Hockey
Safety – At What Price?
Parents in today’s world have a concern when their Son or Daughter want to get involved in playing sport and it all revolves around safety.
Today’s sport athlete’s are faster, bigger and stronger thus the concern should the player get hit, pushed or shoved making them extremely vulnerable to any possible injury.
The first topic from most parents is the concern of safety regarding concussions and how to deal with it.
In the past we have seen (mostly pro) players get injured and forced to leave the game and let’s understand it’s played up by the media looking for that story that will make the reporter famous.
I for one am more concerned with the safety of the player than any goal being scored, should a young player get injured prior to the team scoring.
Naturally Coaches will take a dislike to this as most, but not all coaches want to win and put injury on the back-burner.
For some winning is everything and losing is something they simply don’t want to discuss.
Finally and it seemed to take forever but The National Hockey League Players’ Association (NHLPA) is partnering with Western University to enhance the understanding of concussion research.
The announcement was made earlier in the week in London Ontario to support research and awareness and comes with a “challenge gift” of $500,000 from the NHLPA to support the school’s research efforts.
“Whether it’s your child, sibling or parent – all of society can benefit from the collaborative research conducted by lead researcher Arthur Brown and his team,” honorary See the Line chair Eric Lindros said in the event’s press release. “With the help of NHLPA and the challenge they’ve set forward to people everywhere, my hope is that this research will one day lead to full recoveries for everyone living with concussion.”
The event was presented in partnership by London Health Sciences Foundation, the Fowler Kennedy Sport Medicine Clinic, and Western University’s Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, along with support from London’s hospitals, research institutes, and Western’s faculties of Health Sciences and Engineering.
The $500,000 donation is the start of a $3.125 million fund to help develop new ways to treat concussions and reduce the short- and long-term devastating consequences of concussion.
With the announcement comes a challenge to Canadians to raise an additional $2.625 million in one year to support the research.
NHLPA Executive Director Don Fehr said “Enhancing the ability to diagnose and treat concussions would obviously be important achievements and we hope that this contribution goes a long way to further research in this area,” “We are pleased to provide support to Western in this critical area.”
Concussions have been under the spotlight in the NHL and other sports, having been linked to long-term conditions such as depression, early-onset dementia and even Alzheimer’s.
According to the release, more than 160,000 people in Canada experience a concussion every year and half of all concussions are sports-related.
So now with more emphasis on head-shots one has to ask “will fighting ever leave the game or are we waiting for a huge law-suit to curb it?”
Good interview with Sportsnet.ca on this issue