Hockey Concussions: NHL Players Are Suckers for Themselves

The recent spate of concussions in the NHL has prompted a question that has been occasionally raised from time to time: 

What would happen if a hit were so hard that somebody dies?

What do Nodar Kumaritashvili, Steve Moore and all the recent serious NHL injured people have in common?  All are human.  All are victims.

What are they victims of?  Two things.

Physical contact.  And man's hubristic challenge to the world—that he can take anything that can be dished out and keep on going as if nothing as happened.

And still worse: No one will take any responsibility.  That stance allows the evils to continue without any second thoughts, reflective thinking or effective countermeasures.

Unfortunately, this stance has become more and more the pattern of Canadian thinking.  The poster boy is Kumaritashvili.

When Nodar crashed into a pillar and subsequently died, Canadian sports bureaucrats took the now-becoming-traditional way other Canadian bureaucrats take:  Blame the victim.

Nodar was "too inexperienced" to be allowed to compete at Whistler.

They belittled and ignored all the other more experienced lugers who said that Canada had built a too-dangerous track.  So now, with good conscience, Nodar could be returned home to Georgia in a box.

Yet for the rest of the Olympic games, lugers started at a lower level.  Why?  Could a tragedy have actually occurred?

Steve Moore was sucker-punched into the ice by Todd Bertuzzi.  Moore's career is over.  He has yet to receive any compensation.

If a union member in an industrial accident had been felled, guess what would have happened?  Not what has happened to Steve Moore.

So the reaction to the recent load of serious NHL injuries is simply more of the same ducking of responsibility and belief that man is expected to take whatever is dished out and keep a stiff upper lip.

Part of this thinking comes from playing video games or watching movies and television shows where people die, but don't really get hurt.

But man has never been able to take whatever comes and keep on ticking. 

If that were the case, Adam and Eve would still be alive.

Man cannot take whatever comes in the arena or luge track any more than he can take an incoming bomb or grenade.

Speaking of bombs, the current reaction is similar to that of a bomber—drop something and fly away.  He won't see the pain and suffering he caused below.

If the attacker felt the same pain his victim did, he or she wouldn't do it.  John Wilkes Booth wouldn't have fired if he could have felt the same pain Abraham Lincoln was going to feel.

And quality doesn't matter.

When Bobby Orr was leveled by Pat Quinn's elbow in a playoff game in 1968 and knocked senseless (which you can still watch on YouTube), he was forever booed in Toronto afterward, because "he couldn't take it."

So when the NHL's current best player, Sydney Crosby, went down, there is regret that "he isn't playing," but no remorse that he is not being protected. 

He's a man because "he can take it."

The NHL may never see Sydney Crosby again.  Or more likely, he'll end up like Eric Lindros, a player with an eggshell head who will be a target and get repeated concussions until he retires. 

Too bad.

So the answer to the question, "What would happen if a hit were so hard that somebody dies," has been given.

Nothing.

Because if the lesson wasn't learned on the luge track, it won't be learned on the ice, either.

Source: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/646575-concussions-players-are-suckers-for-themselves

Phil Hughes Damaso Marte Mariano Rivera Kerry Wood Francisco Cervelli Chad Moeller