The Passing of a Hockey Player should sound the Death Knell for Fighting
Instead? We Devolve to Red Herring Helmet Discussion
By Terrance Gavan
I don’t buy it.
I don’t buy this crap about fighting in hockey as a safety valve. Or a method to ensure the safety of marquee players. Or the fact that no one really gets hurt in a hockey fight.
And I’m also not buying the sturm and drang and tight-fisted embellishments delivered by blathering idiots who support fighting as a valiant and longstanding tradition of the NHL.
You know the idiots I’m talking about. They include a long and hardy laundry list of goon technicians who will stutter and sway and prattle long and windy into their hats about the drop of the gloves and the crunch of the fist. They include the effervescent clown prince Don Cherry, execs like Brian Burke, Bobby Clarke, and the burping hoards of bobbleheaded fans who simply love to watch two guys go at it bare-knuckled, bleeding and broken, because, well that’s the way it is in Hockey Land.
Well, there was a funeral today in Port Perry, Ontario. A young man was placed in the ground, a full six feet underneath the hard frozen tundra. Tears were shed for this young man. A young man with a life full of expectations, hopes and dreams. All of that hope and promise snuffed by a hard scrape of unleathered hand and a subsequent snapping fall to the hard arena ice.
Don Sanderson was 21 when he dropped the gloves in a senior hockey game while playing for the Whitby Dunlops just a month ago.
His helmet came off during the altercation and he was pushed backward, his head hitting the ice with a horrendous thud. This collision with the ice prompted a series of events inside his brain. It provoked coma and last Friday it led inevitably to his death.
Please note an important ingredient in this story. His death and the act of violence that engendered it were separated by a full three weeks.
In the news biz we call this the “diminishing window.” You see, sadly, by the time young Mr. Sanderson succumbed to his injury we, the collective whole, had all but forgotten the circumstances involved. Oh we were told countless times that he had actually died from his altercation with another player and the ice.
But the two events were so far removed. And we are blessed with such short memory when it comes to the news. Sanderson had been on life support since Dec 12, 2008. He died on Jan 2, 2009. Three weeks, and a change in years.
The window of diminished responsibility has worked its magic. The spin doctors in the hockey community have chucked a red herring onto the arena ice.
Lamentably, this discussion has suddenly been detoured and hijacked by the pro-fighting cognoscente. I hear the word accident now. I hear the word unfortunate accident even more. I hear the words, “freak accident,” rising with the tide. And I hear the words “if only his helmet had stayed on.”
Yeah? Bull.
This was no accident. Don Sanderson died as the direct result of a hockey fight and he died for all intents and purposes on that same day. He passed away on Jan 2, 2009, but Don Sanderson’s brain was delivered from this mortal coil on Dec 12, 2008.
Please can we do young Mr. Sanderson a huge favor here. Can we please get tough on those pretenders and frauds who would diminish the argument with heinous and egregious lies. The people who are calling this an accident and those that would like to prompt an inappropriate and insulting diversion to an excursive argument regarding the proper wearing of protective headgear.
Yes, Mr. Sanderson’s death has now engendered an argument about helmets. News reports are suggesting that Sanderson’s helmet came off during the altercation exposing the back of his head to the trauma.
This is the gist of the argument. We are slowly being deflected by this red herring. The harsh reality of a discussion about the legitimacy of fighting in hockey is being clouded by butcher block censors who mandate that no viable discussion about the ethics of bare-knuckled combat should occur in the harsh light of this tragedy.
If the 21-year-old Don Sanderson had been pronounced dead at the arena, and if a coroner’s hearse had pulled up to the back door instead of an ambulance, we may have a different discussion on our hands.
But alas, he was young and strong. He clung to life with the hardwired desperation of the fit gladiator. Make no mistake. Don Sanderson was fit and struggled hard to cheat the reaper. That does not change the outcome.
A young man died on the ice. A young man died as the direct result of a hockey fight. The bump n’ grind Cherry-ists have now taken to calling this an “unfortunate altercation.”
Some of these lovely non-peaceniks and obstructionists have gone so far to say that this could all have been avoided if only Mr. Sanderson had kept the chin strap of his helmet done up tight.
That’s just wrong. Like fighting in hockey. Just wrong.
The NHL has retained its finely honed and detailed every man on deck stance in the wake of this fight-related death.
The NHL has indicated it has no plans to alter its rules in the wake of Sanderson's death.
“Its an issue that from time to time is a point of discussion, so this may prompt further discussion. But I don't sense a strong sentiment to change the rules we currently have relating to fighting.” said NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly in an email on Friday.
Canadian Press reports that OHA president Brent Ladds said the issues arising from the death of Sanderson, who received four fighting majors in the 11 games he played with Whitby this season, will be raised at his organization's next monthly board meeting.
Four fights in 11 games in a league that remains just some passive steps and some grey hairs removed from the beer league should have prompted warning bells. But fighting is part of the game. In his four previous fights Sanderson probably heard the approving shouts of the crowd and the slapping sticks of his teammates as he wandered off the ice. Flaying fists are accepted in no other team sport on the planet.
In hockey, here in Canada we reward our fighters with praise, slaps and post-game beers.
Part of the party, even on the dais of a senior men’s league.
So Don Sanderson continued to fight until that fateful night on Dec 12, 2008.
When the cheering stopped.
Forever.
No comments:
Post a Comment