Ken Dryden on hockey violence: How could we be so stupid?
Good reading – great food for thought. From a former NHL goaltender.
Author: brokenbrilliant
I am a long-term multiple (mild) Traumatic Brain Injury (mTBI or TBI) survivor who experienced assaults, falls, car accidents, sports-related injuries in the 1960s, '70s, '80s, and '90s. My last mild TBI was in 2004, but it was definitely the worst of the lot. I never received medical treatment for my injuries, some of which were sports injuries (and you have to get back in the game!), but I have been living very successfully with cognitive/behavioral (social, emotional, functional) symptoms and complications since I was a young kid. I’ve done it so well, in fact, that virtually nobody knows that I sustained those injuries… and the folks who do know, haven’t fully realized just how it’s impacted my life. It has impacted my life, however. In serious and debilitating ways. I’m coming out from behind the shields I’ve put up, in hopes of successfully addressing my own (invisible) challenges and helping others to see that sustaining a TBI is not the end of the world, and they can, in fact, live happy, fulfilled, productive lives in spite of it all. View all posts by brokenbrilliant
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Hi BB – Good old Kenny Dryden. He was my hero, or one of them, back in the 70’s when the Habs (Montreal Canadiens) dominated the NHL with stylish play and very little thuggery. Those good old days when bench clearing brawls were a big part of the game (the movie Slapshot wasn’t fiction, not really). Big Ken Dryden (he is I think 6’5”), a trained lawyer who worked for Ralph Nader back when Nader was a consumer advocate, was a commanding presence on that team.
He wrote a book about hockey called ‘The Game’. A little long-winded but still one of the best accounts of the hockey life.
I guess hockey and the violence that comes with the Canadian game (though not the European) is an offshoot of our small town frontier roots. Canadians like fighting. Too bad about all those shots to the head though. As I said in a previous comment, Canadians have an odd denial about head injuries and their effects and that is one of the reasons I left. I’m glad Dryden and others are finally making noise about this. Long overdue.
t.
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