The Super Bowl festivities of the last week gave the NFL the chance to once again step into the international spotlight and tell the world just how much it cares about the safety of its players.
That amount is "very much," it says. The league is filled with players who could get concussed at any second during any game played anywhere across the U.S.; and with all the attention now being paid to the effects that these brain injuries have not only in the immediate aftermath of their having been suffered, but years or more down the road, it's becoming more important for what is inarguably the most violent sport in the world to do all it could to show people it actually gives a rat's ass about the issue.
It doesn't, of course. Not, like, really. Because actually caring about concussions might affect the league's massive bottom line, and maybe even cut into owners' profits, and obviously we cannot have that.
Therefore, Roger Goodell, a commissioner who somehow almost makes Gary Bettman seem likable, goes out and talks at length about the NFL's concussion problem during his annual State of the League address, but anyone paying the slightest attention sees that it's all lip service. Nothing he has to say, or will force the league to do, actually does anything to change the culture that lends itself so readily to the problem. Hall of Famers like Deion Sanders saying that guys who get concussions are just milking it to keep drawing a paycheck just underscores the horrible problem the league has with how it views injuries in general. That the horrific Dan Le Batard story of Jason Taylor just about dying, and playing with a catheter so as not to miss a single game, didn't scare anyone into action tells you everything you need to know about the problem, and the NFL's myopic approach to the issue — which is to say, not doing anything — is troubling to say the least.
Again, the NFL isn't doing anything now, but it's at least getting some wheels in motion on the matter. Over the weekend, it announced a partnership with General Electric to develop ways to better protect against concussions, and detect whether they've occurred. Part of that includes contributions of $50 million over the next four years. In addition, the NFLPA finally pushed through its efforts to have independent neurologists present on sidelines during games to better assess whether players have suffered concussions during play; this after a PA survey found that 78 percent of NFLers trust their teams' medical staff "not at all," and only 43 percent consider their trainers to be "good."
So what does all this have to do with the NHL? It only scores to underscore how little the League is doing with regard to the rash of head injuries now being suffered league-wide, and to change the culture surrounding it.
In the past week or so, Gabriel Landeskog, James Wisniewski, Wayne Simmonds and Shawn Thornton all suffered apparent concussions during games. Landeskog on a legal hit, Wisniewski when his teammate ran into him and he went flying into the end boards, Simmonds when he got elbowed in the face, and Thornton when John Scott punched him in the head a bunch of times.
It's very troubling. One suspects the only reason the NHL isn't being confronted with the same kind of questions, and sneering derision, the NFL does with its concussion policy is that in the national sports landscape, no one cares about the NHL.
Imagine, for example, if the NFL had instituted an admirable program like the NHL's "quiet room" to evaluate players after they got their bells rung. Cheers all around, even if it was only precipitated by the league's biggest star getting concussed at least once in the space of a week, if not twice.
Then imagine the furor when the NFL quietly did away with the Quiet Room, as the NHL did, mostly because it wasn't working as it was intended. Guys want to play through getting hit in the head, and a lot of the time they feel fine in the immediate aftermath because concussion symptoms can take as long as a few days. No trainer or doctor employed by the team, it's been said, is going to tell NHL Star X that he can't play when he says he can.
And please note, by the way, that in getting rid of the Quiet Room, the NHL actually now lags behind the NFL in its approach to concussions. No partnership with GE, no independent neurologists. Just the hope all this goes away and guys don't get concussed. Plus, at least the NFL has some pretty clear penalties for hitting guys in the head. In the NHL, we have to break down video frame by frame to see if the head was the principal point of contact or if maybe a checker brushed up against a checkee's chest for one or two 24ths of a second before he drove his shoulder into his face and gave him a concussion.
If so, hey, everything's cool, Brad Stuart!
(ED NOTE: The NHL disputes that the "Quiet Room" has been eliminated. "Any player suspected of having suffered a concussion or who shows any such symptoms must be removed from the game and examined in a quiet, distraction-free environment.")
Here's where the culture part comes into all of it: Landeskog said Stuart hit him clean. The league agreed, because it didn't even have a hearing for Stuart, predicated largely on the fact that Landeskog played in the second and third periods after getting clobbered. And many — maybe even most — hockey fans are probably fine with that.
After all, if you suspend Stuart for that hit -- and I don't mean to pick on the guy since he's not part of the inherent problem -- then you're going to be assailed with accusations of "trying to make it a no-contact league." Which is of course patently ridiculous.
Everyone these days tries to hit like Scott Stevens, but if Scott Stevens played today he'd be drummed out of the league so fast it would give Raffi Torres motion sickness. You just can't do that kind of thing any more. And saying so, and legislating the rules in such a way that it might give guys pause before they try to put their shoulder through someone's "head area," isn't a bad thing.
Maybe that makes you think I'm going soft or that I don't want hitting in the game, but that's not a smart take. Understand, no one but the crassest of "This Sport is For Real Men" idiots sit there and say the NFL is ruining the sanctity of the sport, or turning it into a flag football league, just because they don't want guys hitting each other in the head. It's for the good of the game that they do not.
Personally, if it comes down to getting to watch a league with guys like Gabriel Landeskog or Sidney Crosby not getting concussed, or one with him on the sidelines because of a "clean hit," then I'm choosing the former every time.
We as hockey fans have grown rather accustomed to the NHL embarrassing itself. But when the bigger, better-known North American sports league is being scoffed at for its pitiful attempts to protect its players, while doing more for them than the NHL does, that's just mortifying.
What We Learned
Anaheim Ducks: Is it weird to anyone else that the Ducks have just one regulation loss this season? They've won three of their last four, with a shootout loss to San Jose mixed in there, behind the weirdest assortment of players. Saturday's win over the Kings was keyed by a Nick Bonino hat trick, while the previous night's victory against Minnesota came on two goals from Kyle Palmieri. Five Ducks are on at least a point a game right now, including Dan Winnik and Saku Koivu. Bizarre.
Boston Bruins: The Boston media's weird crisis of confidence over whether the Bruins are "Tough" because John Scott gave Shawn Thornton a concussion is hilarious. Yeah Lane McDermid is the guy now. Gotta have that guy. Not like the Bruins can beat teams without fighting.
Buffalo Sabres: It's nice to see people finally realizing that Tyler Myers' spectacular rookie season was an aberration, and that he's not very good. Before the wheels really fell off for Buffalo in a 6-1 loss to Montreal Saturday, Myers had been on the ice for six of seven goals the Sabres allowed between that game and the one against Boston on Thursday. He was only on the ice for two of Florida's four yesterday though, so that's a step in the right direction.
Calgary Flames: Calgary lost 3-2 in a shootout to Chicago on Saturday but that was after flat-out dominating the game. Shots at the end of overtime were 47-19 in the Flames' favor, which is going to win far more games than it loses you, obviously, but on the other hand when you're making Ray Emery look like Dominic Hasek in his prime, that's a problem too.
Carolina Hurricanes: I really don't understand how Dan Ellis has a 1.99 GAA and .939 save percentage while Cam Ward's are 4.05 and .867. This has to be some sort of Freaky Friday scenario, right? Like, that is the only possible explanation?
Chicago Blackhawks: Calgary went up 2-1 on Chicago at home with 35 seconds left in the game, and immediately facetiously tweeted, "How will Kiprusoff blow this?" The answer was, "By giving up this goal to Marian Hossa with 2.1 seconds left."
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