NHL Emails Discuss Link Between Fighting and Concussions

While concussions and their long-term impact on athletes are often associated with football, the topic reportedly has been on the minds of National Hockey League executives since at least 2011.

According to Rick Westhead of TSN, a U.S. federal court in Minneapolis opened documents as part of a lawsuit filed by former NHL players that included "a trove of sensitive emails sent between high-ranking" executives. Among those emails was a 2011 email chain "in which NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly links fighting in hockey to concussions, depression and 'personal tragedies.'"

Westhead noted Daly sent the email regarding personal tragedies shortly after Derek Boogaard, Rick Rypien and Wade Belak died within four months of each other. All three of those players were considered NHL enforcers and took a physical approach to the game.

Michael Drapack of CBC Sports reported in February that there are more than 100 former NHL players who have joined the lawsuit against the league for failing to protect or inform them enough about concussions and brain injuries.

Westhead said the NHL indicated "players should have been able to put 'two and two' together about the consequences of repeated head trauma," but the players argued the league put "its own profits ahead of player safety" and "underplayed the danger of repeated head injuries."

One thing that stood out in the emails Westhead detailed was the back-and-forth between Daly, Commissioner Gary Bettman and Brendan Shanahan (the NHL's chief disciplinarian at the time and current president of the Toronto Maple Leafs) about staged fights and players who are known as fighters.

Bettman pointed out that eliminating fights would also cut into job opportunities for "fighters." Bettman wondered in the exchange "whether the [NHL Players' Association] would consent to in effect eliminate a certain type of 'role' and player," per Westhead.

In essence, there seemed to be concern from the NHL's standpoint that limiting fighting would not be welcomed by the NHLPA because it would result in fewer job opportunities. Shanahan said in the email chain that certain players train to become better fighters and take pills to ease their pain.

According to Westhead, lawyers for the former players said emails like that contradict the NHL's public stance that there isn't a link between hockey and brain injuries.

NFL fans will recognize a parallel. Steve Fainaru of ESPN.com reported March 15 that, when asked if there is a link between football and chronic traumatic encephalopathy, commonly known as CTE, the NFL's senior vice president of health and safety policy, Jeff Miller, said "the answer to that question is certainly yes."

Fainaru wrote that was the first time a senior league official acknowledged the connection after the league had publicly denied it existed numerous times.

Westhead referenced the NFL in his piece as well. He wrote that NHL Senior Vice President of Communications Gary Meagher called the NFL's efforts to make the game of football safer "smoke and mirrors."

What's more, Meagher said in the emails that "the NHL has never been in the business of trying to make the game safer at all levels and we have never tried to sell the fact that this is who we are. ... The question is: Should we be in that business and if we were, what could we possibly achieve without throwing millions of dollars at education."

Westhead reported one of the lawyers for the former players saw that as clear evidence the NHL wasn't serious about player safety, especially because it didn't seem willing to spend money to be a leader in the field or to provide further education.

While Meagher may have seen some of that "smoke and mirrors" as a waste of money, Joseph Brean of the National Post reported in January 2014 that, according to research by a Toronto medical team, the NHL's violence was costing it about $200 million a year because of injuries.

Among the injuries noted in the study, head injuries resulted in the most time away from the ice.

Dan Rosen of NHL.com reported before the 2015-16 campaign that the NHL and NHLPA changed part of the league's Concussion Evaluation and Management Protocol so that there would be concussion spotters who were both employed and trained by the league at every game.