The NHL took measures to protect its fans with safety nets. It is time to follow suit in regards to its players.
'Tis the night before the night before Christmas and if you think this is one of those columns playing off the oldest theme in sports writing, well, you'd be partially right.
That's because at a time dedicated to happiness and good cheer, to giving instead of receiving, and to being with family and friends, I can't stop thinking about how the Sanderson family is spending its Christmas. Surely they remain gathered around their 21-year-old son, Don, who remains in a coma and teetering on the edge of leaving this world because he was involved in a hockey fight.
It was the night of Dec. 12 when Sanderson, playing senior hockey with friends, was involved in a needless and now tragic fight. His helmet came off, he and his "opponent" fell to the ice. Sanderson hit his head and his life and the lives of those who love him have never been the same. In the days that followed there was a brief hue and cry regards the foolishness of it all. There was a brief -- some would argue virtually non-existent -- debate about the need for fighting in hockey and how it might impact the NHL and then the great shift began.
The blame game shifted from the foolishness of fighting and the unnecessary problems it can cause to the need for "tightening up those chin straps."
In an era where a mixed martial arts fighter is voted Sportsnet's Canadian Athlete of the Year I suspect I'm preaching to an audience that doesn't much care that someone from their age group is hovering in a nether world. I suspect they also can't yet understand the suffering his parents and family members endure.
Working in an industry that regularly runs tapes of the best fights and the biggest hits I can't disagree that media is a part of the problem of infusing hockey fans with a "love" for a "good scrap" or a big hit that leaves a hockey player a crumpled bit of humanity, a broken shell of strength and promise. I suspect strongly that this being Christmas, a time of good cheer, a great many of you will stop right about here.
After all, it's not us at the Sanderson bedside. Our thoughts are about presents and the gifts we hold dear.
But in the days leading up to what is supposed to be a celebration of the birth of one of the most caring individuals in the history of mankind, I can't stop thinking about the chin-strap argument and the way the debate has shifted away from what truly caused Sanderson's injuries to the convenient, feel-good argument that a secure chin strap will make it all go away.
Perhaps a good solid helmet well secured could have been a difference maker in Don Sanderson's life or what remains of it, but that's like saying one can easily go out and drink and drive because a seat belt and air bag could keep one from flying through the windshield.
It's true, but isn't the safer thing -- quite frankly the morally honest thing -- to do is hand over the car keys.
Isn't that the decision that will truly save a life, eliminate suffering and ensure the happiness of everyone who holds us most dear?
Tightening a chin strap might help the next player involved in a fight, especially when both he and his opponent are making a dedicated effort to remove each other's helmets to better land a face-crushing blow.
And while I'll concede that ending fighting won't end the chance of a player suffering the same sort of injury that has all but ended Sanderson's life as he knew it, it stands to reason that it will greatly reduce the odds of it ever happening again.
Don't believe it? Then ask the Commissioner of the National Hockey League why he was so quick to order up nets in every arena after one fan, young Britney Cecil, died after being hit in the head with a puck that left the playing surface and found its way into the stands.
He did it because (along with avoiding future lawsuits) it greatly reduced the chances of it ever happening again.
Eliminating fighting, an aspect of the game simply not allowed in any other pro sport, even the ones were violent contact is "part of the game" would be that safety net not for the people in the seats, but for the players on the ice.
Removing if from the game would do more, more than any helmet or chinstrap, to reduce the odds that the next Don Sanderson that comes to the rink to play the game he loves doesn't end up comatose.
Sure it would break with history, break with the idea that fighting is "part of the game" and break with the concept that is so ingrained that people can't began to mount any rational defence of it other than to say, "Well, it's always been that way."
That may well be true, but then one could argue that wooden sticks were always a part of the game until they were replaced with composites and that bare-faced goalies were always a part of the game until they started wearing masks and that the red line was always a part of the game until it was eliminated and that six skaters were always a part of the game until one was eliminated and that bench-clearing brawls were always a part of the game until the penalties became so severe that they are pretty much relegated to the history of black and white film and grainy old video.
Fighting isn't essential to the game, the playoffs prove that. Fighting doesn't have to be a part of the game, college hockey and pretty much hockey played everywhere but North America has more than proved that.
Taking away fighting won't diminish the physical aspects of the game either. The league is full of physically and mentally tough players who seldom drop their gloves and if they ever did, would never think of trying to rake an opponent's helmet off the better to finish him off with a crushing blow or a pile drive into the ice. Think Steve Yzerman wasn't tough? You couldn't be more wrong.
Eliminating fighting would not give the Sanderson's their son back, but it might save another set of parents from the agonizing grief that has consumed the Sanderson's this Christmas season.
And what would we lose if that happened?
Chin straps? That's a coward's argument, that's the easy way out.
Doing what's right when history and a legion of people who've known nothing else say you're wrong?
That takes courage.
Little wonder that on this topic, even at Christmas, not a creature is stirring, not even a mouse.
