It’s no surprise that a class action lawsuit has been filed against the NHL over the league’s having done too little to minimize the risk of concussions among its players, including not informing them of the short- and long-term risks of brain trauma.
This lawsuit comes just three months after the NFL agreed to pay a $765 million settlement to more than 4,000 players, many of whom suffer from dementia. Considering the incidence of head shots and hard hits that result in brain trauma in hockey is on a scale similar to that of pro football, many believed such a lawsuit to be inevitable.
The 10 players whose names are attached to the lawsuit include a couple of former stars — Rick Vaive and Gary Leeman — both of whom were elite players, for a time. Other names hockey aficiondos may recognize include Curt Bennett, a hardrock, two-way forward for the Atlanta Flames, Bob Manno.
Fans of hockey fighting would remember tough guys like Darren Banks and Richard Dunn.
Here’s are some thumbnails on the 10 players, courtesy of Yahoo.ca. And here’s the New York Times story on the filing.
However, the lawsuit notes that the ‘class,’ or total universe of potential athletes affected by the lawsuit is 10,000. So this lawsuit has potentially massive implications.
The 10 players all retired before the NHL struck its concussion committee in 1997. In other words, their issues pre-date Rule 48 (2010) which banned blindside head shots, for example, among other measures to mitigate the risk of concussions and the procedures to be followed if a players suffers a concussion.
Late Monday, Bill Daly, the NHL’s deputy commissioner, issued the following in response to the lawsuit:
“We are aware of the class action lawsuit filed today in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia on behalf of a group of former NHL Players. While the subject matter is very serious, we are completely satisfied with the responsible manner in which the League and the Players’ Association have managed Player safety over time, including with respect to head injuries and concussions. We intend to defend the case vigorously and have no further comment at this time.” NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly
A couple of things to note about that $765 million NFL settlement:
1. Many critics believe the NFL got off extremely lightly in its financial settlement, which is decimal dust compared to the annual revenue of close to $10 billion the league derives.
2. The settlement includes no language in which the NFL acknowledges a causal link between head hits and brain injury, including CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy), the degenerative brain disease researchers have identified as the cause of early-onset dementia in former NFL and NHL players.
Nor did that settlement expose the NFL as having hidden the risks from its players, or failing to do enough to minimize the risks of head trauma and its ramifications. This piece by New York Times reporter Alan Schwartz outlines how the NFL settlement was actually friendly to the league, despite the superficial optics of the $765 million.
You’d have to think that architecture of that settlement will factor heavily into the legal defence the NHL will construct to defend itself against this class action lawsuit.
The lessons gleaned from the NFL lawsuit, sadly, are not encouraging for those who believe the NHL can do far more about player safety than it has done historically, or is currently committed to doing.
