It was an unexpected email, with a speech from the International Concussion Summit, on May 2 in Niagara Falls, sent to me that afternoon by the person who delivered it.
Ken Dryden.
If you regularly read this column (the right answer is yes), and if your memory is exceptional, you might recall that of the athletes I’ve interviewed, Dryden was always thoughtful, always intelligent, always available. So his email got my attention.
Most people (mea culpa) didn’t know there was an International Concussion Summit. Nor that there had been 10. Nor that Dryden, whose distant replays include losing three former teammates to Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, has spoken at three.
His 3,691-word speech was well worth reading…or hearing. Dryden’s written a book on the subject, plus articles in prestigious publications. Are the people who should be listening listening?
Dryden traces the stages of dealing with concussions, starting with awareness, when nobody really knew the extent of the damage. Then, managing suspected causes, by sports leagues, equipment manufacturers and medical experts. Solutions to minimize concussions, from experts in ALL fields, was logically next.
He proposed a conference that the Governor-General agreed to host in Ottawa.
“Two days,” Dryden recalled. “Gavel-to-gavel coverage on the sports’ networks. Everybody who was anybody in hockey would be there. The most respected coaches, managers, players, present and past, the most respected brain-injury scientists, researchers and doctors, the best equipment people. And most importantly, players who’d had concussions to tell everyone first-hand what…it feels like, what life is like with a brain injury. And, hearing, engaging, participating in this, all the top decision-makers in hockey — [from] the IIHF, Hockey Canada, USA Hockey, the junior leagues — and Gary Bettman. Anybody who had dealt with the problem in any way, anybody who might be part of its answer…the best arguments and counter-arguments. Nobody there who already knew everything they needed to know. All of us, puzzling towards something new. This wasn’t about the past, about attributing blame, pointing fingers. This was about making a better future.”
More than a decade followed. All Bettman saw were obstacles, running out the clock, never saying yes. More awareness led only to more managing, and not to solutions. Added Dryden: “More players injured. More futures diminished. It took me a while — I’m a slow learner — but still I was sure he’d do the right thing…opening up the conversation to problems and answers, to voices he couldn’t control, he didn’t want to do.”
While hockey waits, parents seeing too many hits to the heads of too many kids are driving the search for safety. So are wives who see what happened to their husbands’ predecessors, hoping to end the cycle. So are scientists who analyze the impact of many small hits, not just one big hit. So are players who recognize the real risk — a hit to the head is a hit to the head (“the brain doesn’t care”), knowing it’s the brain that controls their wonderful skills.
Every word Dryden writes or speaks he sends — first — to Bettman.
“I’ll keep at it,” he told me.
Bettman had a wonderful opportunity to leave a life-changing legacy, just by saying yes to Canada’s Governor-General.
Gary Bettman blew it.
