On Aug. 31 I wrote a blog about the death of a Winnipeg Jets hockey pl;ayer, with the headline “Rick Rypien’s Death Should Be A Wake-Up Call To The NHL.”
https://waiting.com/blog/2011/08/rick-rypiens-death-should-be-a-wake-up-call-to-the-nhl.html
Well, now you can add another co-called “enforcer” to the list of young hockey players, athletes who essentially made their living throwing fists, that have been found dead since this spring. Coincidence? I don’t believe in such coincidences.
Last Wednesday Wade Belak, 35, was found dead in a condo in Toronto. The Associated Press reported that it was a suicide.
Earlier this year, on May 13, Derek Boogaard, 28, was discovered dead in his apartment in Minneapolis. And on Aug. 15, Rypien, 27, was found dead in his apartment in Alberta. News reports labeled it a suicide.
Last week The New York Times took a look at this trio of deaths in a story headlined “A Deadly Riddle.” That story noted that Belak alone was involved in 125 fights during his career with the National Hockey League.
In pro hockey, enforcers such as Belak and Boogaard, who was reportedly one of the most feared of his kind in the league, “go to war every day,” as sports agent Scott Norton told The Times. Enforcers are designated warriors, expected to intimidate opposing teams, and physically lay hands on rivals who take cheap shots at team mates.
Obviously that violent role takes a toll emotionally, as well as physically, on even the brawniest, toughest men.
Case in point: One former enforcer, Brannt Myhres, recalled being “curled up in a ball in a hotel room, scared to death for the next fight,” according to The Times.
So the question is to what extent, if any, serving as hockey enforcers contributed or lead to the deaths of Boogaard, Rypien and Belak. Some say it’s not a cut-and-dried issue.
The Times noted that while all three men were enforcers they were very different, as were the circumstances of their deaths. Boogaard, who sustained at least 12 concussions during his career, died of an accidental overdose of painkillers and alcohol.
His family, suspecting that Boogaard may have been suffering from the same brain disease as a number of pro football players, sent his brain to Boston University for testing. A research center at that school has already determined that nearly two dozen former NFL players had a brain disease, a condition called chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), that’s been linked to concussions they suffered while on the field.
The results for Boogaard aren’t out yet, but BU has already found evidence of CTE in the brains of two retired NHL players.
Rypien had a history of depression. Belak was married and the dad of two daughters, and didn’t appear to have a history of problems.
The NHL needs to commission scientific research, and take a hard look at enforcers and the physical and mental impact that role has on them. Then the league needs to find ways to save the lives of these young men.
