The National Hockey League is facing renewed scrutiny over the lasting consequences that violence in its sport has on players. On May 1, league commissioner Gary Bettman appeared before the Canadian Parliament to answer questions about head and brain injuries in hockey – a topic of growing concern among current and former players, but which Bettman has often dismissed.
Bettman maintained this position throughout the hearing. But the circumstances surrounding the game raise the question of how long the NHL will be able to plausibly deny the sport’s potential risk.
The group that interrogated Bettman was part of a parliamentary subcommittee on sports-related concussions. The subcommittee met as attention to fights and head hits in hockey has increased, coinciding with growing awareness of the neurodegenerative disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE. . It is now widely accepted that the condition is linked to repetitive hits to the head that are common in sports where athletes crash into each other at high speed.
Since nuanced research on CTE is still in its early stages, many scientists are calling for greater caution in protecting athletes’ brains. Players themselves have joined the call for better security measures, particularly following a series of high-profile early deaths over the past decade in former players whose brains showed signs of CTE. In 2013, a group of former players, many of whom feared they already had or would develop the disease, launched a class action lawsuit against the NHL for negligence regarding head trauma.
Bettman and the NHL, meanwhile, have argued that changes to the game should not be made until the science of head injuries and CTE is more complete. The NHL defended itself in the 2013 trial by employing a group of CTE skeptics as expert witnesses who questioned the science of CTE. Bettman echoed that group’s views during the subcommittee hearing. In response to a pointed question from a subcommittee member about the connection between CTE and hockey, he responded: “From everything I’ve been told — and if anyone has any information contrary, we would be happy to hear them — aside from some anecdotal evidence, there has been no conclusive link.
The NHL stands out for its continued refusal to link CTE to head injuries sustained during a game. THE National Football League joins the majority opinion camp surrounding the CTE when he recognized such a link between football and the disease in 2016.
A series of lawsuits filed by former players and their estates will challenge the NHL’s position. A day before Bettman appeared before the subcommittee, Kelli Ewen, the widow of the late hockey enforcer Todd Ewen, filed a lawsuit against the NHL in connection with his death. Todd played 11 seasons in the NHL and fought in almost every one of his games. After retiring, he began to suffer from memory problems and depression. He committed suicide in 2015. I recently featured Todd in a short video documentary:
In the months before his death, Todd confided to Kelli that he thought he had CTE. After his death, Kelli had his brain sent to Lili-Naz Hazrati, a neuropathologist at the Canadian Concussion Centre, for analysis for signs of the disease. Much to the family’s surprise, Hazrati concluded that Todd did not have the disease. Three years later, however, another neuropathologist, Ann McKee, one of the world’s leading authorities on the subject, re-examined parts of Todd’s brain and concluded that he did indeed suffer from CTE.
In the three-year gap between those diagnoses, the NHL employed Hazrati to defend the players’ ongoing class-action lawsuit over head injuries. In her report, she cited Todd’s negative CTE diagnosis to refute a causal link between hockey and CTE. In a subsequent deposition, Hazrati again asserted that there was no connection between CTE and head trauma. “We don’t know if one causes the other,” she said. When asked if she thought CTE was a disease, Hazrati said it was more of a “pattern seen on a slide.”
Last month, in an email response to interview requests for my documentary, a representative provided a statement that appeared to contradict this assertion: “Dr. Hazrati does not deny that concussions can cause harm to the brain, potentially leading to a progressive neurodegenerative disease. (Hazrati declined multiple interview requests for my documentary and did not comment on Kelli Ewen’s allegations for this article.)
Kelli Ewen new trial details the failure of Hazrati and the NHL to correct the statements they have made regarding Todd since news of his positive diagnosis was released. It goes on to allege that Hazrati and the NHL had an undisclosed relationship at the time Kelli first sent Todd’s brain for examination, and that Hazrati falsely represented herself as “an independent, neutral neuropathologist who believed that CTE was a real disease.” Kelli says that if she had known about these mitigating factors, she would not have had Hazrati analyze Todd’s brain.
Last November, the NHL offered a settlement to former players involved in the class-action lawsuit. This amounted to approximately $22,000 per player, with up to $75,000 in medical care. According to a lawyer representing the players in the case, most of those involved are expected to accept the settlement.
Kelli Ewen’s new lawsuit, however, could set a precedent for players who do not accept the settlement and instead pursue their own lawsuits. The NHL used Ewen’s initial negative diagnosis as a shield in one of its most public confrontations with the demons surrounding hockey. With that shield gone, the league may have fewer ways to defend itself during a next round of looming court battles, when players and their families could once again pressure Bettman and his colleagues to think about the possibility of the danger of hockey and that they do more to protect against injury.
“Todd’s death can no longer be used to justify the NHL’s complete lack of concern about head hits and on-ice violence,” Kelli’s lawsuit notes. “His death and diagnosis of CTE should instead be a motivating force for positive change in NHL gameplay, and constitute further evidence that the repeated head hits suffered by NHL players result in neurocognitive deficits to long term.”
In a press scrum following the subcommittee hearing, Bettman said he would not retract his statements regarding Todd Ewen. The NHL did not respond to further interview requests.
