[News] Ex-Flame Chris Simon joins concussion lawsuit against NHL

[Red Potato Standing By]

Maybe the players should not do illegal things then. I mean if I say you are not suppose to do something and you choose to do it anyways why should I be responsible for your poor choice?

[Strange Brew]

Is fighting really "illegal" in hockey? You get a 5 minute penalty and return to the game. Not too different from flipping the puck over the glass or embellishing a hit.

[DownhillGoat]

Originally Posted by Strange Brew

Is fighting really "illegal" in hockey? You get a 5 minute penalty and return to the game. Not too different from flipping the puck over the glass or embellishing a hit.

Anything that nets you a penalty I'd say isn't legal in the game.

Speeding is illegal, even if you only get a $200 fine and then return to the road.

[MarkGio]

Originally Posted by kunkstyle

Anything that nets you a penalty I'd say isn't legal in the game.

Speeding is illegal, even if you only get a $200 fine and then return to the road.

Right but you don't have Transport peace officers telling you to speed. For a very long time hockey coaches have told players to go fight. You know, "get out there and spark this team" or "protect our star players". You have Brian Burke addressing season ticket holders that we needed more Bollig. We've seen players with more than 50 fights in their careers and like 5 goals.

It's not exactly comparable to speeding. It's more comparable to a welder not wearing ear plugs all day, every day, and gets a warning every now and then from the supervisor. If you were to compare it to a speeding ticket enforceable by law, then everyone who ever fought in hockey or slashed another player would be charged with assault

[trublmaker]

I think a lot of this lays at the feet of the nhlpa. It's Union brothers creaming Union brothers that's the way the players play each other. When a player gets suspended its the pa going to bat for the hitter, you never hear of them praising a long suspension.

[blankall]

Oh cmon people...the NHL treated players like Simon like dancing bears in a circus. Yes, he hit lots of other players, but that was the job the NHL created for him. The NHL made a lot of money, because fans loved to jeer on players like Simon as they hit and got hit in the head by other players. John Scott's essay really explained it well. Players like Simon were expected to go out and intimidate other players at just about any cost. They were expected to fight and break the rules. If they didn't they lost their jobs.

Chris Simon is exactly the kind of player who deserves to be compensated by this lawsuit.

[Erick Estrada]

Yeah I feel goons were exploited by the league so I have no issue with them being part of this lawsuit.

[GordonBlue]

Originally Posted by blankall

Oh cmon people...the NHL treated players like Simon like dancing bears in a circus. Yes, he hit lots of other players, but that was the job the NHL created for him. The NHL made a lot of money, because fans loved to jeer on players like Simon as they hit and got hit in the head by other players. John Scott's essay really explained it well. Players like Simon were expected to go out and intimidate other players at just about any cost. They were expected to fight and break the rules. If they didn't they lost their jobs.

Chris Simon is exactly the kind of player who deserves to be compensated by this lawsuit.

and simon chose to do so, and made millions of dollars doing it.
he wasn't a roman slave who was forced into it.

he had a choice to get another job. but he wanted the fame and riches of being an NHL player.

there is enough blame and burden of responsibility for all concerned.

[MarkGio]

Originally Posted by GordonBlue

and simon chose to do so, and made millions of dollars doing it.
he wasn't a roman slave who was forced into it.

he had a choice to get another job. but he wanted the fame and riches of being an NHL player.

there is enough blame and burden of responsibility for all concerned.

I agree with both sentiments. Yes, the NHL exploited the players. And yes, the players knew and accepted the risks. Sure, the union and players fought against suspensions. And true, the NHL advertised big hits and fights to promote their game. Everyone has a role.

But like I said before, this is all because there's no WCB. It forces lawsuits. Think about any other workplace. A carpenter should wear his work boots. Sometimes he ignores the rules, he gets written up. But then the top dog shows up on site without boots and nobody says anything. The carpenter hurts his foot because he's wearing sandals, but still gets WCB. The top dog complains to WCB that "he knows the rules - everyone is to wear proper boots when working on site", while WCB turns around and says "Then why'd you let him on site all morning?"

This stuff happens all the time to every industry. If the NHL paid into WCB, only Simon, the Board, and the League would know about this stuff. But because there isn't WCB, it's lawsuits and headlines.

[TheAlpineOracle]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

Yeah I feel goons were exploited by the league so I have no issue with them being part of this lawsuit.

Exploited? What a joke. He chose to play hockey, he chose to drop the gloves. We aren't talking about a junior hockey player here who couldn't say no. He's one of the biggest goons to ever play the game with zero regards for his opponents or the code players of that ilk appeared to live by.

He had career earnings of 15 million dollars. I wish I was exploited like that.

[ToewsFan]

Isn't the lawsuit made up of complainants who for the most part, were not goons? Eric Lindros' concussions were almost certainly the result of upper body head hits, and not punches to the face. Ditto for Paul Kariya and Pat Lafontaine.

PS...found a great link in terms of article and news regarding the NHL concussion lawsuit:

http://www.nhlconcussionlitigation.com/news.html

[MarkGio]

Originally Posted by TheAlpineOracle

Exploited? What a joke. He chose to play hockey, he chose to drop the gloves. We aren't talking about a junior hockey player here who couldn't say no. He's one of the biggest goons to ever play the game with zero regards for his opponents or the code players of that ilk appeared to live by.

He had career earnings of 15 million dollars. I wish I was exploited like that.

But why was he paid 15 million?

I'm sorry, but let's just say you're going around the neighborhood bullying people and assaulting them. Isn't it saying something if rather than pressing charges, the community hires you and pays handsomely for you to do what you're doing?

If the league REALLY didn't want Simon hurting other players, he wouldn't have had a job.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by TheAlpineOracle

Exploited? What a joke. He chose to play hockey, he chose to drop the gloves. We aren't talking about a junior hockey player here who couldn't say no. He's one of the biggest goons to ever play the game with zero regards for his opponents or the code players of that ilk appeared to live by.

He had career earnings of 15 million dollars. I wish I was exploited like that.

Chris Simon's job title was 'hockey player' not professional boxer or goon. He got paid to play hockey but due to the culture of professional hockey he knew the only way he could keep his high paying job was to fight other men. That was the professional hockey role of enforcers to play sparingly and be ready when your coach put you on the ice opposing the other team's enforcer where you were expected to bare knuckle duel. Teams used these guys as human punching bags whether it be retribution for a hit on a star player or to change the flow of a game. It wasn't hockey what they were being forced to do. It's no different than porn luring in young girls with the promise of modeling where it starts that way and heads down the road where livelihoods are based on doing something that they don't really like doing but keep doing it because of the money. The league exploited these guys and its led to post-career hardships for many.

I'm not crying a river for Chris Simon but there are physiological tolls of addiction, depression, suicide, etc for enforcers and if these guys feel they were wronged by the NHL who am I to say otherwise?

[blankall]

Originally Posted by GordonBlue

and simon chose to do so, and made millions of dollars doing it.
he wasn't a roman slave who was forced into it.

he had a choice to get another job. but he wanted the fame and riches of being an NHL player.

there is enough blame and burden of responsibility for all concerned.

The issue is that the NHL purposely withheld information from the players and did not take proper precautions to protect players once that new information became available. As an employer you have a duty to protect your employees. Saying they should have done their own research and quit the only job their qualified for is BS.

[blankall]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

Chris Simon's job title was 'hockey player' not professional boxer or goon. He got paid to play hockey but due to the culture of professional hockey he knew the only way he could keep his high paying job was to fight other men. That was the professional hockey role of enforcers to play sparingly and be ready when your coach put you on the ice opposing the other team's enforcer where you were expected to bare knuckle duel. Teams used these guys as human punching bags whether it be retribution for a hit on a star player or to change the flow of a game. It wasn't hockey what they were being forced to do. It's no different than porn luring in young girls with the promise of modeling where it starts that way and heads down the road where livelihoods are based on doing something that they don't really like doing but keep doing it because of the money. The league exploited these guys and its led to post-career hardships for many.

I'm not crying a river for Chris Simon but there are physiological tolls of addiction, depression, suicide, etc for enforcers and if these guys feel they were wronged by the NHL who am I to say otherwise?

Also, the NHL also could have cut fights out at anytime. Instead, they literally put a spotlight around the fighters. You see the fights on highlight videos. The NHL encouraged guys like Don Cherry to put out videos glamorizing the fights and big hits.

Yes Simon may have made 15 million, but the NHL made even more at the cost of players like Simon. If Simon does indeed have concussion issues, he should be compensated.

[northcrunk]

Funny story about Chris Simon. When he was playing here my wife's friend was dating Oliwa. She begged her to come on a blind date so after pestering her about it she said fine to shut her friend up. They get there and it's Chris Simon and they tell them they are going to the french maid. She starts ripping into Simon calling him a dirt bad and saying "Why would you take a girl on a date to the French maid?!". They left and he got all pissed off and did a donut out of the FM parking lot.

[GordonBlue]

Originally Posted by blankall

Yes Simon may have made 15 million, but the NHL made even more at the cost of players like Simon. If Simon does indeed have concussion issues, he should be compensated.

I just take issue when arguments like yours focus on "the player had no choice. he would have been out of a job.", and putting all the blame on the league. "he was exploited by the league"

The league deserves their fair share of blame, especially as there is a human cost we're seeing.

but Simon was no dancing bear forced into his job and no way to get out. he chose to do so, despite the risks. One could also argue he intentionally hurt other players outside of fighting when he had no need to do so.

blame the NHL and blame the culture of the game, but you also need to blame the players themselves.
quit making the league the sole bad guy here. it's more nuanced that that.

and it isn't BS to say he shouldn't have considered quitting the only job the were qualified for.
for starters, it's simons fault he maybe wasn't qualified for any other job. Other "goons" seem to have had no trouble getting an education and other life skills. why didn't simon?

We all have to decide at one point to take assumed risk or do things we don't want to for a job, and decide if we want to pursue it.
I'm sure he would have rather made a big pile of money hitting people than selling cars or going back to school to learn a trade. he had choices.

Is it the NHL's fault it was the only job he was qualified for? "that's all he knew, playing hockey" boo hoo. maybe you should blame the structure and culture of minor league hockey before blaming the big bad NHL.

I'm not even arguing he shouldn't get compensated and I know the league withheld information.
I just hate that you're absolving players from blame for choices they made.

[sketchyt]

Originally Posted by TheAlpineOracle

Exploited? What a joke.

Yeah, Derek Boogaard, Rick Rypien, and Wade Belak killing themselves is a total joke.

[TheAlpineOracle]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

Chris Simon's job title was 'hockey player' not professional boxer or goon. He got paid to play hockey but due to the culture of professional hockey he knew the only way he could keep his high paying job was to fight other men. That was the professional hockey role of enforcers to play sparingly and be ready when your coach put you on the ice opposing the other team's enforcer where you were expected to bare knuckle duel. Teams used these guys as human punching bags whether it be retribution for a hit on a star player or to change the flow of a game. It wasn't hockey what they were being forced to do. It's no different than porn luring in young girls with the promise of modeling where it starts that way and heads down the road where livelihoods are based on doing something that they don't really like doing but keep doing it because of the money. The league exploited these guys and its led to post-career hardships for many.

I'm not crying a river for Chris Simon but there are physiological tolls of addiction, depression, suicide, etc for enforcers and if these guys feel they were wronged by the NHL who am I to say otherwise?

You hit the nail on the head. Chris Simon fought because he got paid big money to do it. No one forced him to, he knew what he was doing, and he chose to continue to do so because he might have to work a regular job for low pay if he didn't continue to do so. That call was totally on him and no one else.

I have sympathy for some junior kid who was forced to fight because the coach (position of influence) told them to. I have zero sympathy for some guy that willingly chose to put himself in harms way solely for financial gain, and because he probably pissed all his money, now magically seems something wrong without he earned his money.

Simon knew exactly what he was doing out there, and you'd have to be pretty naive to think he didn't know the risk he was taking at that point in time. He played right up until 2012 where he continued to act like a total goon on the ice in the KHL because that was the only team that it was still relevant. How come he's not suing them as well?

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by TheAlpineOracle

You hit the nail on the head. Chris Simon fought because he got paid big money to do it. No one forced him to, he knew what he was doing, and he chose to continue to do so because he might have to work a regular job for low pay if he didn't continue to do so. That call was totally on him and no one else.

I have sympathy for some junior kid who was forced to fight because the coach (position of influence) told them to. I have zero sympathy for some guy that willingly chose to put himself in harms way solely for financial gain, and because he probably pissed all his money, now magically seems something wrong without he earned his money.

Simon knew exactly what he was doing out there, and you'd have to be pretty naive to think he didn't know the risk he was taking at that point in time. He played right up until 2012 where he continued to act like a total goon on the ice in the KHL because that was the only team that it was still relevant. How come he's not suing them as well?

I know I hit the nail on the head. That he got handsomely compensated doesn't change the fact that the league exploited him and all enforcers.