Sounds like he's in good spirits. Nice guy, I wish him the best that life can still give him. He isn't brooding or saying "oh woe is me" or anything like that. Either way I respect him!
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Excellent post.Some responsibility has to land on the players shoulders
Personally, i never joined the army because i dont want to be shot at... never drove a car faster than 100mph. I made that choice it was too dangerous for me
Wish I had video but Tyson Nash was giving Bourque a hard time all night, IIRC Nash took a run at him in the open ice as he was carrying the puck out of the zone but either didn't get much of him or he got shoved down himself but Murphy came flying off the bench and jumped him anyway, and the penalty cost them the game. Wasn't suspended because Steve Heinze saw it and hustled to the bench.
He was later suspended by the team for a big dust up with Pat Burns on the bench over (I think) PP minutes.
Some responsibility has to land on the players shoulders
Personally, i never joined the army because i dont want to be shot at... never drove a car faster than 100mph. I made that choice it was too dangerous for me
These are all short term effects of choices you might make. Do you think about maybe not getting a desk job because 30 years from now you might have debilitating back pain from years of not moving around, or maybe not getting hooked on artificial sweeteners because health problems years down the road?
Players probably knew hey I'll probably get my bell wrung by playing in the NHL, but I'm sure none of them knew years after leaving the NHL years after sustaining a concussion they'd become depressed, drug addicted and suicidal.
Concussion is a serious issue in all contact sports. It has been a huge issue in rugby, especially in recent years with a number of high profile incidents raising awareness. They have been constantly tweaking the rules to try and protect the players head. This coming season they are changing the rule so that no arm can hit an opponent higher than the nipple/armpit line in a tackle. Anything above this will result in either a yellow card (10 mins sin bin) or red (permanently off with an automatic one game suspension) depending on the severity of the contact.
The big issue in rugby was that even after a player was clearly concussed during a game they would still want to play on. This is natural for any sports player high on adrenaline who might initially feel fine after coming to! This is were the responsibility of the medical staff and/or coach comes into play. The coach's priority has too often been to win in circumstances like this and not the well being of his player.
There is zero tolerance to this now in rugby with a few teams being investigated and subsequently fined for not putting the well being of the player first due to either the medical team relaying false information or the coach continuing to play the player regardless of there being clear signs of concussion.
It's easy to say a player should take responsibility of their own body but in the ultra macho world of professional sports a player might be seen as weak or not a team player if he refuses to play especially if a morally corrupt coach or medic is saying he is fine. And don't forget the last thing a player wants to do is not play!
The onus has to lay at the hands of the sports organisation in question to ensure there is a) clear protocols in place to deal with concussion in real time b) an environment is created were concussion is taken seriously c) proper return to play protocols are adhered to and d) serious fines/penalties are given to any team or individual found to be in breach of any of the above.
There can be no excuses anymore when it comes to concussion in any sport. We know now how serious the effects can be long term. You would hope individual players will look after themselves but in a high stakes game were the last thing the player wants to do is leave the game then the coach or medical staff have to step up.
how many 16 year old kids in todays world don't know smoking might have long term effects? and how many start smoking anyhow?
how many of us don't know that carrying extra weight might be bad for us... but how many of us are going to hit the gym tonight?
when the boxer steps into the ring for the first time... how many honestly don't know that getting hit in the head might be bad for them?
as for your question... yes I do think about these things. my wife refuses to drink diet pop because shes worried about the effects of the artificial sweetners. people do make decesions based on this stuff
hockey players today are getting involved in class action law suits and saying that no one warned them about this 30 years ago... hell I didn't know about this stuff 30 years ago myself. I bet you didn't. and I bet the league didn't either.
ok... been there done that. if the players can get a lawsuit win... whatever... I don't care...
BUT HERES THE KICKER
today you know about this. today I know. today the league knows. and today there are 100s of young hockey players desperate to start playing in the nhl
everybody knows today and it doesn't change one bit of reality
the players will still choose to play because that's what they will always do. the risk is a known risk. the rewards are a known rewards. these players will with all the knowledge in the world continue to make the same choice
all this... I didn't know garbage... maybe it might apply to a few guys. I mean megatron walked away from his career... barry sanders did... there was that guy in san Francisco.... paul kariya retired early...
we can name a few dozen guys maybe that feel hockey/football are too dangerous and walk away
and we could name 1000s and 1000s this year who are going to play because they don't care about the risks
sorry... but its true
I mean there was no league that ever told these players to take steroids... and yet the players took them anyhow. theres no league that tells the players to hit the club after the game and get drunk... and yet the players do it anyhow.
im sorry, but players have always been willing to take risks that have known harmful effects on them because that's simply what they do. the whole concusion thing is the flavor of the month and comes with huge potential lawsuit settlements. theres a lot of rea$on$ why some down on their luck ex players might want to give this cause celebrity
im not letting the league off the hook... im sure as they slowly learnt about concussions over the last 30 years... they were reluctant to play it up and cause a panic. they probably didn't want to publicize it when they were first learning
but even today... most doctors ive heard speak say that they are still learning. they don't know all the answers yet. there isn't wide spread agreement how it works.
if the doctors themselves still aren't sure and still need to do more studies... how are we expecting the league to be 100% certain about any of it?
Smoking and poor eating habits have had years and years of research - much more than concussions. Concussion research is in its infancy. No one knew 30 years ago that getting a concussion would have the debilitating long term effects that it does.
If the league doesn't believe the risks and long term after affects exist, why have they bothered to try to mitigate head shots, why the concussion protocol?
im not sure your point... so I will just clarify my own
yes fat/smoking are well known... and people still do it
and yes concusions are not as well known but my point is that it really doesn't matter. people still willingly do things that are bad for them as evidenced by my example of smoking and overweight and many other examples I could bring up
trying to make the nhl the bad guys because they don't know how bad concusions are... is very flawed. boxers know... and they choose to box. car racers know and they choose to car race. all the knowledge in the world about how bad something is wouldn't stop people doing it
I bet if the roman gladiator games were brought back and the pay was high enough... there would be volunteers to do that too. I mean people go sky diving and bungee jumping for free...
people are very willing to take huge risks. women get silicon implants and we all know that isn't healthy... people don't really care about the risks if the rewards are strong enough
My point is they didn't know the risks 30 years ago. They do now. You state that players will still play - I agree. But the same amount of players? Will parents be willing to put their kids in hockey now knowing the risks?
Youth football participation declines as worries mount about concussions, CTE
Smoking and poor eating habits have had years and years of research - much more than concussions. Concussion research is in its infancy. No one knew 30 years ago that getting a concussion would have the debilitating long term effects that it does.
If the league doesn't believe the risks and long term after affects exist, why have they bothered to try to mitigate head shots, why the concussion protocol?
I have some sympathy for these past players because they didn't really have such glaring examples of what they would become when they were putting themselves out there every night. Some guys would still have done it, no doubt. What is completely ridiculous is that both the NHL and NFL try to downplay CTE in order to not look bad, yet they are both completely changing their rules to limit head contact. Sleezy. They know it's an issue but won't publicly fess up.
I think it's a fact that we know more now than in the past, and if they just stated that and said they are trying to make it good then alot of these players would understand. But I guess there's no good faith in the land of lawyers and insurance.
Their position has little to do with looking bad, ane everything to do with liability. They admit the reality of CTE, they get sued by former players, major.
This is why I detest Bettman & the NHL owners, as well as Roger whatever his name is & the NFL owners. They are like Big Tobacco. They know perfectly well that concussions and CTE are (and have been) a reality. To admit this they would have to pay up. Hence, stonewalling.
Disgusting.
even in todays world where you and I know the effects of alcohol... do you still drink? do I?
even in todays world where we can all read the latest conspiracy theories about genetically altered tomatos… do we still buy over the counter tomatos or do we take the time to grow our own or buy at the farmer market?
when we hear about the negative effects of sun tanning... do we cover up or do we still put on the bikini and show our bod at the beach?
its way way way too easy for us to point the finger at big brother and say they are out to get us. even when we know all the details, we still make the same choices. lets suck it up and own our share of the blame too.
I mean the forest catches fire and burns down my home... am I supposed to blame god for it? why did he let this happen? or is there a good chance that it was someone that didn't put out their campfire properly? I guess everyone might be blamed but will that stop me from living near a forest?
I like outdoor living... I will accept the risks. I wont be storing flammable gasoline jugs out in my yard though. common sense precautions against risks are sensible
are you trying to say that nhl or nfl knowingly didn't make common sense precations to make the game safer? seems to me they were insisting on helmets that the players wanted to refuse... were bringing in rules against stick swinging when players were the ones that did the stick swinging... were developing new boards to lesson impacts... and many other innovations to protect their assets {the players}
concusion research was never agreed upon in the early days. a lot of very reputable medical sources did not agree with the early concerns. trying to look back now and say that everyone should have knowing this stuff 20-30 years ago is total nonsense. even 10 years ago, there was still a lot of debate in the medical community
and today? what can be done? what do concerned citizens like you who are up to date on all the latest research think... should be done? whats your suggestions that the nhl isn't following?
do we just outlaw the game because its too dangerous now? tell those 720 volunteer nhl players they cant be trusted to make their own decesions? shut it down because they might get a concusion?
I wonder what everyone expects the nhl to be doing today... other than paying up to these huge class action lawsuits that they older players want to file now that they are out of the game
Gotta be 100% honest here....
Even knowing what I know now about CTE, if I was given the chance to have a mediocre 6-8 year NHL career (say P.J. Axelsson’s career).
I’d do it.
Both for the $$$ and the prestige.
PJ Axelsson's career was not mediocre
Now, back to the original discussion....
Smoking and poor eating habits have had years and years of research - much more than concussions. Concussion research is in its infancy. No one knew 30 years ago that getting a concussion would have the debilitating long term effects that it does.
If the league doesn't believe the risks and long term after affects exist, why have they bothered to try to mitigate head shots, why the concussion protocol?