NHL Deputy General Counsel Julie Grand in an '09 email to Commissioner Gary Bettman wrote the league should not put an emphasis on exploring the alleged link between concussions and long-term brain injuries among retired NHLers and should instead “leave the dementia issues up to the NFL,” according to Rick Westhead of TSN. In an email to Bettman and NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly in November '09, Grand outlined four suggestions on “next possible steps” for the league’s NHL-NHLPA Concussion Working Group (CWG). Grand wrote that she was "most interested in working with equipment makers and commissioning a pilot project to look at recovery methods, including the impact of exercise in recovering NHL players.” Two other proposals presented to Bettman and Daly were a "pilot project that would see a handful of teams wear helmets outfitted with sensors to measure impact data on different hits and a study on the long-term neurocognitive and psychological effects of repeated concussions among retired NHL players." Grand wrote she was least interested in studying retired players because they are “removed from the current issues we face." Grand in the email wrote, "I’d rather focus on the here and now and leave the dementia issues up to the NFL!” Westhead noted it is unknown "how the NHL responded.” Attorneys for former players allege Grand’s email is "evidence that the league has not taken the health problems of its former players seriously" (TSN.ca, 10/14).
