AS I SEE IT COLUMN: NHL takes disgraceful stance on head injuries

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 07/04/2024 (404 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

When the news broke of former NHL tough guy Chris Simon passing away and I saw NHL commissioner Gary Bettman on TV (with the sound off), I wondered to myself if Bettman would finally – after years of denying the science on the deadly consequences of repeated blows to the head – acknowledge what all the experts are saying about brain trauma and do something concrete to stop fighting, or at the very least, increase the penalties for hits to the head.

Sadly but unsurprisingly, when I finally heard Bettman’s reaction, it was clear he had kept up his schtick about pretending to not know what the science is saying about CTE.

And then Bettman outright lied, saying “we wait to see what the medical experts tell us.”

That is worse than misleading. It is a lie.

The experts have been saying for years now that there is a direct link between repeated hits to the head (think bodychecks, fights, etc.) and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).

This isn’t new science or undetermined or inconclusive science, and it’s appalling that: a) Bettman would say something so blatantly untrue and b) that no one in the media had the guts to ask any meaningful follow up questions to Bettman, given his provably false claim that the medical experts have yet to weigh in on CTE.

How about “Gary, what about all the research that shows a direct link to CTE?” or “Gary, are you saying you haven’t read any of the research on CTE?” or “Gary, who should hockey fans believe: you, a business executive, or the medical experts?”

History will not be kind to Bettman and the NHL.

While football has made some meaningful efforts to address CTE, Bettman has clearly made a business decision to stick his head in the sand and pretend he’s “still waiting” for the medical community to chime in on the issue of degenerative brain disease in hockey.

The NHL looks like it cares more about profits than it does about its players.

The United States National Institutes of Health concluded in 2022 that repetitive traumatic brain injuries caused CTE.

The following year, a study conducted by Columbia University — examining more than 6,000 NHL players from 1967-2022 — found that players who had 50 or more fights in their career “died a decade earlier on average compared to their less pugilistic peers.”

Bettman’s sidekick, NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly, had the audacity to say the “science is still lacking.”

The science is not lacking. Go to Google and type “CTE repeated blows to the head” and you’ll get 359,000 results in 0.53 seconds. The science is settled, and Bettman knows it; he just doesn’t want to acknowledge it.

Scientists don’t “think” there is a connection between CTE and repeated blows to the head. They aren’t guessing or hypothesizing that there is a connection. They dissect and study the actual brains of brave families who have donated the brain tissue of their deceased loved ones, hoping that the resulting scientific research will convince the NHLs of the world to take the issue seriously and make meaningful changes.

There are only two possible ways to comprehend Bettman’s immoral and panoramically ignorant views on CTE. One, he really is unaware of the science proving that CTE often leads to suicide and severe mental health issues. (This would be unconscionable and immediately disqualifying for a man in charge of a sport where traumatic head injuries take place.) Or two, he knows the science but is willing to play dumb, to pretend the science is murky or undecided because he doesn’t want to hurt the NHL’s bottom line. (This is playing with the lives of hockey players in the worship of the almighty dollar.)

Either way, Bettman’s let’s wait and see “what the medical experts tell us” is literally a matter of life and death, and has been for years.

I wonder how he sleeps at night.