John Branch, in his work, “Derek Boogaard: A Boy Learns to Brawl”, examines the life of Derek Boogaard to inform readers about the difficulties associated with the lives of NHL professional enforcers. Branch highlight the difficult road for NHL enforcers, the physical toll on enforcer’s bodies, and the hidden damages an enforcer deals even after a career. The reading by Branch on Boogaard begins with an introduction of a quick story on Boogaards first fight then takes a turn to how his life was cut short in the prime of his career. The story continues with a life story about the rocky road to success Boogaard faced. Boogaard grew up playing on various competitive teams in Canada, but was only picked up due to his incredible stature of 6’4’’ 210 lbs in ninth grade, rather than his hockey skills. Due to his poor academic performance and his behavior issues, in Boogaard’s mind, hockey became the only that he could take to become successful. The reading goes on to tell about Boogaard being cut from many of his youth teams due to losing fights, because as Branch acknowledges, “There is not much use for an enforcer who loses fights” (p. 5). Following a hard loss to Mike Lee, Boogaard spent his summer with a wired-shut jaw, but managed to gain close to 30 pounds in that time. The weight gain allowed for Boogaard to be a more balanced fighter, along with …show more content…
With any sport, head trauma can easily occur, especially hockey enforcers. Repeated blows to the head can lead to a change in personality, which occurred with Boogaard. With the personality change, he became reliant on drugs and alcohol to escape reality and avoid the troubling fact that his life as an enforcer was slowly killing him. Mental illnesses can be difficult to notice, and for Boogaard, it was too
Throughout these genres, my main argument has been to get rid of fighting in professional hockey. Many will say that I am wrong, and that the game would not be the same without fights, that the enforcer is a crucial role in the game. My counter-argument is simple: have someone who does not follow the sport try to name the two players pictured above. Just about every person will get the first one right: Wayne Gretzky. He’s the “you don’t miss a shot if you don’t take it” guy, and probably the only hockey player that everyone has heard of one time or another. The other? I am willing to bet no one gets that one. That player would be Tiger Williams, who played 14 seasons in the NHL, most notably for the Toronto Maple Leafs. Diehard fans
Injuries impact the school life, profession, and the approach to society of a player. It slows down the natural ability of one to obtain and accomplish their aspirations in life, such as academics achievements or relationship goals (Dr. Echlin, 2014). Physicality and toughness are important factors in sports, especially in hockey. In a sport that is nearing a century old, who dare prohibit the originality of it? But with prolific past injuries on players caused by malicious hits, such as Todd Bertuzzi’s infamous check on Steve Moore in ’04 or superstar Sidney Crosby’s year-long concussion in ’10-11, speculation has started to gather regarding the complete exertion of violence in the NHL. With over 50% of players getting injured each year and
On the morning of December first of two thousand and twelve, Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher took a .40 caliber gun and shot his girlfriend 22 times inside his master bedroom. He then drove down to Arrowhead Stadium, the Chief’s home stadium, to express his appreciation to his team’s general manager and coach for everything they had done for him, walked away, and then shot himself in the head. This tragic recollection of the murder-suicide case executed by the 25 year old football player paints him as a monstrous and willfully violent man but what if one was to acclaim all of these fatal incidents to too many bumps in the head? Well it has been. Years after this incident, after medical examiners conducted an autopsy on Belcher and they found that his brain showed signs of CTE, chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a disease caused by repetitive traumatic head injuries, also denoted as concussions. There have been many documented cases where after contact sport athletes experience excessive concussions, they then seem to develop a seemingly new character as they come to be ill fully violent, overtly aggressive, or even deeply depressive. Many times this may lead to the diagnosis of a mental disorder or may end tragically, as in Belchers case, in the death of others and/or the athletes themselves.
In the event that a player makes a dirty hit on a skilled player, the enforcer’s role is to send a message to the other team. For fear that a skilled player will be hurt and unable to play, an enforcer will take matters into his own hands. As a result, skilled players feel protected and can do their job of scoring goals more effectively. All things considered, fighters are there for protection, not violence. Fighting as part of the game reduces injuries drastically. At the present time, fighting in the NHL is being heavily debated and there are two very different sides to the argument. In the meantime, with the stricter regulations against fighting, NHL injuries are at an all-time high. My coach, Kelly Chase—a retired NHL enforcer—says that with concussions being such a focus in sports, only 2% of the ones in the NHL are caused by fights. The other 98% are caused by dirty hits. In the background of the controversy, the game has evolved to where fighting is not an enforcer’s only role on the team. Beyond a reputation for being tough, an enforcer good hockey player. All things considered, fighters are here for protection, not
Often, players will resort to things such as narcotics, getting shot up at halftime with painkillers, or stay in pain the rest of the season. These attitudes are what Culverhouse explores in her novel with the use of ethos provoking stories and statistics that have you questioning if the sport should be
“"I just thought to myself, 'What am I doing? Is this how I'm going to live my adult life, banging my head, especially with what I've learned and knew about the dangers?' " Borland told ESPN's "Outside the Lines." (Sappenfield
In America, the sports industry is one of the largest and most powerful country; whether the sport is football, baseball, basketball, or any of the other sports the country has. Recently reports and documented cases have risen involving some of these sports’ greatest athletes, as well as current players, dealing with concussions (Famous sports concussions, 2012). Numerous athletes, some of them being the sport’s highest profile players, were found to have several mental illnesses and diseases, that have been attributed to head injuries sustained while they were playing their sports. The biggest and most predominant of these injuries is concussions. They can cause not only immediate issues, but also a lifetime of health
In the article, “Hockey concussion: Is it child abuse?” Chris Hemond of the Canadian Medical Association (2012) aims to educate his audience of officials, coaches and players, on the developing concern for concussions in minor league hockey. Compared to TSN Senior Correspondent, Rick Westhead, whose article “Lives shattered by concussions: former NHL players share their stories” is intended to captivate the attention of parents, guardians and society. Westhead writes about the effect of concussion caused brain problems on a former NHL player, Mike Peluso.
Jessica Firger writes “In many circumstances--if not most-- frequent blows to the head have effects that may last a lifetime, a condition known as chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).” This disease causes a variety of psychiatric, and neurological symptoms including memory loss, depression, anxiety, aggression and dementia (Firger). None of the blows have to result in unconsciousness, in fact, most people diagnosed have never had severe brain trauma or concussions (NFL Concussions Fast). Early studies found a disease in correlation to boxing, a condition called dementia pugilistica, or “punch-drunk syndrome” (Alzheimer’s and Dementia). Studies for dementia pugilistica began in 1929, outlining the symptoms as memory loss, confusion, dizziness, and personality changes. (Alzheimer’s and Dementia).
Although the hockey had a bad effect on him, he decided to stay in the town and insisted what he likes. Saul’s experienced told that people should stick to their dreams. Through this novel, hockey plays a role in reconciliation. Hockey is an important part of this
Players of the modernized Nation Football League are tremendously bigger, faster, and stronger than they once were. Taken from the Current Events of the Weekly Reader Corporation, the article “Hit Men” explains, “one reason concussions are becoming more severe and frequent in the NFL is that the average size of the players is increasing.” The physical expectation set by the NFL constantly pushes these athletes to achieve their most preeminent physical state. Although this “survival of the fittest” notion may sound encouraging, the result is seen in the amount of concussion numbers increasing over the years. However, this necessity to greater themselves can be seen on both sides of the argument. Jeb Golinkin, the author of “Why Parents Should Let Their Kids Play Dangerous Sports” acknowledges how “between the lines, our children learn the importance of teamwork, sportsmanship, toughness, and competitiveness”(11). The qualities attained through contact sports are essential in order to make it in todays working world, not to mention how valuable they are in managing interpersonal relationships. With that being said the argument could be made that these life skills could be learned elsewhere. Sports like baseball and volleyball both offer the opportunity to learn these qualities and many other skills, without the same risks football imposes on its players. Overall, although football
The sport of hockey is an intense test of power and will, and as a result of the injuries in sport are common realities that players and coaches are faced with. Among these injuries are concussions, arguably the worst injury of all. A significant blow to the head that causes the brain to shake in the skull and sometime even swell causes a concussion. These serious and sometimes life threatening injuries have always been a part of hockey, and up until a few years ago, little was being done to combat the cause. Although great strides have been made to help athletes recover from a concussion, the question arises, why are hockey players so susceptible to these terrible head injuries in the first place?
for the safety of the athletes. Collins, Lovell, and McKeag (1999) reported a 25 year old hockey
"I went to a fight the other night and a hockey game broke out." Rodney Dangerfield. Ever since the start to the game of hockey, violence has always played a role in the sport. While that role both contributing positive and negative aspects to the game, violence has taken its toll on not only the players but the fans as well. As violence in hockey is as many fans say part of the game and what makes “hockey” hockey, the negative outcomes overweigh the positive. From fights to brawls, slashes to high sticks, boarding to head contact the violence surrounds the entire game. As fans cheer and rant at their full potential when a fight breaks out during a hockey
NHL players suffer concussions at a very high rate. In 1997, the number of concussions among NHL players suffered during games was reported at 559. This does not include incidences where the player didn’t inform the team physician of symptoms that he was having, which would have made this number a lot higher. Players actually lost consciousness in 18% of these cases. Fortunately, there has been a significant improvement in these numbers over the last several years. The rates that these injuries are occurring have