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Originally Posted by Textcritic
Yeah, I don't think this is entirely fair. Who's to say what Carcillo cares about, or how little or how much his post-playing experience has changed him and his perspective? Unless you know the guy this is pretty inflammatory.
But how readily available and public was this information? Dr. Bennett Omalu published his work on chronic traumatic encephalopathy in Neurosurgery in 2005, and at that time his research was restricted just to head trauma experienced by NFL players. I don't know about you, but I as an educated hockey enthusiast sure do not have my finger on the pulse of current discussions in neurology and brain science. How many NHL players do you believe have made the effort to stay up to date with this sort of scientific research?
I am a fan who follows the League pretty closely, and the dangers of chronic head trauma, fighting and checking in the NHL did not register very strongly in my own orbit until the publication of John Branch's series of NYT articles on the life of Derek Boogard—who died in Summer 2011—and his book Boy on Ice published in 2014. By my recollection this was the first time brain trauma and hockey had entered conversations in popular media.
So, no. I tend to think that the dangers of CTE were not common knowledge—certainly not among the fraternity of NHL players—as early as 2003. The NFL did not even acknowledge the link between football and CTE until 2009, which was long before this discussion had even begun in NHL circles.
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15 years was probably a bit far back in relation to hockey (boxing and wrestling were probably the two sports where it has started to be mentioned at that time), but doesn’t change my point on Carcillo.
The guy was making brutal, and dirty hits on players until his last days as a player in 2015 - much after the effects of CTE were made public and post-Boogards death.
If he actually cared he should have been advocating at that time when he was still playing, instead of continuing to be a very dirty player and the cause of a lot of serious injuries and concussions himself.
It was only once he was added to the lawsuit against the NHL earlier this year that he became this big advocate for CTE and constantly calling out the NHL for their practices.
He had been out of hockey for 2 1/2 years and nothing was said...then he’s added to the lawsuit March 23rd, creates a twitter account the next day on March 24th, and then suddenly this became this very serious and important topic to him.
I actually think what he’s saying is very valid, and don’t disagree with any of his points (except the fact that he had no idea about the impacts during his playing career) but question the actual motives behind what he’s doing except trying to sway public perception to his own cause in case of the lawsuit.