Chris Pronger and The Answer to the Concussion Epidemic

NHL defenseman Chris Pronger is out of the Philadelphia Flyers' lineup for the rest of the season due to concussion symptoms.

I'm not a doctor, but if they're ready to declare the rest of the season a bust, then he must be a wreck.

I've only had what I think were two concussions in my life, both when I was a kid. One hurt like hell and left me dizzy for more than a day. Another left me with a headache for a while, but not much more. I can't imagine what it must be like to stumble through several months with a scrambled head.

The Twitterverse is going bonkers right now, with thousands of tweets discussing a concussion epidemic in the NHL, and what to do about it.

How about: stop playing hockey? And football?

I'm sure any hockey fan or football mom would accuse me of being trite with that answer, but I really don't know what else to say when I see tweets like this:

Expert neurologist Dr. Charles Tator suggests 95% of hockey concussions are preventable. Now let's hear all you hockey doctors make excuses!

That's from a hockey writer named Adam Proteau, who has penned a book called Fighting The Good Fight: Why On-Ice Violence is Killing Hockey.

Here's another tweet from sports agent Adam Walsh: But there is no concussion epidemic in the NHL. RT@BComptonNHL: #Flyers confirm Chris Pronger's season is over. Awful.

If you're not hip to Twitter yet, the "RT" means Walsh was re-tweeting somebody. His own "But there is no...." is tongue in cheek.

I'll give you one more, from Senators reporter James Gordon: Anyone else tired of seeing every good player get a concussion?

I could list dozens of them, but you get the idea.

I wrote many years ago that tens of thousands of concussions are reported in high school football in the United States each year. From little league on up to the pros, guys are getting their heads bashed in all the time. (I also wrote that in 1905, football was almost banned because 18 college students died playing it. In 1908, 33 more were killed. You want to talk epidemics?).

Here's the pertinent part:

What's incredible is that our forebears stood for it, and that college students still wanted to play the game. Helmets, pads, and various rule changes throughout the years have made the game safer, but only safer in the quotation mark sense. Today, about 8 players a year get killed playing football. That's from all levels combined, making it small potatoes compared to the old days, though a staggering number of injuries flood the locker rooms each weekend.

Concussions, for one. 40 000 of them are reported annually among high school players alone, and those are only the kids that get treated. Concussions are such a certainty that NFL teams have a chart for each player. If a player gets nailed in the head, they know what questions to ask that particular man in order to find out if he's still got all his marbles. And even if he does, that's not to say that he'll have them later on. Former players report nausea and forgetfulness well after they retire, a chronic symptom of having your head kicked in. It will be with them for the rest of their lives.

What now strikes me as strange about that football piece is that I never heard anyone talking about a "concussion epidemic" back in 2006. Indeed, the paragraph I wrote about concussions was just that: a paragraph. More or less a footnote. I took it for granted that people get concussions while playing contact sports. It came with the territory.

It still does, but the epidemic label is very recent. I am not convinced that more men are getting concussions, only that it seems like more men are getting concussions. I can't prove that. Yet. But I suspect that a) we see it more because we're looking for it. b) a rash of concussions have affected star players, with the bigger pay cheques bringing a greater focus. c) concussions make good copy right now, and sports reporters talk about it endlessly. d) teams are now ordered to look for a concussion and keep a man off the field/ice if they remotely suspect that he has one.

That last one is critical. A 'dinger' that you shook off ten years ago is now a 'concussion' that gets you pulled from the game. When's the last time you heard the words "mild concussion?" You don't hear them anymore, because our whole perception of concussions has changed.

I'm not arguing that the new perception is a bad thing. Concussions are an awful injury. But when I hear people talk about the brutal nature of the game in such broken hearted tones, I am reminded of the scene from Cinderalla Man where Braddock says, "What are you going to tell me? That boxing's dangerous?"

In the scene, several people are showing Braddock a film clip of his opponent, and telling him that there's a good chance he's going to get killed in the ring. His attitude is, "When did this become news?"

When I read the sports pages, I'm sometimes left to wonder if someone is taking a gun, putting it to a player's head, walking him out to center ice, and ordering him to stand still while someone else smacks him in the temple with a sledgehammer. The concussion stories read like reports of innocent people getting hit by lightning.

Nothing could be further from the truth. These men are going onto the ice to do one of two things: score points, or hit someone. When they are hoist on their own petard, the least surprised person in the arena should be that player (and make no mistake, if you Google Chris Pronger now, you'll find a lot of heartfelt stories about concussions; Google him a month ago, not so much; a bunch of suspensions and being booted out of playoffs games kind of ruins the tragedy narrative, so you can read up on your own time).

So yes, concussions are bad for a player's health, and seemingly everyone in North America wants to make sure that no one suffers another concussion ever again. But what to do?

Simple. If you want to play professional football and hockey, but do not want to receive a concussion, then you cannot play professional football and hockey. If you want to make hockey and football safe from concussions, then you must completely remove hitting from the games, or ban the games outright.

There. Problem solved. Until you do either of those things, there will be concussions in the game. You might as well get used to it or turn off the TV.

The men that play these games know the risks. They just do it anyway. That is why they are the toast of the town, have massive bank accounts, and get to meet pretty girls. Physical danger is the price of doing business.

If the NFL was flag football, nobody would give a damn about it.

Pronger Photo: Andre Ringuette/Getty Images