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Friday, 18 March 2011 10:00

Written by Seth Rorabaugh

The NHL's decision to resist introducing a universal ban on head shots at this week's general managers meetings was disappointing but hardly surprising. Afterall, this is the same league which balked at making helmets mandatory for over a decade after North Stars forward Bill Masterton died as a result of striking his head off the ice in 1968. It wasn't until 1979 that they became mandatory, and even then, it was a soft "mandatory" as players who were in the league prior to 1979, were given grandfather status and allowed to play the rest of their careers without a helmet.

Progressive thinking has always been fought tooth and nail within the NHL.

The thinking then is the same as it was then. Danger has always been "a part of the game." Even if that danger could result in life-altering or -ending injuries. And that thinking extends from management to the rank and file players.

Even in the aftermath of seeing former Senators defenseman Bryan Berard suffer a gruesome eye injury on the ice just over a decade ago, players who wear visors are still seen as soft or even cowards by many involved in the sport. In many circles, just mentioning that one wears a visors is enough language to convey that a player isn't brave.

So to say the least, plenty of NHL types, including those in power, are still comfortable with the idea of concussions not being a serious problem. The notion of playing the game the way it was "meant" to carries far more weight than the inconvenient facts of medical science

Their counterparts in the NFL changed that mindset a long time ago. But not for any sense of moral obligation over the health of players.

They changed it because it was a good business decision forced on them.

Much like the NHL, the NFL didn't regard head injuries with a great deal of seriousness at one time. A broken leg or a torn knee ligament were viewed as death sentences. At least for the season. A head injury? That was nothing. There was even a cute name for that diagnosis. That was was "getting your bell rung."

Mike Webster (above) got his bell rung quite a bit during his hall-of-fame career as a center for the Steelers and Chiefs. Despite playing a position which was among the most brutal in the sport, Webster only missed four games in his first 16 seasons. "Iron Mike" played through all sort of ailments, including as we learned much later, concussions. Webster endured 17 seasons of hell on the field. As a result, his life became hell off it.

Prior to his death in 2002 at the all-too-young age of 50, Webster lived a broken existence as a human being. He essentially spent many  nights homeless, sleeping in bus stations, Kinkos offices or his truck. He would go days without eating. He didn't file a tax return for the last 11 years of his life.

And Webster constantly lived with pain. When prescriptions for painkillers wouldn't work, Webster would ask his son or a family friend to use a stun gun on him to snap him into unconsciousness.

By the time Webster died, he lived in a dingy apartment with his son, Garrett Webster. Garrett, who was a senior in high school at that time, often said he was the "father" in the relationship.

Fast forward to April 26, 2005. That's when U.S. District Judge William Quarles Jr. made a decision in a Baltimore courtroom on Civil Action No. WDQ-04-cv-1606, the Estate of Michael L. Webster v. The Bert Bell/Pete Rozelle NFL Player Retirement Plan and The NFL Player Supplemental Disability Plan. It's a decision which changed how professional football is played today.

Quarles ruled in favor of the Webster estate and ordered the NFL to pay 1.18 million in disability benefits. The NFL appealed the decision but Quarles' ruling was upheld in 2006.

That ruling opened the door for countless other players to make claims for other disabilities for all sorts of injuries, including concussions.

From that point on, the NFL made stronger efforts to curtail head injuries. New helmet designs and different protocol for diagnosing and treating head injuries were slowly introduced. Most notably, we saw a low level of tolerance for any sort of blow to the head during the 2010 NFL season.

Fans, coaches and players - such as Steelers linebacker James Harrison who was fined a total of $125,000 for violent hits last season - complained that the NFL was changing the sport.

The NFL was simply doing what was good for business. The Webster lawsuit forced the NFL to change its game for the sake of money.

The NHL has thankfully never had a high profile player deteriorate publicly the way Webster did. There are some players such as Paul Kariya and Keith Primeau who have had their quality of life impacted off the ice, but not quite to the level Webster endured.

And thus far, there has never been a legal case against the NHL such as the one involving Webster's estate. The NHL has never had to make a business decision with regards to head injuries quite like the NFL was forced to.

Expect head shots, albeit on a smaller scale, to remain part of the NHL unless the league is faced with making a decision on them based on finances.

Until then, it will be business as usual for the NHL.

(Photo: Gene J. Puskar/Associated Press)

Comments (12)

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written by DigitalGypsy66, March 18, 2011 - 11:32 AM

Great piece, Seth.

I read recently (and can't remember where, otherwise I would provide a link) that football teams used to have a drill to simulate what it was like to play with their "bells rung."

Basically, a player would lie on his back with feet and arms raised in the air, and a teammate would spin you around until you were dizzy. Then they would have ball recovery drills, chasing an opponent down the field. Unbelievable that they would actually train for this.

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written by eman41, March 18, 2011 - 11:41 AM

Back in the 70s water, like helmets in the NHL, was for the weak. Water made you cramp up. It was for losers...until kids started dropping dead.

It's always been a reactive society.

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written by JBM425, March 18, 2011 - 02:10 PM

Seth nailed it (pardon the pun). The only thing I can add is that Don Cherry insists that fighting is no big deal; he has stated on many occasions that nobody ever died from a fight. That may be true in the NHL, but about a year or two ago in an Ontario amateur senior hockey game someone did die as a result of a fight. The NHL won't react (as eman41 suggests correctly) until someone does die as result of a fight or a head shot in an NHL game; even if it happens in the AHL or the ECHL the NHL Powers That Be will just rationalize the status quo as "it didn't happen in our league, so it doesn't count."

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written by Disgruntled Goat, March 18, 2011 - 02:56 PM

I'm willing to give the NHL the benefit of the doubt, although they don't deserve it, and wait until after the season to see what measures they come up with. My hope is that they are resisting changing rules in the middle of the season with the goal of finding some logical regulations they can implement for next year.

The amazing part to me is that despite the constant attention this issue has come under the last few weeks, some players seem oblivious of the danger they are putting each other in. Heatley's elbow from the other was as intentionally vicious as anything in recent memory, unless you believe, as I do, that Chara's hit was intentional.

I will point out, in regards to Mike Webster much like Bob Probert, that it is impossible to directly link the head shots he took during his career to the mental deterioration he suffered later in life. He was a known steroid user during his career and drug abuser later in life. It is quite likely that concussions at least contributed to his problems, but to discount the physical and mental effects that drugs took on him would be myopic at best. In any event, its a terribly sad story.

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written by GoHomeFlyers, March 18, 2011 - 03:32 PM

Sad story, never knew the extent of how bad it was for Mike W until I read the link

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written by leahbackus, March 18, 2011 - 03:36 PM

"...players who wear visors are still seen as soft or even cowards by many involved in the sport."

You mean ignorant blowhards like Don Cherry. His contempt for anything safety-related shines through every commentary he makes. Not to mention his borderline racism against anyone not white and from Ontario. One wonders how many generations of Canadian hockey players have been infested by his peculiar ideas about what makes the game of hockey great. Then there's Captain Barbeque Sauce (aka Bruce Boudreau) who thinks fans should just stay home if they don't like the violence. I wonder if any Caps fans are taking him at his word?

I'm increasingly afraid that someone is going to have to die before things change. Oh...and speaking of which, I heard a report yesterday claiming that Max Pacioretty could return in as soon as four weeks. After a broken neck bone...

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written by djbst75, March 18, 2011 - 03:40 PM

And that is why the NHL needs to step up so another tragedy like this can be avoided.

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written by eman41, March 18, 2011 - 03:50 PM

Somewhat related example: There were never any nets behind the goals...until someone died.

There used to be no glass behind the benches...until players fought the crowd.

The NHL's dense executives refuse to be proactive. Take out the glass between the benches, remove the seamless glass, and make players wear smaller shoulder/elbow pads. You don't need football-sized shoulder pads in hockey.

Many players (stars especially) have come forward and said that everyone knows what they're doing on the ice. We always praise elite players because the game "slows down" for them. But if they screw up and run someone...it was a bang-bang play, it was too fast to react! B.S.

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written by Disgruntled Goat, March 18, 2011 - 04:01 PM

Eliminating hard plastic elbow pads would be a step in the right direction, which Don "Stopped Clock" Cherry supports.
http://msn.foxsports.com/nhl/s...iny-031711

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written by leahbackus, March 18, 2011 - 04:12 PM

I'm amazed that there is any safety measure that man actually supports. I was beginning to think his brain was damaged from all the polyester fumes. (I don't know...maybe it's because I'm female but I have a hard time taking anyone seriously who has such bad taste in sport coats...)

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written by JBM425, March 18, 2011 - 05:09 PM

@leahbackus, "I have a hard time taking anyone seriously who has such bad taste in sport coats..." Not to mention, a man who wears such huge shirt collars and strangle-tight neckties! Those two things are probably choking off the blood supply to his brain, which may explain a lot of his comment. I used to like Don Cherry even when I disagreed with him, but his act has worn out its welcome with me. I skip "Coach's Corner" and watch "Satellite Hotstove" during the second intermission instead.

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written by djbst75, March 18, 2011 - 05:49 PM

Brian Burke telling Shero that Lemieux should shut up is all we need to know about the jackwagons who dominate this league....

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