A Minneapolis judge presiding over the class action concussion lawsuit brought by former players against the NHL has "ordered the unsealing of a series of 'embarrassing' emails sent to and from league executives," according to Allan Muir of SI.com. The documents are "not yet public," but attorneys for the 100+ players revealed that they include a '13 email in which NHL Senior Exec VP/Hockey Operations Colin Campbell refers to a Senators athletic therapist "as a 'freaking idiot' after the trainer laid out suggestions regarding the prevention and treatment of concussions." In her decision, Magistrate Judge Janie Mayeron "notes that several 'unthoughtful and unkind' passages in Campbell’s emails are 'relevant' to the players’ claims in the master complaint that the NHL has been 'callously indifferent in its attitude to fighting and violence.'" SI.com legal expert Michael McCann said, "On the surface, disclosure of insensitive emails supports the players’ argument that the league has not invested an appropriate level of care in its players’ neurological health. In the unlikely event this litigation goes to trial, jurors would see these emails and that would not help the league." McCann suggested that the bigger issue is the "growing toll on the NHL’s reputation, having not yet settled the litigation." He said, "Public relations concerns may ultimately win out as NHL executives debate the concussion litigation. If so, it will convince the NHL to offer more favorable settlement terms to the players." Muir wrote those concerns "may become a factor as the process continues." The emails ordered unsealed by the judge were "just a handful from among the more than 2.5 million pages of documents turned over by the league in this case" (SI.com, 1/22).
