NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman sauntered over to a group of journalists in Chicago’s United Center during last spring’s Stanley Cup playoffs for what has become an annual ritual. There was significance to the location of this informal pregame scrum.
Former Chicago Blackhawk enforcer Steve Montador had died in his sleep a few months earlier. He was 35. Montador, a popular figure among his teammates and fans, had been forced into retirement after suffering a severe concussion in 2012. In the years following his premature exit from the game, Montador reportedly suffered from mood swings, depression, anxiety, anger management issues and memory loss, among other physical ailments. Unfortunately, this long list of symptoms has become an all too common refrain among retired NHL players.
Upon his death, Montador’s family agreed to donate his brain for testing and analysis. The results uncovered extensive chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, a disease associated with repeated blows, sub-concussive hits to the head and concussions.
Bettman must have known the inflammatory nature of his response when he was asked about the CTE findings in relation to Montador, as well as the player’s extensive and well-documented concussion history. According to various reports, Bettman told the media, “The fact of the matter is, from a medical and science standpoint, there is no evidence yet that one [concussions] necessarily leads to the other [CTE]. I know there are a lot of theories, but if you ask the people who study it, they tell you there is no statistical correlation where they can definitively make that conclusion.”
There’s a dirty little secret swirling around the NHL these days — the legacy of a darker, more barbaric era. In the 1970s and 80s, players sustaining debilitating head injuries were often left with a “choice” that was really no choice at all. Continue playing no matter the severity of the injury or be sent to the minors and ultimately released. While players understood that broken bones healed and torn ligaments could be repaired, there was no information provided to players on the possible long-term ramifications of repetitive head trauma.
With hundreds, if not thousands struggling through serious health issues including neurological decline, former players sought redress through the courts in 2013, filing lawsuits across the U.S. and Canada. Retired players claimed the NHL failed to adequately warn of the long-term effects of repeated blows to the head, failed to properly diagnose concussions, failed to provide adequate medical care after they received concussions and glorified violence in a manner that promoted additional head trauma.
With multiple concussion lawsuits in the discovery and pretrial motion phases, and amid an effort to certify the claims as class actions, the NHL has denied all allegations, and stated it will “vigorously defend” against the claims and refuse to enter into any settlement negotiations.
Yet, while former players mount a legal challenge highlighting sins of past, the NHL currently sits in the throes of crisis. A concussion epidemic thrust upon the League threatens the very fabric of the game as we know it. In 2013-14, by my count, at least 110 players suffered concussions (of the roughly 700 players in the NHL). This does not take into account the thousands of cumulative blows to the head that occur on any typical evening of hockey. The NHL refuses to divulge any official concussion statistics, other than claiming that concussions are on the decline over the last two seasons.
How did we get here? Reeling from a lockout that cost the entire 2004-05 season, Bettman and NHL owners were determined to make the game faster, increase goal scoring, and make the game more appealing to fans. The NHL was re-launched in 2005 without a center-ice red line. Players were now able to break out of the defensive zone at close to full speed, unimpeded by the two-line offside pass. Players have gotten bigger, stronger and faster each year since 2005. As was soon discovered, increased speed necessarily led to increased collisions and the current era’s concussion cycle began.
The NHL is well aware of the urgency of the crisis — anywhere from 10 to 15 percent of its players sustain concussions each season. The NHL instituted new rules banning hits to the head, and created a Department of Player Safety that imposed suspensions for head shots, singling out repeat offenders.
This season, the league disclosed it has placed spotters at each game to help identify players with visible signs of concussions, with directions to remove them from games for further evaluation if the players meet certain criteria. But is it enough?
As concussion lawsuits wind their way through the courts and the NHL continues to deny any link between concussions and CTE, ignoring all medical evidence to contrary, will our greatest fears on the issue be realized? Within the next 10 years, will the current generation of NHL players and their families be left suffering through the debilitating effects of CTE and dramatically compromised quality of life?
Allan Walsh is the co-managing director of Octagon Hockey. He represents NHL players including Marc-Andre Fleury, Jonathan Drouin, and Derick Brassard. Mr. Walsh is a graduate of the Southwestern University School of Law.