hence reducing the force of the extreme collisions. What if in football, for example, players along offensive and defensive lines met in a scrum, locked shoulders and necks and then the whistle blew?
What would happen is that football would closer start to resemble professional rugby. While the entertainment angle seems debatable, there’s not a lot of ground to stand on for the argument that there would be less head contact. That theory is being quickly debunked in a series of controversies involving concussions aimed at the International Rugby Board.
While the players wear a relatively minimal amount of padding, the fact remains that rubgy, like football and hockey, is a fast and violent game. You can’t take the contact out of any of them completely and injuries will occur.
Wales winger George North told Bloomberg about losing consciousness in a defending head-banging effort to prevent England from scoring in the opening match of Rugby’s 6 Nations tournament. Lots of people have tried comparing rugby to football, but the same stories keep coming out of both leagues.
Players undergo concussion protocols, given off-field cognitive tests, “pass” them and appear back in play under suspicious levels of consciousness. Scottish rugby player Rory Lamont describes a similar incident occuring to an Australian player during a match in an interview with the Daily Mail.
“Everyone saw George wobbling his way off the field, clearly concussed, and then come back on. I know the protocols inside out and there is no way a player should be allowed to stay on the pitch after a head knock. It’s insanity. We are seeing reckless disregard for players’ welfare right now.”
Next: Concussions & the NHL
Concussions and the NHL Horizon
Remember that Wes Welker helmet? The Riddell 360 with the extra standoff? Let’s pretend for a second that a year from now, a similar one is found to eliminate the threat of concussions from an athlete.
It would probably end up looking like a full-face motorcycle helmet (that ones that cover everything with the large visor). Do you think if a helmet like that existed that players in the NHL would wear one? NFL Players would probably adapt pretty well.
Some in the NHL probably would, but I’m guessing that most wouldn’t. Too much of a burden to maneuverability and field of vision. I could imagine a lot of players losing the puck in their skates while heading up ice.
Besides, NHL helmets aren’t really designed to prevent concussions. Dr. Charles Burke, an orthopedic surgeon who works with the Pittsburgh Penguins and the League and is in charge of a study tasked with compiling information about concussions in hockey and how to prevent them. He told the NY Times that he doesn’t think helmets are the solution either:
“The direct blow to the head causes a rotational force. The helmet has nothing to do with anything. The helmet is attached to the head and it is going with the head. It is the force applied to the head that causes the brain to bruise inside the skull. That’s one of our theories. Obviously, we haven’t been able to prove or disprove it at this point.”
Lots of hockey players have come forward to talk about the concussions that they’ve suffered in hockey. Carl Lindros, father of repeated sufferer Eric Lindros, explained what he saw happen to both of his sons after the sport:
“Once the brain is ripped apart, it is very easy to dramatically rip it apart with a second concussion.”
Scott Stevens of the New Jersey Devils delivered one of the nastiest elbows to Eric Lindros:
Carl Lindros hasn’t watched the footage of what has been replayed hundreds of times to his son Eric, only the aftermath. He’s well versed on Level 1, 2 and 3 concussions and has to believe what doctors say happened to both of his hockey playing sons.
Players have a lot to contend with already when the game moves as fast it does, so anything that proves cumbersome to that seems like it would be ditched as soon as practice if given the chance by players.
A example of that kind of equipment already exists in hockey – the visor. Current rules under the NHL Equipment Guidelines only just mandated visors be worn by all players last season. For all seasons before that, visors were optional equipment.
Some players find having anything in front of their face as a hindrance, so they don’t wear them.
Next: Patrick Wey
Patrick Wey
Patrick Wey was a forward prospect for the Washington Capitals who played much of his career in the AHL Hershey Bears. That sentence was written in the past tense because Wey retired from hockey just before the start of this season. Wey is 24 years-old.
The scouting reports that I read about Wey had a lot of promising things to say about Patrick. He was going to be one of those elusive puck-moving defensemen that teams so prize. He would have brought some great skills to the Washington Capitals’ future bench.
Unfortunately, Wey hung up the skates following two devastating concussions, which caused a great amount of problems with his health and made him need to re-evaluate his career paths.
On March 30th, 2014, Wey took on heavyweight enforcer Rich Clune. The Capitals were none too impressed by a fighter with 166 scraps of prior experience in Clune agreeing to fisticuffs with a rookie, but that’s besides the point. Wey was badly concussed in the fight.
Rich Clune recounted his encounter with Wey for the Huffington Post. He has since reached out and apologized to Wey.
“I didn’t have the puck. He finished his check and kind of whacked my head off the boards. He was yelling at me and kind of signaled me. I took a half-step to get away and around him. He was pretty vocal and wanted me to turn around. We looked each other in the eye and agreed that we were going to fight, and went at it.”
Wey suffered another concussion half a year later on October 24th after taking the brunt of a high check from Jay Rosehill and that did it. Wey’s career was ended. He is now pursuing “educational interests”.
My time getting to watch Wey’s career was short. He had some preseason games, and he had his brief jump up with the Caps, but I missed out on watching his career in Hershey.
I don’t blame that on him one iota for calling it quits. I probably would have made the same call, honestly. What really tugs at me was that Wey retired at 24 – through no fault of his own. It ended before it got a chance to speed up. There are a lot of stories in sports like Patrick Wey’s – and not just in the pros.
Next: Another Way to Play?
Sep 9, 2015; Toronto, Ontario, Canada; NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and NHLPA executive director Donald Fehr appear on stage together during a press conference and media event for the 2016 World Cup of Hockey at Air Canada Centre. Mandatory Credit: Tom Szczerbowski-USA TODAY Sports
Another Way to Play?
NHL Commisioner Gary Bettman understands the direness of the situation looming in hockey. He told the NY Times during the All Star break after noting the slight rise in concussions statistics in the season, “Of course, the ideal number of concussions would be zero. Our objective is to come as close as possible to getting that result without changing the fundamental nature of our game.”
The fundamental nature of the game is pretty violent in hockey. Bettman acknowledges this in his quote, but unlike football, there are far more examples of leagues in the sport across the world. For instance, the rules regarding contact to the head are stricter in the International Ice Hockey Federation, which are the rules used in the Olympics.
Those rules don’t allow fighting, reduce hitting and are played on an ice surface sized for 3,000 more square feet of ice than their North American counterparts. Generally speaking, the gameplay is a little more puck possession driven in the European game. Changing the size of the rink could be worth trying out.
Getting back to Bettman’s quote – what IS the “fundamental nature” of hockey? Does it include hitting? Does it allow fighting? While the numbers regarding the amount of concussions in the sport differ in ratio between fighting and hitting, it’s clear that both are causing brain injuries.
It feels likely that the NFL is going to have to settle the matters on concussions in a big way before the NHL does, but both seem destined to face the music eventually. The difference for me, is that the terms are a little more bearable in hockey when you speculate about how that begins to happen.
Next: Banning Fighting
Oct 24, 2014; Denver, CO, USA; Colorado Avalanche left wing Cody McLeod (55) fights with Vancouver Canucks right wing Derek Dorsett (51) fight in the first period at the Pepsi Center. Mandatory Credit: Isaiah J. Downing-USA TODAY Sports
Banning Fighting Seems Inevitable
Detractors of the violence in hockey are always going to point to fighting as a blazing beacon of irresponsibility by the league by being virtually the only modern sport that allows it. There are a lot of really nasty injuries that have resulted from fighting – all of them are voluntary by nature, but are usually gruesome.
It might not happen for a while longer yet, but I’d guess within the next five or so seasons, they’ll pull the plug on letting pugilists create a spark for their team. It’s too easy a target. Its admittedly pretty dispensable, although I’m a fan myself.
Derek Boogaard, when he played for the New York Rangers, played a pretty familiar role for the NHL as an enforcer – a role that could be clumsily explained as a goon that punches people during a hockey game. John Branch summarized about the tragic short life of Boogaard in his book “Boys on Ice: The Life and Death of Derek Boogaard.”
The short story reads that Boogaard was under-informed about concussions, suffered from chronic pain, was prescribed a ludicrous number of drugs and eventually died alone in his apartment. He was 23 years old. Later, it was discovered he had a severe case of CTE.
In that same year, three enforcers died during a four-month period. The information keeps coming out, and there are many more horrifying stories of the aftereffects of repeated punches to the head. The Goon Era is over.
Several NHL general managers like Ray Shero and Jim Rutherford have expressed interest in removing fighting from the game and Gary Bettman may eventually feel enough heat to oblige them. Maybe, you already feel that way. Again, opinions from fans seem like they’ll require more reverence.
Next: Scott Parker
Colorado Avalanche Scott Parker
by Nadia Archuleta
Not a lot of people are going to have a ton of sympathy for the Colorado Avalanche’s one-time enforcer, Scott Parker. He hit hard. And he fought.
And Scott Parker was just the kind of NHL player to suffer from concussions.
As former Denver Post writer Adrian Dater eloquently put it, Parker was a warrior whose job it was to protect others. “The Sherriff” roamed the ice of the Wild West during the clutch and grab era of the NHL, and he fought anyone who clutched or grabbed our heroes with too much gusto.
He’s paying for that warrior mentality now. Some days he can barely get out of bed because of dizziness, nausea and loud ringing in his ears. He’s even suffered seizures. At 35 years old, he had the mental capacities of someone at least 65, maybe 75. He had to write notes to himself to remind him he needed groceries.
Parker estimated he suffered 20 to 25 concussions as a player. But in those days, that was just called “getting your bell rung.”
Parker was part of a lawsuit that retired players brought against the NHL for not addressing the effects of concussions on their long-term health.
Next: Other Avs with Concussions
Jan 21, 2015; Denver, CO, USA; Boston Bruins left wing David Pastrnak (88) and Colorado Avalanche defenseman Erik Johnson (6) collide into the boards in the first period at the Pepsi Center. Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports
Colorado Avalanche and Concussions
by Nadia Archuleta
The Colorado Avalanche have suffered from their fair share (if you can say such a thing) of concussions.
We already saw how players such as Adam Deadmarsh and Steve Moore had to end their careers prematurely due to concussions. Scott Parker still suffers from post-concussion symptoms long after retiring. Sad to say, Jesse Winchester may be facing early retirement.
Joey Hishon saw his development severely delayed by post-concussion syndrome.
There are a lot of current Colorado Avalanche players who have suffered from concussions and who have managed to return to play.
At the end of the 2013-14 season, center John Mitchell suffered a concussion. It kept him out for the entire playoffs. He battled symptoms the entire summer, and even came into the 2014 training camp still suffering from vision problems due to concussions. Luckily, they passed, and he’s been symptom-free for over a year now.
Colorado Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog suffered a concussion at the hands of (now teammate) San Jose Sharks defenseman Brad Stuart. The hit left him with headaches and sensitivity to light. He missed 11 games of the 2012-13 season.
During a game against the (then) Phoenix Coyotes in 2013, Avalanche defenseman Erik Johnson suffered a concussion because of a dirty hit from Martin Hanzal. He missed 11 games. In another game against the (now) Arizona Coyotes, Hanzal went after him again:
Thank goodness this dirty Hanzal hit didn’t result in another concussion.
Indeed, as a fan I worry about the players getting concussions. I worry even more about the players who’ve already had concussions. Because as Kevin so aptly pointed out, subsequent concussions can have dire consequences even after players have recovered from the initial injury.
Next: Rule Changes?
Feb 20, 2014; Sochi, RUSSIA; USA forward Kendall Coyne (26) battles for the puck with Canada forward Natalie Spooner (24) in the women’s ice hockey gold medal game during the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games at Bolshoy Ice Dome. Mandatory Credit: Richard Mackson-USA TODAY Sports
Can we Fix the Game By Changing the Rules?
Whether or not the world of professional sports can appropriately cope for concussions remains a mystery. Current considerations from the NFL and NHL seem necessary and appropriately precautionary, but both are inherently violent.
Reducing the inherent violence would take a lot of effort, with a lot of people agreeing to try some changes out – with the great amount of authority placed with the fans for lending their opinions on the changing landscape.
Our consensus opinions seem kind of murky when it comes to the female counterparts and organizations in pro sports. Body checking is illegal in women’s hockey (collegiate and Olympic), but that doesn’t mean its not a physical game. Recent reports show as many as 50% of injuries sustained by athletes were from collisions.
Despite the growing number of voices asking for body checking to be legalized in Women’s Hockey, the sport has been around since the end of the 19th century for women and has struggled mightily at being recognized. Women’s basketball has had similar struggles for recognition. How much do the biases in rules between the sexes – especially when it comes to violence – play a part in this?
As fans, we’re met at a pinnacle moment. Future generations may look back and say that we had to pick sides during a fork in the road while the science unraveled itself to everyone. Which way we decide and where that road ends up kind of depends on what the fans think about it.
Next: Easy Solutions
Oct 27, 2015; Sunrise, FL, USA; Colorado Avalanche defenseman Francois Beauchemin (32) center Mikhail Grigorenko (25) and left wing Cody McLeod (55) take position for a faceoff in the first period of a game against the Florida Panthers at BB&T Center. Mandatory Credit: Robert Mayer-USA TODAY Sports
The “Easy” Solutions
Concussions are nothing new anymore. It’s a common enough injury in sports that fans don’t really debate how they happen when they crop up. To a lot of teams, they even get thrown in the generic brand of reportable team injuries mysteriously disclosed as “upper body injuries”.
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We’re made aware of them when the really big ones happen. The kind that either take out a star player or are a result of a spectacular collision. The media impact of those is bigger than when a linebacker complains that he has migraines.
In the NFL, the focus around concussions has revolved a lot around wide receivers. Guys who are throttled by violent tackles – often while aerial. Since those kind of collisions catch a lot of attention and look particularly nasty, it’s no surprise we’ve seen a lot of changes in how those players can play. Changes have been made and we’re still monitoring to make up our minds about it.
In hockey, it seems obvious to me that if you can shed weight in your criticism of the sport by losing part of the non-essential (by some) sub-activities of the game – then the only thing stopping them is public opinion. I think if opinion shifts enough on the matter of fighting, Gary Bettman, or whoever the commissioner is would probably pick it as an easy target.
After everything I’ve read, I still feel that my opinion on the matter is fluid. There is no denying that the harm is present. What’s to be done about it – I don’t envy the decision makers.
Change is coming. In some form or another, we’re going to have to start making some decisions about what we find palatable as entertainment. Because it’s our interest that sways the opinions of the executives and pressure the whistle blowers to try to make changes.