It’s fairly hard to garner a ton of sympathy for Chris Pronger given his track record, but if I was to place a bet, I’d say his career is ending. What does draw a lot of sympathy is the fact is that the rest of his life may be severely affected due to concussions. The whole topic of concussions have been the hot button topic in the NHL for about a year or so now, starting with Sidney Crosby getting sidelined during last year’s Winter Classic, and hitting the ultimate low with the passing of three NHLers this summer where the link to the deaths are potentially being connected to brain trauma. I will credit the league for starting the move to make the game safer, and really trying to make sure their athletes are being taken care off. The NFL has also, but the steps taken there have been far smaller.
One bad concussion has more than just Pronger's career in jeopardy. Photo courtesy of aeryssports.com
Concussions in general are nasty business. If you have ever read any of my other blogs, that’s just an indicator, given how I have had seven at least, six of which came in a four year span. The baseline tests done directly after a concussion really don’t gauge very accurately if there is a head injury. It’s a good precaution to have, but as many can attest, including myself, you really cannot tell sometimes until a day or even two afterwards. I had instances where I had my bell rung during a hockey game, finished the game, then the next day during a class would have an awful headache along with a mental fog. These typically lasted from a week to a month, and I had minor concussions.
So while the NHL has stepped up the protection of players from each other with strict enforcements against hits to the heads, and checks from behind into the boards, it clearly hasn’t been enough. Pronger and Crosby were simply the two biggest names to go down due to concussions this year. Claude Giroux’s season is in jeopardy, Milan Michalek is shut down, Mike Richards is struggling coming back from a concussion, and David Perron just returned from a nasty one. In Giroux’s and Michalek’s cases, the hits that sidelined them were just accidents also. There wasn’t another player to blame, it was from contact with their own teammates unintentionally.
There of course has been some resistance (though it has been few and far between) to the precautions taken by the NHL, and more resistance in the NFL. In the NFL’s case there has been clamoring that quarterbacks are overly protected, and that the whole call of “hit on a defenseless receiver” is stopping all hits all together. The equipment measures taken in the NFL also have been regularly ignored by players. Back when Michael Vick was out with a concussion he returned a week later and was told by doctors to wear a mouthpiece that would help prevent head injuries. Vick of course opted not to wear it.
Hopefully Crosby's career won't be remembered as one cut short by concussions. Photo courtesy of washingtonpost.com
Both of these cases in football also carry into the NHL. There’s the old mantra taken up by a few of the older guard in hockey (like a certain Mike Milbury) that the game is becoming too soft, and players are being overly protected. The most referenced point has been that players in the 80’s all the way to the 40’s didn’t have concussion issues nearly as frequently. This kind of goes into the second case, regarding equipment. In the past the NHL had far less padding, and for a while helmets weren’t required at all. The padding was also softer, less durable, and over time the evolution there has been sturdier and more durable equipment that has in turn become far denser. Football and hockey players were far less protected then, and players laid up instead of throwing out devastating hits. Any pickup game in hockey shows just how drastic the differences can be. Less padding=less hitting the vast majority of the time. The athletes won’t take the risk of throwing a huge hit with disregard with the possibility of inflicting serious injury more apparent. There’s also the factor that they could be hurt in the process as well.
Never mind the whole fact that concussions were more of a mystery back then and no one really knew the long lasting effects from concussions. If you got hit in the head and had a headache, that only made sense. There was the broad education in head injuries where a brain breaks down if battered enough.
Additionally, strange as this is, mouthpieces do in fact help prevent head injuries. Keeping the jaw from slamming when there is a whiplash effect reduces the bouncing around, and there have been leaps in safety regarding mouthpieces over the years. In the NHL, mouthpieces in general are only encouraged, hardly even required. You can ask Duncan Keith about that one.
Giroux's symptoms of a concussion didn't fully surface until over a day after he injured his head. Photo courtesy of the700level.com
The NHL, and I’d say even the NFL, need to get more drastic about changes implemented to protect athletes. A lot of people may not like it, but hits to the head should be removed outright from both sports. Mouthpieces should be mandatory, and the equipment in general should be less armor like. Players feel invincible, and it frankly makes the whole game more dangerous. Even still, the most preventive precautions taken likely wouldn’t take concussions out of the game entirely. Accidents like Giroux’s where he fell then was kneed in the back of the head by his own teammate trying to avoid him can happen just due to bad luck.
Evaluation should not just be limited to the day of the blow to the head, but following days for the reasons mentioned earlier. Each player should also be evaluated for head injuries every one or two weeks just a routine checkup. Minor head injuries are far less pronounced, but accumulate to be just as damaging. Concussions won’t go away for good, but limiting and preventing compounding ones can go a long way. And keeping athletes healthy after their playing days should be paramount.
Related posts:
- NFL Head Aches This whole week the big debate has been on how...
- The Growing Epidemic This topic has been one I have been trying to...
- Gillies, Chara, and how the NHL blew it The discipline department at the NHL had another busy week,...
- Free Agent Frenzy Wrap: Atlantic New Jersey Devils: Last year on paper the Devils looked...
