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| English: A faceoff in the New York Islanders' first game of the 2009-10 NHL season, against the Pittsburgh Penguins. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
I don’t know about this? I think that when an athlete plays a
contact sport they assume a certain amount of risk and that participant should have to sign a waiver to play.
The Globe and Mail — Like the NFL, the NHL had had its feet held to the fire in recent years over the manner in which it deals with the incidence and severity of head injuries, both their prevention and monitoring. The Boston University Centre for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy has found evidence of CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy) in the brains of several former players. CTE is a degenerative disease caused by repeated brain injuries.
Several high-profile players, including Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins, have missed large amounts of playing time with concussions and the league has rewritten rules and changed their interpretation in response.
Frank Brown, a spokesman for the NHL, said the league would not comment on the settlement.
The NFL, which generates an estimated $9-billion in annual revenue, will not be compelled to share internal documents that would indicate how much the league knew about concussions and when it knew. That is one reason why Paul Echlin, a Burlington, Ont.,-based sports-medicine specialist and an expert in the field of concussion research, said the NFL settlement serves the economic interests of each side without having much of an influence on the bigger picture.
In sports like racing, hockey, football, MMA, you’re playing in a sport that the next play could be your last. It’s not outside the realm of possibility that you could suffer a fatal injury and be killed. I do have a problem with football players turning around and suing the NFL, especially the ones that have made a lot of money to play a kids game. That doesn’t mean I don’t feel for their plight if they’re injured in a questionable play.
