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National Hockey League announces initiative for gay athletes

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 20:35:00 +0000

The National Hockey League announced on Thursday a partnership with gay rights group You Can Play Project and an awareness-building initiative on gay issues for its coaches and players.

As reported by The New York Times:

You Can Play will help run seminars for N.H.L. rookies to educate them on gay issues and make resources and personnel available to each team, as desired. The league and union will also work with You Can Play to integrate the project into their behavioral health program, enabling players to seek counseling regarding matters of sexual orientation confidentially. Burke said the joint venture would also step forward when players make homophobic remarks.

Patrick Burke, a scout for the Philadelphia Flyers and a founder of You Can Play, applauded the partnership, as he explained to the Times:

We have players from around the world, and a lot of those players are from countries that are seen as more progressive on LGBT issues. So I don’t think it’s unreasonable or strange to think that the N.H.L. and the N.H.L.P.A. are driving this, in part because our players tend to be more comfortable with this issue.

NHL lockout reaches tentative agreement

Sun, 06 Jan 2013 14:52:00 +0000

NEW YORK (AP) -- Hockey is back, and it took nearly four months and one long night to get the game back on the ice.

With the season on the line, the NHL and the players' association agreed on a tentative pact to end a 113-day lockout and save what was left of a fractured schedule.

Commissioner Gary Bettman and union executive director Donald Fehr ceased being adversaries and announced the deal while standing side by side near a wall toward the back of the negotiating room and showing a tinge of weariness.

"I want to thank Don Fehr," Bettman said. "We went through a tough period, but it's good to be at this point."

A marathon negotiating session that lasted more than 16 hours, stretching from Saturday afternoon until just before dawn Sunday, produced a 10-year deal.

"We've got to dot a lot of Is and cross a lot of Ts," Bettman said. "There's still a lot of work to be done, but the basic details of the agreement have been agreed upon."

Even players who turned into negotiators showed the strain of the long, difficult process.

"It was a battle," said Winnipeg Jets defenseman Ron Hainsey, a key member of the union's bargaining team. "Gary said a month ago it was a tough negotiation. That's what it was.

NHL cancels games through Jan. 14

Thu, 20 Dec 2012 21:31:00 +0000

NEW YORK (AP) — The NHL has wiped out all games through Jan. 14, and if it needs to make any more cancellations, the entire season could be the next thing to go.

So far, 625 regular-season games have been canceled, including nearly 200 in the announcement made Thursday — the 96th day of the NHL's lockout. The league had previously scratched all games through Dec. 30. If a new collective bargaining agreement with the players' association isn't reached quickly, another full season might soon be lost.

NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly said in a radio interview on Wednesday that mid-January is likely the latest the sides could go to make a deal to save the season. However, Daly says he expects the season to be played.

No drop-dead date has been publicly announced by the NHL, which is the only North American professional sports league to cancel a season due to a labor dispute. A lockout forced the 2004-05 to be lost.

Why don’t helmets prevent concussions?

Thu, 06 Dec 2012 19:18:00 +0000

Helmets protect your head—but they can’t fully protect your brain. This helps to explain why football players continue to incur brain trauma that may lead to debilitating brain disease.

Recently, a team of researchers presented more evidence of the devastating progression of a brain disease caused by repeated brain trauma. On December 2, researchers from Boston University, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, and other institutions published findings in the journal Brain that document the changes caused by chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).

Over the course of this neurodegenerative disease, those afflicted experience symptoms ranging from headaches and difficulty concentrating in Stage 1, to the dementia and aggression of Stage 4. Repeated mild traumatic brain injuries such as concussions cause CTE, making the disease of special concern for athletes and military personnel.

Blood on the ice

Wed, 02 May 2012 19:31:00 +0000

Out of all the sports that try to shroud hardcore violence in the veneer of athleticism -- and there are many -- none has a closer relationship to bloodshed than professional hockey. This is an institution that goes beyond professional football in that it doesn’t merely permit bone-crushing hits as a part of the game itself -- it all but condones players halting a game in progress to break out into fisticuffs.

In the past, when anyone has aired criticism of hockey’s connection to violence, the typical response is that it’s part of the sport’s tradition. In much the same way it has been used in politics to pretend problems are unfixable, this “culture” argument in hockey has served as a flippant conversation ender -- one that short-circuits any frank discussion of what fuels such a culture and whether it should be changed. As the logic goes, the culture has always defined the sport, and always will -- so why judge its value or lack thereof?

Left unexplored is why such a culture exists? That topic is avoided because it might make the violence seem like a symptom of something bigger rather than an isolated problem. That is, it might turn the mirror away from the game and onto its fans -- in the process reflecting back the image of a violence-glorifying society that all-too-eagerly condones brutality as a matter of principle.

Nearly 150 hurt in Vancouver riot following hockey loss

Thu, 16 Jun 2011 17:51:07 +0000

Almost 150 people required hospital treatment overnight as rioters swept through downtown Vancouver following a Canucks loss to the Boston Bruins in the decisive Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final.

Vancouver Coastal Health spokeswoman Anna Marie D'Angelo said Thursday three stabbing victims have been admitted and an unidentified man is in critical condition with head injuries after a fall.

She said most of the rioting victims were treated at St. Paul's Hospital in downtown Vancouver, while about 40, including the stabbing cases and the head injury patient, were being treated at Vancouver General Hospital.

Rioting and looting left cars burned, stores in shambles and windows shattered over a roughly ten block radius of the city's main shopping district.

Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson said "organized hoodlums bent on creating chaos incited the riot" and noted the city proved with the 2010 Winter Olympics that it could hold peaceful gatherings. A local business leader estimated more than 50 businesses have been damaged.

"They were here to make trouble and they succeeded," Robertson said.

Vancouver Police Chief Jim Chu has called a news conference for later Thursday.

Cars set on fire in Vancouver after hockey defeat

Thu, 16 Jun 2011 10:42:00 +0000

Angry, drunken fans ran wild Wednesday night after the Vancouver Canucks' 4-0 loss to Boston in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals, setting cars and garbage cans ablaze, smashing windows, showering giant TV screens with beer bottles and dancing atop overturned vehicles.

Later, looters smashed windows and ran inside department stores.

"We have a small number of hooligans on the streets of Vancouver causing problems," Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson said. "It's absolutely disgraceful and shameful and by no means represents the city of Vancouver. ... We have had an extraordinary run in the playoff, great celebration. What's happened tonight is despicable."

Police said they had reports of four stabbings, though spokeswoman Const. Jana McGuinness said she couldn't confirm them.

Officers from around the region flooded into downtown, and Robertson said things were getting under control, but the images and atmosphere that persisted late into the night suggested otherwise.

It took about four hours before downtown quieted again.

While Robertson said there had been no fatalities, ambulances appeared to be having trouble getting inside the zone to help the injured. TV images showed at least one woman mopping blood from her forehead.