Player's Tribune: Everything's Not OK (Nick Boynton)

[CaptainCrunch]

Girls soccer has one of the highest rates of concussions in all of amateur sports

[tvp2003]

Originally Posted by N-E-B

Guys don’t make the NHL by simply being good at fighting anymore, and that’s a good thing. Back in the day most teams had at least one guy on their team whose sole purpose was to fight. In this day and age that role is virtually gone.

I still believe there’s a place for it in the game, but I don’t believe there’s a place for the “goon” anymore. I think the league is headed in the right direction.

This was my thought. A lot of the stories you read about are guys who wouldn't have made the NHL except for their ability to drop the gloves (even though may not have wanted to do so and it caused them significant mental stress each game). Those types of guys are no longer in the league anymore, simply because of how the game has evolved.

Having said that, if more "mainstream" players are suffering from similar kinds of challenges (for the sake of the argument, I'll use occasional fighters like Ferland, Giordano, and Hathaway as examples), then it's time to consider getting rid of it. Hopefully helmet technology can mitigate some of the impacts we've seen from players getting bigger, stronger and faster, along with rule changes to protect vulnerable players.

[Macindoc]

Originally Posted by McG

As a soccer coach, I have long wondered how many headed soccer balls are too many at all levels. If we believe that small movement of the brain repeatedly over time has the potential for damage, well I don’t know how else to describe heading a soccer ball. I ask my players to use other body parts to control the ball, but it isn’t always possible under the current circumstances. I was doing a high level coaching certificate and one of the drills was a heading game. After I got home my wife asked me if I had been drinking because My speech and demeanour was as if I was drunk. I hadn’t had anything but water. Pretty scary. People think that I’m crazy when I say that I’d like heading removed from all levels of the game.

Rugby registrations are down in the uk, and I can only imagine that all contact sports will have to acknowledge and deal with brain injuries at some point.

Maybe if we call them brain injuries instead of head injuries it makes it sound more realistic.

Like many, I used to love a physical hockey game especially with fighting, but now with understanding the damage that is being done, I look forward to head shots leaving the game.

The evidence against heading in soccer is quite clear.

http://n.neurology.org/content/88/9/901
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles...018.00240/full

I wish I had known this when I was an amateur soccer player. Maybe my memory for names and dates wouldn't be as bad as it is. The worst thing about what we are learning about concussions and soccer is that in the professional ranks, absolutely nothing is being done to minimize these brain injuries.

[cannon7]

Boynton says he wishes he'd retired at 26. But if not for fighting and the physical aspects of the game, he may not have even made the NHL at all. He might still be willing to make that trade. But just pointing out what the side effect of eliminating fighting / physical play would be.

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by speede5

It is interesting though, because someone mentioned McGratten being brought in to help players and in Ice Gaurdians he is a pretty vocal supporter of fighting.

I was surprised at that doc as it was really pointing at the cheap shots and other elements of todays game as the real culprit, and fighting being acceptable.

I have always maintained that the testimony of former and current enforcers on the issue of fighting in hockey needs to be measured accordingly: these are guys who are advocating for their livelihood, which makes it unsurprising that McGratton, Derek Boogard, Brandon Prust and others have come out with vocal support for fighting, regardless of the dangers.

But I would also point out that the emerging problem is not isolated to head hits and concussions, which is why there have been far fewer reports of players suffering the sorts of debilitating mental health issues from severe blows to the head in game-play. A major component in all of this is the culture of fighting that has accompanied fighting: it is the fear that resides with enforcers which pushes them into alcoholism and drug use, and it is the physical toll that draws these players into serious dependencies on pain killers.

Perhaps the culture is changing as well with the demise of pure enforcers. If it is, this is definitely a step in the right direction.