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Leagues and Governing Bodies

Bettman's Denial Of Possible Concussions, CTE Link Angering Medical Community

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman’s continued "emphatic denial" of a link between concussions and CTE in hockey yesterday "had many members of the medical and legal community up in arms," according to James Mirtle of the GLOBE & MAIL. Dr. Paul Echlin, who runs a sports-medicine clinic in Ontario, inferred that Bettman’s 24-page letter to U.S. Sen Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.)"'horrible' from an ethical perspective." Echlin: "To try to grey it over and to try and make it not that clear is not responsible." Concussion expert Dr. Charles Tator said that he "appreciated the extent to which Bettman had done research on the issue and agreed that the medical community’s work establishing links between trauma and CTE is far from complete." However, he argued that the NHL "needs to become a stakeholder in that ground-breaking research, working with doctors such as himself to investigate these issues." Tator: "They could be doing more. That’s for sure. … We need to continue this research. It’s really necessary to do it. We owe it to the next generation of players to get this sorted this out. Another generation shouldn’t go by without this being solved" (GLOBE & MAIL, 7/28). 

NOT BUYING IT? In Chicago, Rick Morrissey writes the claims that there is no link between concussions and CTE is "phony-baloney, and Bettman has to know it." However, Bettman "doesn’t want his financially challenged league paying out hundreds of millions of dollars in the future to former hockey players who need help feeding themselves." Those sentiments "might make him a hero among his bosses, the owners, but they should make him a heel among the people getting concussed while making money for those owners" (CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, 7/28). ESPN's Marcellus Wiley said Bettman "comes off as unqualified and disingenuous" with his comments. Wiley: "It sounds like a lobbyist who’s trying to protect his business interest over the players’ lives" ("SportsNation,” ESPN, 7/27).

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