The NHL has "been ordered" by U.S. District Judge Susan Nelson to "turn over reams of data about player injuries and concussions to lawyers representing former NHL players who are suing the league," according to Rick Westhead of TSN.ca. The roughly 80 former players who are suing the NHL allege that league and team execs "knew or ought to have known about the links between head trauma and long-term cognitive problems but failed to do enough to protect players, all the while profiting from the violence of hockey." Nelson in her ruling wrote, "The Court finds that the (NHL's) blanket application of the physician-patient privilege ... is inapplicable here." Players’ names will be "redacted from any data disclosed and lawyers for the former players have been ordered not to re-identify or 'reverse engineer' any data to try to discern the identity of players." The league since '06 has "maintained a so-called video analysis spreadsheet that includes video footage of particular players sustaining hits to the head." The NHL had argued the video clips "should be privileged and not included in the data the league will have to turn over." Nelson wrote, "The Court disagrees that the video clips are privileged. They are several steps removed from the physician-patient privilege and statutory privileges" (TSN.ca, 8/2).
