A Minnesota judge overseeing a concussion lawsuit against the NHL unsealed a number of emails in which high-ranking league officials - including commissioner Gary Bettman, deputy commissioner Bill Daly, and then-chief disciplinarian Brendan Shanahan - discussed fighting and head injuries, TSN's Rick Westhead reports.
The emails are from 2011, a year in which three enforcers - Wade Belak, Derek Boogaard, and Rick Rypien - died.
In response to an email from Bettman about staged fights and objections from fighters and the NHLPA to remove them from the game, Daly wrote:
Fighting raises the incidence of head injuries/concussions, which raises the incidence of depression onset, which raises the incidence of personal tragedies.
Bettman's response:
I believe the fighting and possible concussions could aggravate a condition. But if you think about the tragedies there were probably certain predispositions. Again, though, the bigger issue is whether the (NHLPA) would consent to in effect eliminate a certain type of "role" and player. And, if they don’t, we might try to do it anyway and take the "fight" (pun intended).
Shanahan weighed in as well:
The previous regime at the (NHLPA) definitely would fight it. But I thought their current position on illegal checks to the head is that it should encompass ALL contact, If we keep this simply about concussions and brain injuries then how can they argue against it.
Michael Cashman, a lawyer representing former players in the lawsuit, said the private emails show that the NHL has linked fighting and head trauma, something it has refused to acknowledge publicly.
"While the NFL has recently admitted the link between repetitive trauma in sport and long-term brain disease, the NHL continues to deny the link, insisting that hockey is not football," Cashman said to Westhead. "Contrary to those public denials, this internal email from senior NHL executive Bill Daly to commissioner Bettman acknowledges the link between head injuries, depression and personal tragedies."
Bettman and company knew these emails would be become public and was asked about them at the All-Star Game in January. He said at the time that didn't believe the emails would impact the case.
Additional emails released include those from NHL senior vice-president of communications Gary Meagher, who wrote in 2014 that the NHL, unlike the NFL, has "never been in the business of making the game safer on all levels."
Here's more of what Meagher wrote:
NFL invests hundreds of thousands of dollars each year around their pr campaign to deal with violence … They produce concussion websites, send former players around teaching young players how to play the game safer, they produce videos for young football players ... I could go on and on ... We do none of that and don’t view it as an important part of our mandate … NFL views their role as being leaders in the game of football …
According to Cashman, these emails again prove that the NHL isn't and "has never been serious about player safety at all levels of hockey and has been unwilling to spend the necessary money to be a true leader."
The lawsuit against the NHL was filed in 2013, and continues.
