What does it take for Gary Bettman to realize that his sport is dangerous for the brain?
Then, interviewed again last week by American radio NPRReferring to the preliminary results of the study conducted at Boston University, the commissioner again denied that there was a link between hockey and ETC.
However, the results of the study are alarming. Brain autopsies of 74 hockey players, including 19 former pros, showed that 54% of them had ETC.
“Each additional year of ice hockey practice can increase a person’s risk of developing ETC by about 23%,” the researchers also state.
“There were isolated cases”
Speaking to NPR, Mr. Bettman claimed that the league “listens to medical opinions about ETC” but that he “does not believe there is any documented study suggesting elements of our sport cause ETC.”
“There have been isolated cases of players who have played our sport and had ETC. But that doesn’t necessarily mean it [soit lié au fait] that they played in the NHL,” he added.
It now takes more than the fingers of the hand to count these “isolated” cases. They are at least 13 who are from multiple eras and have suffered from ETC.
And this number is likely to increase, since the disease is only detectable after death.
At the service of the owners
Jacques Mailhot, former Nordiques tough guy, recently told our colleague Marc de Foy that he feared he might one day develop Alzheimer’s.
Mr. Mailhot, 61, only played briefly in the NHL. His stay at the “Fleurdelysé” was limited to five games, in which he mainly threw the gloves in front of Cam Neely and with the thugs Lyndon Byers and Tim Hunter.
But he also rolled at the smaller circuits for 13 seasons. He estimates he has fought about 300 fights and suffered between six and eight concussions a year.
While he is happy the National League took care of him when he was struggling with health, Mr Mailhot deeply regrets that he is not more open about the issues surrounding blows to the head.
“Gary Bettman works for the owners,” he says in an interview with the Journal. He can’t tell the public that, yes, the fights, the beatings on the head and the concussions [qui en découlent] are the cause of ETC. Not least because it’s only proven that players suffered from it when they died [après une autopsie].”
“It’s like the big elephant in the room. You can’t talk about it,” he said.
Risks of Monster Lawsuits
Also, the elephant in the room is the risk of monster lawsuits if the league admitted the ties between hockey and ETC.
In recent years, the National League has found itself in court over the force of blows to the head.
But nothing compares to the NFL, which paid out $765 million to 4,500 retired footballers in 2013 (about $170,000 per athlete, an amount that could be significantly higher depending on the severity of the damage sustained).
Three years later, the professional soccer circle recognized the existence of a link between hits to the head resulting from playing their sport and ETC. Again last week, Mr. Bettman declined to draw a parallel between hockey and soccer.
“The two are not comparable in terms of amount of contact,” he told NPR.
$22,000 per hockey player
One of the lawsuits that the Bettman Circuit has faced, filed by former players, has to do with the aftermath of concussions they suffered during their careers. She settled for $18.9 million ($22,000 per athlete) in 2018.
When the NHL pulled out the checkbook at the time, it also declared “not [reconnaître] no liability in connection with the plaintiffs’ allegations,” which said the league failed to ensure their safety.
The late Steve Montador’s father, a hardline defense attorney, has also filed two lawsuits against the National League in recent years. One of them is still running.
Montador, who died in 2015 at just 35, suffered at least 11 concussions while playing on the track, including four in just three months. After his death, the autopsy revealed that he suffered from ETC.
The majority of players posthumously diagnosed with ETC were thugs. These are in free fall in the NHL, Mr. Bettman pointed out to NPR. “About eight games out of ten don’t involve a fight,” he said.
Since the start of the playoffs, however, Auston Matthews and Steven Stamkos, two players who have already reached the 60-goal mark in their careers, have dropped the gloves to defend a teammate. You are not the only ones. Even Boston Bruins goaltender Linus Ullmark almost clashed with Matthew Tkachuk.
And concussions aren’t just the prerogative of fights: they can be the result of a hit to the head or a check, among other things.
Ice hockey is one of the sports that causes the most, another study shows.
He would never have played hockey
Mr Mailhot assures that he would not have played ice hockey if he had known at the age of 20 that he would be living in the conditions he is in today. “I would have done something else,” he repeated to the Journal in recent days.
Because in addition to taking Alzheimer’s medication, he suffers from severe pain in his hands, which prevents him from doing such a simple task as having a cup of coffee in the morning.
That’s why he’s now arguing for a more transparent discussion of the effects of hitting the head.
Photo provided by Jacques Mailhot
The author of the study from the University of Boston, Jesse Mez, specifies in a related article that “the absolute risk that a hockey player will one day be affected by ETC is still unknown”.
He also says the study has limitations, as some donors could play more or, in particular, may have more cognitive symptoms than all hockey players.
Jacques Mailhot is also aware that the debate is complex. He is also the only former player who has been contacted by Le Journal and has agreed to speak about it. The others declined because they were unfamiliar with the stakes or because of their ties to the league.
But in Mr Mailhot’s eyes, “research like this should ensure we speak frankly [des impacts des coups à la tête]”.
“Talk about it. Try to find solutions, he insists. Give people the power to choose what they want to do [en toute connaissance de cause]. Do you want to play ice hockey? Want to fight?”
ETC, that evil that is only diagnosed after death
Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is a degenerative disease that can only be diagnosed after death, after examination of brain tissue. For this reason, more and more athletes like Henri Richard have donated their brains to science.
TCE can occur in people who have had multiple head injuries (concussions). A protein called tau spreads abnormally in the brain, killing cells.
Affected patients usually experience symptoms several years after the head injuries. They may have memory problems, become aggressive or impulsive. People with advanced ETC develop dementia.
Analysis of the brains of 320 former NFL players found they had it. This is especially true for more than a dozen NHL hockey players, boxers, soccer and rugby players.
Source: Brain Injury Canada
13 hockey players who had it
- Larry Zeidel
Years of activity*: 1951-1969 - Henry Richard
Years of activity: 1955-1975
- Stan Michita
Years of activity: 1958-1980 - Reggie Fleming
Years of activity: 1959-1971 - Richard Martin
Years of activity: 1971-1982 - Bob Probert
Years of activity: 1985-2002
- jeff parker
Years of activity: 1986-1991 - death even
Years of activity: 1986-1997 - Zarley Zalapski
Years of activity: 1987-2000
- Wade Belak
Years of activity: 1996-2011 - Steve Montador
Years of activity: 2001-2012 - Marek Svatos
Years of activity: 2003-2011
- Derek Boogaard
Years of activity: 2005-2011
*In the NHL
Sources: The Journal and TSN.ca
The NHL has denied ties between hockey games and ETC five times
December 2011
An autopsy performed by Boston University researchers on the brain of former tough guy Derek Boogaard, who died that same year aged just 28, found he had ETC. When asked about it, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said there wasn’t enough data on the causes of brain injuries to support fight-related penalties on his circuit.
July 2016
Specifically, when asked by US Senator Richard Blumenthal in a 24-page letter, Mr. Bettman said that “the association between concussion and the clinical symptoms associated with ETC is still unknown.”
May 2019
The commissioner of the NHL is summoned before MPs in Ottawa. Mr Bettman responded to a question from a member of the Sports-Related Concussion Subcommittee that there was no evidence that sports-related concussions, when sustained in hockey, could lead to the brain injuries known as “ETC”. “Aside from some anecdotal evidence, this link has not been conclusively established,” he said.
Aug 2022
A study by 14 Boston University researchers concludes that repetitive shocks to the head are a cause of TCE. When asked about this issue by the Toronto Star, Bill Daly, Gary Bettman’s assistant, replies daily: “A single medical article does not define our view on this subject. For guidance, we rely on the unanimous opinion of medical experts. Currently, this consensus does not match the conclusions of the article you sent us.
April 2023
Interview with the American radio NPR Regarding the results of the same study, Mr. Bettman says: “We listen to medical opinions about ETC and I don’t think there is any documented study that suggests elements of our sport lead to ETC. There have been isolated cases of players playing our sport having ETC. But that doesn’t necessarily mean it [soit lié au fait] that they played in the NHL.”