I am deeply fascinated with the power of the human brain.
This is why a recent interview (French only) on the widespread nature of concussions in sports has greatly alarmed me.
In a very solid and poignant piece of journalism, veteran reporter Benoit Dutrizac from Les Francs Tireurs, a local TV show in Quebec, showed that concussions in sports were increasingly being linked to long-term brain damage, notably to degenerative brain disorders such as ALS, aka Lou Gehrig’s disease.
The topic has been in the news quite frequently recently with the concussions of high-profile athletes like NHL players Sidney Crosby and Max Pacioretty or extreme fighter Georges St-Pierre, but this is far from a new phenomenon.
The Scary Part
Dutrizac pointed out the most frightening aspects of all of this:
- Most concussions happen to amateur athletes (which represent 99% of all athletes).
- Most concussions go undetected until it is too late.
- Many athletes that have concussions feel isolated, depressed and do not have access to the right support to heal.
Some of the startling facts cited in the interview:
- Only 10% of concussions result in loss of consciousness, leaving most concussions undetected.
- Up to 90% of athletes conceal or avoid discussing a concussion.
- There could be around 100 concussions per week in Quebec (according to an estimate based on 100K youths participating in amateur hockey leagues).
I think the interview is mandatory viewing for any parent with children in sports.
Some of these stats and further insights were presented by Dave Ellemberg, a doctor in neuropsychology and University of Montreal professor, who recently published a book about concussions in sports.
Hard to Detect
Concussions, as explained by Sidney Crosby in a recent interview, are hard to detect, hard to understand and hard to heal from. With concussions, there is not generally a time frame or a span where you’re feeling better. You feel like you’re getting better and it can be one day and you’re back to where you started. It’s a frustrating injury and one that anyone has gone through can relate. It’s a hard one to understand unless you’ve gone through it.”
Concussions are the result of the brain bouncing around and hitting the walls of the cranium, resulting in a cascade of inflammation and auto-destruction of neurones. A concussion can be accompanied by symptoms such as blurred vision, headaches, confusion, sensitivity to light, impaired judgement, nausea, depression, dementia, ALS and memory loss including Alzheimer’s disease.
While some professional athletes may have access to top medical talent or resources for treatment, injuries to amateur athletes can be even more crippling financially and on a personal level in the absence of proper resources to treat these injuries.
Harsher penalties
Ellemberg’s book calls for heightened awareness as a society and intervention from sports-related officials to prevent widespread ramp-up of sports-related brain damage.
As an example, Dutrizac highlights a recent law passed in the US to make it illegal for a coach to put on the field an athlete after he/she has shown signs of a concussion. The law, which initially passed in 2009 in the state of Washington, has now spread to 40 states. But not in Canada, yet.
Some penalties and sanctions in professional sports aim to curb reckless behaviour in sports. The instigator rule in hockey adds an additional penalty to a player starting an altercation. Same goes for the penalty for a high sticking offence where blood is drawn. In response to its “concussion problem”, the NHL laid out in 2011 a five-point plan to curb head-related injuries. However, according to many experts and athletes, this only scratches the surface. Gregoire suggests a strict “one fight and you’re out of the game rule” as a minimum standard.
Regulation in professional sports needs to go much farther to make it clear to everyone (athletes, coaches, managers) that head-related violence is simply inexcusable. Furthermore, government regulation and general awareness especially need to be heightened in amateur sports, where injuries suffered during play may be yield long-lasting consequences for young athletes.”
Tough guys
What made the Dutrizac interview so relevant and riveting was the participation of former CFL players Etienne Boulay and Gabriel Grégoire — two champions and extremely tough guys by any measure.
Both spoke out about sports-related brain damage in a very personal way. In a moving segment, the interview showed Alouettes linebacker Grégoire’s former linesmen in wheelchairs struggling with mental diseases. Several of his teammates passed away from illness in their 50s and 60s.
Most interestingly, both athletes courageously broke the taboo that is too common for athletes of avoiding talking about physical weakness. Boulay even confessed that he previously considered other athletes struggling with depression or mental issues as “weak”, before suffering with his own post-trauma bouts of depression and understanding their situation better years later.
Sadly, their current efforts to talk about mental illness have not always been well received. A few hardcore sport fans have lashed back to both dismiss and attack their efforts.
I truly hope that the voices of these two courageous athletes, and other who choose to follow in their footsteps to take a stand, will continue to be heard and rise above a few critics. The stories need to be heard, not brushed under the carpet.
An Outlet for Frustration
In a recent interview on variety show “Tout le Monde en Parle”, retired ultimate fighter and well-respected local Quebec hero George St-Pierre told the audience that fighting was an outlet for his frustrations, some of which date from his childhood. Without fighting, St-Pierre said, he might be on the streets or in prison.
Sports can indeed be an exceptionally powerful conduit for frustration. However, those who seek this outlet should not look to play sports as a mean to express violent behaviour. Those athletes should train harder and longer to compete with others on a level-playing field in a sport discipline that does not tolerate violence — especially violence to the brain. The pounding should happen in the gym with metal bars, rather than being directed towards an opponent’s brain.
Let’s keep sports as a positive outlet for frustration. Let’s just make sure that sports do not allow for the type of violence that would otherwise be outlawed outside of a rink, arena or stadium.
My take
I may not personally be the toughest guy out there, and incommensurately less tough than warriors like Etienne Boulay or George St-Pierre, but I’ve played a few sports competitively over the years. I respect physical toughness. I respect the spirit of fierce competition. I respect strength and athletic prowess. That said, in light of what I have recently learned about concussions, I’ll go on record saying that I do not enjoy and no longer want to support sports where violence or concussions are a likely accepted outcome.
In this category, I think of extreme figthing and boxing. I think of fist-fights and cross-checks from behind into the boards in hockey games. I think of head butting on the line of scrimmage in football. I think of direct unprotected head contact in rugby. I’m fine with rough play, but let’s draw the line at situations with high likelihood of violence or even permanent brain damage.
Concussions will always happen in sports. In football, two opponents leaping to catch a pass may collide. In hockey, an unexpected contact may happen between opponents in the central zone. In extreme acrobatic events, such as half-pipe snowboarding, a rider may fail to land a jump. Accidents have been increasingly frequent in extreme sports, such as snowboarding and skateboarding:
With a traumatic brain injury sustained by the top competitive snowboarder Kevin Pearce this season, and with mounting scientific evidence demonstrating a link between cumulative concussions and degenerative brain disease among football players and boxers, the practitioners of snowboarding’s increasingly complex and risky tricks have begun to consider potential problems looming later in life.
The recent Sotchi Olympics also highlighted the danger of concussions. Pro snowboarder Tora Bright, 23, of Australia, “sustained three concussions in the five weeks before the Olympics, all while wearing a helmet”.
These events can be very sad. That said, those occurrences are accidental. In a way, they are an organic risk athletes take on by playing or pursuing excellence in their field. However, these accidental concussions are not the same as the highly likely, deliberate or even expected instances of violence targeted towards the heads of athletes by other athletes. The latter deliberate violence can and should be curbed.”
What Fans Want
A lot has been made of the argument that fans want to see this type of behaviour. I’d like to challenge that. I doubt that hockey fans will stop tuning in and watching hockey if a fight does not break out before the end of the game. Hockey fans tune in to see great skaters score goals. They tune in to see great athletes make great plays. They tune in to root for their home team.
I really hope that a few seconds of enjoyment of rough or violent behaviour (such as watching a hockey fight) do not outweigh years of potential productive output from an athlete’s wonderful human brain. I’d like to think that we can all agree on that.
Further, I hope we, as a nation of sports fans and as a responsible society of citizens, are able to relinquish a few seconds of thrill to save years of debilitating and potentially fatal illnesses to our favourite athletes.
Taking a stand
Let’s make sports about athletic prowess — and only that. Let’s talk up collectively about violence in sports, especially around head-related injuries.
The solution is not better helmets. (Actually, especially for football, that has only contributed to the problem). The solution is our collective awareness of the problem.
Let’s protect our athletes. Let’s protect their brains and their futures.
Let’s play clean.