News Article: NHL star Bernie Nicholls explains why he's suing the NHL (brain damage)

[deeshamrock]

Good read. An article voiced by Bernie Nicholls on why he's suing the NHL in the concussion lawsuit. You can hear the anger in his voice. From coming from a small town to culture shock of the big leagues and his career, which was permantly scarred by the brain injuries he felt the teams, trainers and league should have protected him and other players from.

http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/bernie-nicholls-damage-hockey-brain-article-1.2296030?cid=bitly

The NHL did not just wake up recently and say, “these guys are going to have long-term problems.†They knew then — they had to — and didn’t do anything about it. They never even told us what the long-term costs of these hard hits might be, and how our lives might be altered forever.

Today, I have a hard time remembering games I played in and even the names of people I played with for many years. Though my concussions took place 20 and 30 years ago, I still get extremely dizzy and am plagued by headaches. Since becoming involved in NHL alumni groups, I have seen firsthand how many other players also have memory and anger issues

Click to read more...

 

[417th]

I was there for Bernie's first game and have met him several times over the years. He is a solid guy, as solid as they come so this should be a very interesting case to follow.

 

[Basilisk]

Good read. An article voiced by Bernie Nicholls on why he's suing the NHL in the concussion lawsuit. You can hear the anger in his voice. From coming from a small town to culture shock of the big leagues and his career, which was permantly scarred by the brain injuries he felt the teams, trainers and league should have protected him and other players from.

http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/bernie-nicholls-damage-hockey-brain-article-1.2296030?cid=bitly

How does he know it isn't just Adult ADD? I have anger & memory issues. My brain is definitely nothing like it was 20-30 years ago. Yet I don't play any sports and have had zero concussions.

 

[Bandit]

How does he know it isn't just Adult ADD? I have anger & memory issues. My brain is definitely nothing like it was 20-30 years ago. Yet I don't play any sports and have had zero concussions.

I feel you, but that's not ADD, that's just called "getting older".

Everyone wants to categorize and explain everything, but **** just breaks down as you get older. Not saying there isn't a real issue with hockey players and concussions, just not everything is the result of a trauma, syndrome, or vaccine...

 

[Reclamation Project]

I feel you, but that's not ADD, that's just called "getting older".

Everyone wants to categorize and explain everything, but **** just breaks down as you get older. Not saying there isn't a real issue with hockey players and concussions, just not everything is the result of a trauma, syndrome, or vaccine...

Ditto.

 

[Steve Zissou]

Let's not compare ourselves with NHL players, like ever.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

Love Bernie, and he may not be wrong, but it's going to be an uphill battle to fight if things aren't documented:

I was taking serious and severe hits to the head, many of which were concussions that teams and the league ignored and failed to document.

Some of these hits would leave me woozy, some dizzy; others felt more severe. Instead of examining me for possible brain damage, trainers and coaches demanded to know when I could go back in to play.

If the stance is that the NHL forced soldiers back into battle against their better judgment, again, going to be hard to make this argument if it's not documented:

If the NHL had told me about the risks of continued head trauma, I would have never gone back onto the ice as quickly as I usually did. When I joined the NHL, I knew I would be injured, but at the end of the day, I did not expect to have problems, that would last a lifetime.

The NHL did not just wake up recently and say, “these guys are going to have long-term problems.” They knew then — they had to — and didn’t do anything about it. They never even told us what the long-term costs of these hard hits might be, and how our lives might be altered forever.

Not sure how the NFL's similar case is going but when concussion research has only picked up relatively recently and the effects were tied to head trauma it's going to be tough to say the NHL knew and said nothing years ago (other than what we knew then which was 'headshots are bad').

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

I feel you, but that's not ADD, that's just called "getting older".

Everyone wants to categorize and explain everything, but **** just breaks down as you get older. Not saying there isn't a real issue with hockey players and concussions, just not everything is the result of a trauma, syndrome, or vaccine...

Agreed, but playing violent contact sports increases the likelihood of causing the aforementioned issues by putting your brain in a rock tumbler.

I had two (documented) concussions. The first was the worst in terms of contact. Remember those cross ice knee on knee hits in the 90s? I got an elbow to the dome from a guy cutting one way while I was cutting another and knocked out cold. Lost teeth, blood everywhere, unconscious for a few minutes. I woke up and outside of a headache that day, I was fine. 10 years later, I took a glove lightly to the jaw and completely lost control of my body. I collapsed in the slot, totally conscious, but couldn't move for a few seconds. I was messed up for YEARS after that one. Point just is head contact is still such an unknown but if a guy played a rough sport and is having these issues it could be related to the degeneration that happens to the head after getting plugged oh so many times and I don't blame a guy for pursuing better situations for everyone through awareness.

 

[kingsholygrail]

Love Bernie, but I'll never buy that a player somehow doesn't know taking blows to the head is bad for their health in any sport or in life in general.

 

[Telos]

Love Bernie, but I'll never buy that a player somehow doesn't know taking blows to the head is bad for their health in any sport or in life in general.

Kind of in this boat myself. Love Bernie, and I hope the NHL is much more active in reducing concussions because they have serious life altering side effect, but even then they knew what concussions were quite well that that these activities were harmful and had potential life debilitating and threatening effects. They may not have understood them quite as well but they knew that they occurred and exactly what caused them.

 

[Herby]

Screw them both on this one.

The NHL claims to be doing stuff about concussions yet still hasn't banned bare-knuckle fighting despite the numerous deaths of many enforcers.

And screw the union for going to battle to protect guys like Raffi Torres and Matt Cooke, guys who are ending the careers of honest, clean players.

 

[LAKings88]

I love Bernie. Sad to see this.

Pro sports are ultra competitive. Even today guys are willing to play through serious issues so as to not lose their spots or even jobs.

 

[Legionnaire]

Screw them both on this one.

The NHL claims to be doing stuff about concussions yet still hasn't banned bare-knuckle fighting despite the numerous deaths of many enforcers.

And screw the union for going to battle to protect guys like Raffi Torres and Matt Cooke, guys who are ending the careers of honest, clean players.

Those numerous deaths of enforcers due to fighting have never happened. All three of those to which you seem to be referring had other issues - two of the three had substance abuse issues! How people can somehow just ignore this part of the story and jump on this theory that somehow "fighting" killed em.' is a akin to all of those "Loose Change" fools. Just because someone says something on the Internet, it DOES NOT mean it is true.

Oh and another thing. It isn't your JOB to worry about the players, it is THEIR JOB. Let men be men. And here's a truism about being a man, if you don't keep your head up, you are going to run into a brick wall.



Oh and hey Bernie. Maybe you were just too ****ing stupid to figure out that you could get head injuries and have problems after they forced you to wear a helmet. You kept playing. Grow a pair. No one lied to you, you lied to yourself.

And quite frankly, I just don't care. Of all of the dangerous jobs where people get long term damage or injury from their jobs, playing sports is the one I am least sympathetic to. Go find a real cause. Go help coal miners, or people who are forced into sweatshops or a plumber or electrician - anyone who does hard labor. But NOT THESE GUYS. They choose to play, as would many of us, and get paid extremely well, with the best possible medical care.

 

[King'sPawn]

Screw them both on this one.

The NHL claims to be doing stuff about concussions yet still hasn't banned bare-knuckle fighting despite the numerous deaths of many enforcers.

Bare knuckle fighting is actually safer for the player's heads than with gloves.

With gloves, a player's hands can withstand harder and more repeated swings to the head.

Making it illegal to remove your helmet is a start. It's not perfect, but if you want to allow fighting, you WANT bare knuckle fighting.

 

[LAKings88]

Those numerous deaths of enforcers due to fighting have never happened. All three of those to which you seem to be referring had other issues - two of the three had substance abuse issues! How people can somehow just ignore this part of the story and jump on this theory that somehow "fighting" killed em.' is a akin to all of those "Loose Change" fools. Just because someone says something on the Internet, it DOES NOT mean it is true.

Oh and another thing. It isn't your JOB to worry about the players, it is THEIR JOB. Let men be men. And here's a truism about being a man, if you don't keep your head up, you are going to run into a brick wall.



Oh and hey Bernie. Maybe you were just too ****ing stupid to figure out that you could get head injuries and have problems after they forced you to wear a helmet. You kept playing. Grow a pair. No one lied to you, you lied to yourself.

And quite frankly, I just don't care. Of all of the dangerous jobs where people get long term damage or injury from their jobs, playing sports is the one I am least sympathetic to. Go find a real cause. Go help coal miners, or people who are forced into sweatshops or a plumber or electrician - anyone who does hard labor. But NOT THESE GUYS. They choose to play, as would many of us, and get paid extremely well, with the best possible medical care.

You can argue that in football, hockey, boxing, racing, etc. that these athletes knew they would take a beating. The same could be said of the other jobs you mentioned aside from sweatshops I guess, which is a whole different issue. Are you forced to be a coal miner? Should you expect the company to provide you the best protection possible?

Sports medicine has come a long way. Was there neglect or ignorance in the past, who knows? If they think they have a case I can't begrudge them too much, millionaires or not. A lot of those guys are more than likely fringe players who did not make millions anyway. Were they forced to play, no? Doesn't mean they were not wronged or mislead. I can accept that as a pro-athlete one could expect to come away with serious injuries throughout a career. The issue is whether or not the extent of these issues were fully known and disclosed. Seems like the concussion mentality used to be to just shake it off and get back out there.

 

[Herby]

Bare knuckle fighting is actually safer for the player's heads than with gloves.

With gloves, a player's hands can withstand harder and more repeated swings to the head.

Making it illegal to remove your helmet is a start. It's not perfect, but if you want to allow fighting, you WANT bare knuckle fighting.

Well, obviously I was just referring to the fact that they still allow fighting in 2015, despite what they know about concussions. And wearing gloves is clearly not an answer either. They should just do away with it completely. They may lose a few fans, but I doubt it has much effect on the bottom line, fighting is so down anyways and most teams don't even dress goons, if people are still fans they aren't strictly to watch fighting.

The League has done alot about safety the past decade or so, the removal of seamless glass, the softer elbow pads, mandatory visors for all players entering the league, penalties for targeting the head. Give them credit for that, but kind of like tge NFL they dropped the ball for awhile there on concussions.

 

[Herby]

You can argue that in football, hockey, boxing, racing, etc. that these athletes knew they would take a beating. The same could be said of the other jobs you mentioned aside from sweatshops I guess, which is a whole different issue. Are you forced to be a coal miner? Should you expect the company to provide you the best protection possible?

Sports medicine has come a long way. Was there neglect or ignorance in the past, who knows? If they think they have a case I can't begrudge them too much, millionaires or not. A lot of those guys are more than likely fringe players who did not make millions anyway. Were they forced to play, no? Doesn't mean they were not wronged or mislead. I can accept that as a pro-athlete one could expect to come away with serious injuries throughout a career. The issue is whether or not the extent of these issues were fully known and disclosed. Seems like the concussion mentality used to be to just shake it off and get back out there.

My issue with the players on this one is they don't want any change when they are playing. Their union demands less strict penalties for guys like Torres and Cook, for years they argued against requiring safer kinds of equipment and they still to this day favor fighting in the game. That is fine, if that is what they want as players, but the problem is, after their careers are over and the concussion and other long term injuries start effecting their quality of life, then they suddenly want to file a lawsuit.

But this is not surprising in the culture we live in, if anyone has driven across the country, only casino billboards outnumber the billboards for ambulance chasers.

 

[tsanuri]

Love Bernie, and he may not be wrong, but it's going to be an uphill battle to fight if things aren't documented:



If the stance is that the NHL forced soldiers back into battle against their better judgment, again, going to be hard to make this argument if it's not documented:



Not sure how the NFL's similar case is going but when concussion research has only picked up relatively recently and the effects were tied to head trauma it's going to be tough to say the NHL knew and said nothing years ago (other than what we knew then which was 'headshots are bad').

I agree with you about what is being learned and learned in the last few years about concussions. The problem is anytime you go into a court you don't know what will happen. And both judges and juries have a tendency to apply what is know now and give the reward based off of it. It's absolutely stupid but what is done.

 

[Jumptheshark]

Love Bernie, but I'll never buy that a player somehow doesn't know taking blows to the head is bad for their health in any sport or in life in general.

As a Canadian who played till Junior B--and as someone who might be one of the supidest people on the planet (all time)--I knew damn well that the shots to the head could lead to bad things

but one thing to add--I took a bad check and was a little wobbley afterwards--not sure if was a concussion--but something was off. Coach told me to man up, walk it off and get back on the ice--I could not do it--I could barely stand. I never played a game again for that team. Healthy scratch for 10 games and then cut.

for me the lawsuit is more about the culture of the game then anything

 

[kingsholygrail]

As a Canadian who played till Junior B--and as someone who might be one of the supidest people on the planet (all time)--I knew damn well that the shots to the head could lead to bad things

but one thing to add--I took a bad check and was a little wobbley afterwards--not sure if was a concussion--but something was off. Coach told me to man up, walk it off and get back on the ice--I could not do it--I could barely stand. I never played a game again for that team. Healthy scratch for 10 games and then cut.

for me the lawsuit is more about the culture of the game then anything

It's the culture of machismo really though.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

It's the culture of machismo really though.

Possibly, but that really only affects two major North American high-profile sports in the NFL and NHL...though it's obviously at play in sports like rugby, etc.

 

[apadilla]

Not sure if Bernie is going about his predicament the right way. He is suing the NHL, which includes the Kings, the team that employs him. Don't know his salary, I'm not concerned about it, but I'm sure it's pretty decent. And he most likely has great health care coverage. I'm not sure if he has tried therapy and other healthy options, if there are options for him here. Thankfully I've never been concussed. So I don't want to put myself in Bernie's shoes. I'm just skeptical of him suing.

 

[kingsholygrail]

Possibly, but that really only affects two major North American high-profile sports in the NFL and NHL...though it's obviously at play in sports like rugby, etc.

The concept of "no pain no gain" is a big thing. Playing through the pain. Media personalities still glorify playing while injured. To say it's not a cultural issue but a league issue ignores that surrounding apparatus.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

The concept of "no pain no gain" is a big thing. Playing through the pain. Media personalities still glorify playing while injured. To say it's not a cultural issue but a league issue ignores that surrounding apparatus.

I don't at all disagree, I'm just talking about how/where awareness is being raised. I think I just saw something that pointed out how female athletes actually have it worse but no one is really talking about anything but the NFL/NHL when it IS a cultural thing. Those are being used as the lens and we're pretending it doesn't happen elsewhere since you'll rarely see it in MLB and so on.