With Three Players Dead, NHL Needs To Study The Impact Fighting Has On ‘Enforcers’

0 comments

Posted on 5th September 2011 by Gordon Johnson in Uncategorized

, , , , ,

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.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/02/sports/hockey/deaths-of-three-nhl-players-raises-a-deadly-riddle.html?_r=1&ref=hockey

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.

 

 

Rick Rypien’s Death Should Be A Wake-Up Call To The NHL

0 comments

Posted on 21st August 2011 by Gordon Johnson in Uncategorized

, , , ,

The National Hockey League needs to take a good hard look at why two of its players, known for fighting often and hard,  have ended up dead this year.

Earlier this month Winnipeg Jets forward Rick Rypien, 27, was found dead in his home in Coleman, Alberta, Canada. He had suffered from bouts of depression for some time, and that ailment forced him to take two leaves of absence when he played for the Vancouver Canucks, as The New York Times pointed out. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/17/sports/hockey/rypiens-death-follows-bouts-of-depression.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=rick%20rypien&st=cse

A feisty fighter despite his relatively small size, 5-feet-11 and 190 pounds, Rypien had failed to show up for a physical for the Jets. His death was described as “sudden” but “not suspicious” by police.

Rypien’s death wasn’t the only shocking NHL fatality this year. In May, Rangers forward Derek Boogaard was found dead in his Minneapolis apartment. He was killed by an accidental overdose of oxycodone and alcohol. The 28-year-old had an addiction problem.

Both players were fighters. Boogaard was an enforcer who deliverd a lot of shots to the heads of his opponents, and he got hit in the head in return. Rypien wasn’t intimidated by bigger players: He took them on in fights on the ice.  

Now both are dead, with Rypien the latest tragedy.

“Comparisons to Boogaard are uncomfortable and unavoidable,” The Montreal Gazette wrote. “Both players, who routinely absorbed blows to the head in the line of duty, are gone prematurely after encountering serious off-ice issues.”

 http://www.montrealgazette.com/sports/Rypien+death+should+raise+flags/5264217/story.html

At a press conference, the president of the organization Rypien once played for, the Western Hockey League, raised some of the hard questions that these two deaths present.

In the case of Rypien, the Gazette quoted Brent Parker as saying, “There’s no question he took some blows. Whether that was a direct (contributor) to his problems, I guess that’s for medical people to determine. I couldn’t even answer that, but it’s certainly something that I’ve questioned and asked over the last 24 hours, and I don’t think there’s any way you can’t.”     

Brain injuries, blows to the head, can lead to depression.

Pro hockey needs to step back and find a way to help players address the stress, mental and physical, of the game. It may need to change some of the rules to help players. But the process needs to start before another young player dies.