$200M brain injury lawsuit filed against CFL

[matchuk]

good points.........maybe leagues should start adding a clause (to player contracts) that players cannot sue their respective league

[jerrym]

good points.........maybe leagues should start adding a clause (to player contracts) that players cannot sue their respective league

That's not likely to work if the league is not allowing the players to make fully informed consent decisions by giving them all the information they have on concussions.

In this regard, emails just released in a NHL player lawsuit suggest the league is in trouble and would continue to be even with a player contract clause if they were not willing to be open about the risks.

On one December night in 2011, Gary Bettman fired off an email to an NHL executive, asking for an update on that night's concussions.
Ten minutes later, Brendan Shanahan -- now president of the Toronto Maple Leafs -- reported back with some evidently good news: "Not so far," he wrote.


"Night is young!" the commish replied.
This week, those three words became the blinking neon sign which pointed the way behind the NHL's frozen curtain. On the other side lies a mountain of internal league communications, unsealed as part of an ongoing civil suit regarding the league's handling of concussions.
"Night is young" is not the most telling or objectionable of those exchanges, just among the most flippant. If everything was different, one could dismiss it as a bit of gallows humour that folks use to survive the pressure of most any business. Like layoff jokes to journalists, for instance.
But everything is not different. We are talking about a league that, like its more glistening big brother in football, has been sluggish to respond to damning research about the devastating impact of repeat concussions. In that light, it's hard to feel charitable about Bettman's quip: these are, after all, players' lives.
A resolute optimist might think that the league would prize those lives above all else, especially after the deaths of Rick Rypien, Wade Belak and Derek Boogard. But scouring the email trove, which The Globe and Mail posted in a searchable archive online, doesn't always show that.
Often, emails reveal league brass wringing their hands more over the NHL's brand, than emerging brain-injury science. In multiple communications, Bettman and his colleagues and acolytes bristle over unflattering questions, and issue warnings about how to handle public statements and investigations.
In 2009, TSN's Bob McKenzie sent an email to NHL general managers, asking them to complete an anonymous poll about fighting in hockey. Edmonton Oilers president Kevin Lowe forwarded the email to NHL VP Colin Campbell, recommending that GM's refrain from answering the poll.
"These types of polls could be dangerous, especially mid-season," Lowe wrote. "How would it look for the league if the GMs responded yes to taking fighting out of the game? What if the BOG's didn't feel the same way."
Campbell replied succinctly: "Agree."
What is more "dangerous" in this discussion: a league that fueled a vigorous public debate over concussions, or a league in which top brass knew at least that brain injuries from fighting could exacerbate mental illness, and chose to drag their feet on preventing it?

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/spo...374355151.html