Big news in the NHL world broke over the weekend and was confirmed today. The NHL announced that they were settling the lawsuit brought by 318 former NHL players and families of players. The plaintiffs alleged that the National Hockey League did not do enough to educate players about concussions and the risks associated with concussions, and did not do enough to prevent concussions in the game. The agreed settlement is for approximately $19 million and will amount to a per-player payout of around $22,000 and coverage of medical expenses for treatment of concussion-related illnesses and issues. The National Hockey League denies any liability and reserves the right to terminate the agreement if all involved parties do not take the settlement.

$19 million is a stark difference from the over $1 billion agreement reached by the NFL and former players in a similar lawsuit brought against them. Frankly, $19 million is pocket change for the NHL (Gary Bettman currently asking which pair of pants he left the $19 million in) and doesn’t even amount to a slap on the wrist for their denial of the danger of brain injury. $22,000 per player barely even scratches what these players received to actually play hockey. One of the most daunting obstacles that faced the NHL lawsuit was they only had 318 plaintiffs as compared to the over 20,000 players involved in the class action suit against the NFL. Several players have already said they will not take the settlement and want their day in court (in particular Daniel Carcillo and the estate of the late Steve Montador). I stand with these players wanting to continue the fight.

The National Hockey League and in particular Commissioner Gary Bettman and Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly throughout their tenures and throughout the lawsuit process have shown a shocking level of denial as to the nature of traumatic brain injuries and the risks concussions pose to hockey players. Even when not talking about concussions specifically, when asked if the League’s recent move into sports gambling will lead to changes in injury reports Gary Bettman has shown a shocking disregard for player safety. The hope of many reporters and hockey fans is that the need for information presented by sports gambling will cause the league to move away from vague reports of “upper body injury” and “lower body injury”. When asked about this issue, Gary Bettman replied that there are no plans to change injury reports because this will in fact harm players as there are many players who “play hurt”. The obtuseness of this statement is mind-boggling and downright angering. If Bettman truly cared about player safety, he would want to be preventing players from playing hurt which puts them at risk for even greater injury.

When it comes to concussions and CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy) Gary Bettman is living in a fantasy world. The NHL has followed the path that the National Football League first took when they were confronted with proof that repeated concussions sustained by players cause long-term issues and, in some cases, early death of former players. Just like the NFL, the NHL has tried to float their own scientific reports claiming there is no link between repeated concussions and CTE. Bettman personally has tried to silence whistleblowers who wanted to make it public that the NHL isn’t doing enough to prevent brain injuries, and has appeared to be glib about players sustaining concussions (some NHL officials have even denied that the link between football and CTE exists!). NHL officials also tried to acquire the transcripts of interviews conducted with Derek Boogaard’s family and neuroscientists at Boston University. Derek Boogaard was an NHL enforcer who died in 2011 of a drug overdose. His family donated his brain to research and his brain was found to have massive advanced stage CTE.

Some of Bettman’s defenders point out that it is a bad legal strategy to acknowledge the existence of CTE while facing a lawsuit over the issue. Sure, this may be true but Bettman and Daly’s behavior behind the scenes show that their denial is not simply a legal maneuver, it’s a truly held belief. Bettman’s denial and smugness on the issue does not merely harm the game, IT IS KILLING PLAYERS.

Some may ask why we as fans should care. I as a fan am not suffering from brain injuries and these players are paid millions of dollars to play a dangerous game, isn’t their salary enough to cover the risks? The fact is that improving the short-term safety of the game will make the game more enjoyable, and players careers (and lives) will last longer. Think of how many players have had their careers cut short due to repeated concussions, Hall of Famer Paul Kariya being a prime example. Sidney Crosby, a player rightfully considered to be one of the greatest players to ever play professional hockey is already suffering the effects of repeated concussions. He is not the same player today as he was before he sustained his worst concussions. Just this year, Vancouver Canucks star rookie Elias Pettersson has already missed games due to a concussion, and Anaheim Ducks player Ondrej Kase hasn’t played a single game of a season where he was expected to have a breakout year. Concussions keep star players off the ice and not paying proper attention to the danger of concussions puts them at risk of having to retire early. If Sidney Crosby has to eventually retire while still in his prime because of concussions, it would be a major hit to the National Hockey League. Protecting the players is mutually beneficial to the league. The players are safe and the sustainability and longevity of the League’s product are protected.

So, absent a large payout to players, what can the NHL do to change the discussion of brain injuries and player safety? Well, for starters the concussion protocol needs to be enhanced and expanded. Neuroscientists from Boston University (the vanguard of CTE research) and other leading neuroscientists should be involved in drawing up new concussion protocol that puts player safety first. Players should be subject to mandatory concussion protocol following all fights, elbows to the head, boarding calls, and other questionable hits where the head is the principal point of contact. Worst case scenario, the player is uninjured and misses 5-10 minutes of a game, best case scenario a concussed player is removed from the game and is not subjected to further injury. Furthermore, doctors to teams should be independent of the team. Team doctors are under pressure to clear players to return. If a doctor does not have a stake in a player returning, they will be less likely to clear a player who is not in reality ready to return. But most importantly, the League needs to acknowledge the existence of CTE and the dangers associated with repeated head and brain injury. As long as the NHL continues to be the league of denial, the problem will not get any better no matter how much money is paid out or how many changes are made to the game.

The “class action” stage of the fight over concussions may be over (In July, a federal judge denied class-action status to the lawsuit so it is not technically a class action suit), but the fight itself is not over. As I mentioned before, players like Daniel Carcillo are not in this for money or compensation, they are in it so they have their day in court in an attempt to help bring positive change to the game. Outside of the player world, just this week the Concussion Legacy Foundation announced the launch of their Concussion Legacy Media Project, a campaign designed to help journalists stay up to date with CTE and concussion research, and on the proper way to report about concussions and brain injuries. Bob Costas of NBC has partnered with Dr. Chris Nowinski, CLF’s founder, to spearhead this campaign. The lawsuit has been settled, but the fight for the integrity and safety of the NHL is just beginning.

Related Links/ Links of Interest

NHL Concussion Lawsuit: https://www.nhlconcussionlitigation.com/

Concussion Legacy Foundation Media Project: https://concussionfoundation.org/programs/media-project

ESPN Story on Lawsuit Settlement by Emily Kaplan: http://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/25256208/nhl-reaches-settlement-concussion-lawsuit