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The late Reggie Fleming, one of the National Hockey League's most successful policemen of the 1960s, has become the new poster boy for the game's peaceniks.
Researchers at the University of Boston medical school have revealed that Fleming is the first hockey player to officially be diagnosed with chronic toxic encephalopathy (CTE). In layman's terms, it's a progressive neurodegenerative disease caused by getting hit on the head too often and too hard. Doctors are discovering that those who participate in contact sports are susceptible to brain injuries that can cause problems long after players retire.
"It's not surprising. The more we look for it, the more we're going to see it," says Dr. Michael Cusimano, a neurosurgeon at St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto and advocate of hockey with a lower Ouch Factor.
He is also vice-president of ThinkFirst Canada, a brain and spinal cord injury prevention group.
"(Fleming) is not going to be the only one and I don't think the players themselves realize it. We shouldn't use the word concussion. I don't think people understand the real meaning of it. We should use brain injury. If your heart stopped temporarily, you'd have a cardiac arrest. But with a concussion, people don't understand it's actually an injury to the brain. They don't understand the long-term consequences."
Those consequences can be devastating.
A post-mortem on former Pittsburgh Steelers lineman Justin Strzelczyk after a police chase in 2004 indicated his depression and dementia was exacerbated by CTE. Strzelczyk was 36, but his brain looked like that of an 80-year-old. Former NFLer Andre Waters' depression and suicide was, according to neuropathologists, the result of concussions. Wrestler Chris Benoit went on a murderous rampage before hanging himself. The disease that afflicted them and Fleming, who died at 72 in July, can cause irritability, emotional outbursts, memory loss, stroke, dementia and is often confused with Alzheimer's.
It was only a matter of time before someone who has grown up with hockey's systemic culture of violence was diagnosed with the disease.
"We have known about it for a long time. It's a landmark study because it's the first time anything like this has been documented in hockey," said Dr. Charles Tator, who has set up the Krembil Neuro-Science Centre at Toronto Western Hospital to conduct similar studies. "It shows we have to eliminate repeated head blows and concussions. We need a new culture in the game."
Even the NHL may be starting to recognize this, despite Don Cherry's rants about codes and Matthew Barnaby's dissertations on honour. Fleming's diagnosis comes at a time when the NHL spent part of its board of governors meetings discussing the rising toll of head injuries.
"There's a lot that can be done if there's a will. I'm not convinced the will is there yet," Cusimano said.
NHL players miss about 600 games each year because of head injuries.
"The people who are supposedly the best at taking and giving a hit are the best players in the world, in the NHL. Well, guess who has the highest concussion rate in the world? The NHL. The more elite you become the higher the concussion rate becomes," Cusimano said.
Maybe those numbers are starting to hit home like a Steve Downie sucker punch. The Buffalo Sabres were upset yesterday at word Patrick Kaleta would miss last night's game against the Maple Leafs after the Ottawa Senators' Jarkko Ruutu caught him on the head with a check.
"Maybe they did not feel it was a deliberate blow to the head," said coach Lindy Ruff, after Ruutu escaped without suspension, "(but) when somebody's head goes into the glass, you really have to look at it."
Even the players are starting to realize the face plants into the glass, elbows to the back of the head, hits from behind and shoulders to the head can't continue.
"They have to do something," Sabres' Derek Roy said. "Everyone seems to be doing it and getting one or two games (suspensions) and then coming back and doing it again."
The onus for change doesn't lie with just the NHL. The problem can be seen in almost any community rink. Invariably there's one leather-lung hockey mom, or overzealous coach, screaming at a kid to kill 'em or at the very least hit 'em so hard they puke.
"There's a loss of respect because people forget why we get kids involved in hockey," Cusimano said. "We don't get them involved in hockey or football so we can see our kids get brain damage. If you were to ask 100 parents why they got their kids involved it was for fun, exercise or to find friends ... not because you want someone to kill another kid. That's not why you do it but we see parents lose sight of that very early.
"It quickly becomes 'whatever it takes to win, we do it.' And to win, there's the idea you have to be aggressive so that becomes OK; to knock the socks off somebody."
Hockey purists will lament without the aggression all that's left is figure skating. "Yeah. It's not going to be the same but it's still going to be fast, entertaining and you don't need the fighting and knockouts. It's just a different style," Cusimano said. "People have to have a willingness to change."
Either that or playing hockey really may become a no-brainer -- in the worst way possible.
BILL.LANKHOF@SUNMEDIA.CA