The words “Ask not for whom the bell tolls” should be ringing loudly at NHL headquarters following John Branch’s excellent expose (click here, here and here for the links) on Derek Boogaard, fighting in hockey, and brain injuries last week in the New York Times. I wrote an article in The Globe and Mail (click here to read it) earlier this year that suggested the NHL is vulnerable to a lawsuit on similar grounds to that which has been launched against the NFL.
The NFL’s concussion crisis was put into the spotlight starting in 2007 by Alan Schwarz of the New York Times. Schwarz has since written dozens of articles for the Times about brain injuries in football. As Ben McGrath of The New Yorker (click here for the piece) wrote last year, ‘Credit for the public’s increased awareness of these issues must go to the Times, and to its reporter Alan Schwarz, whom Dr. Joseph Maroon, the [NFL Pittsburgh] Steelers’ neurosurgeon and a long time medical adviser to the league, calls “the Socratic gadfly in this whole mix.”’ Schwarz’s reporting sparked and catalyzed change in the NFL’s approach to brain injuries. The league is now named in about a dozen concussion-related lawsuits.
The NHL has been painfully slow to implement real changes that would reduce the occurrence of brain injuries. Just like the hockey enforcer who is tapped on the shoulder by his coach or just knows he must answer the bell, the NHL has got to see that the writing is on the wall (on in this case, splashed on the pages of The New York Times), that the time is nigh for change and know that the bell tolls for thee.
Kris is a Senior Lecturer, and Co-Director of the Centre for International Sports Law (CISL) at Staffordshire University, UK. He originally trained and competed as an elite gymnast until a shoulder injury at university forced him to retire as an active competitor. He now spends his spare time coaching Trampolining, Gymnastics, DMT, Cheerleading, Parkour and anything that involves throwing yourself through the air with various degrees of twist and rotation!
Jon is an Associate Professor, and Co-Director of the Centre for International Sports Law (CISL) at Thompson Rivers University, British Columbia. Jon worked as a climbing guide, trained and coordinated search and rescue, managed risk and sales in the United States with a European-based manufacturer of outdoor equipment and advised recreation programmes on their exposure to legal risk. His extra-curricular background is just as diverse and includes stints playing semi-pro volleyball in Brazil, researching wolves in the Canadian Rockies, climbing and leading expeditions from Alaska to Argentina, Tajikistan to the Tetons, and many points in between. He has been married to Wendy for 15 years and together they have 2 wonderful kids – Tegan (10) and Brock (8) – whom he continues to emotionally scar as their football coach!
January 6, 2012
Health & Safety, Negligence