A big problem is brewing at his watch Gary Bettman: how to deal with the apparent surge in brain injuries in hockey players. The owners hired him in February 1993 with an agenda that included two goals: first, to promote the "product" of hockey to a wider audience, and, secondly, the impact of changes in the violent image of the game.
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Under his leadership, the NHL has gone from $ 400 million of business a $ 3.3 billion. Bettman met the first goal … partly because he did not fulfill the second. Failing to meet that second goal has had consequences. A product that it sells, being permissively violent one, loses many of its players in the central nervous system-related injuries, which seem to be a direct result of this violence.
Lishenny up to the elements, Bettman is selling a product that poses a serious threat to the health of those who actually “create” a product of players. In the 1950s, the tobacco industry had a similar problem: faced with rising concerns about the carcinogenic risk of their products to consumers, the industry hired a PR firm Hill & Knowlton (H + K), in order to protect its image in the eyes of the public. The tactics pioneered H + K, in order to protect big tobacco has allowed them to make huge sums of money for as long as possible. It does not matter if the product is dangerous to the public or dangerous for those who do it, the tactics remain the same, and so successfully that they were taken a few industries.
Epidemiologist David Michaels calls his production uncertainty. Epidemiologist Devra Davis says that the point is to extend this uncertainty is to enrich the industry as long as possible, or until the reality can not be denied. So what are some of the plays from the playbook of a large tobacco and how it seems that Gary Bettman is using them? This takes the form of “science is not quite there yet” or “we do not have enough evidence,” and it is often the first shot. The point is to make a scientific debate to bring the public into thinking that there are too many unresolved issues that definitely say one thing or another. In 1997, the NHL and the NHLPA created a working group of concussion. Bettman called its director Dr. Ruben Echemendia, former president of the National Academy of Neuropsychology. As a direct advisor to Commissioner with excellent credentials, he is a hired gun, or what Dr. Davis can be called “well-paid skeptic.
In 1960, Kenneth Endicott, Director of the National Cancer Institute, U.S., and four packs a day smoker spends millions of taxpayer dollars trying to develop a safer cigarette, because he was convinced that smoking was not a habit to break. His efforts have amounted to nothing. Around 1970, RJ Reynolds was publicly stating that cigarettes are safe, but in private they develop “safer” cigarettes. Two decades later, they brought the Prime Minister of cigarettes on the market. It bombed. They lost over $ 1 billion. In 2009, Mark Messier presented the league with a safe helmet. Mathieu Schneider has joined the NHLPA recently, and one of his early duties was to help develop a safe helmet.
Safer hockey helmet helps secure the head shots. They still head shots, and they are still unstable dangerous. Enter the mixed variables. The familiar argument from the tobacco industry was: Well, maybe that’s why the incidence of lung cancer seems to be higher among smokers, how do you prove that it is smoking that caused this? Smokers are more complex than non-smokers, and usually live in large cities, where they are exposed to all sorts of potentially carcinogenic substances.
Bettman: There’s no control, because you have to look at everything that happened in life, before making a decision as to what the brain can show when you open it.
"Maybe there are two sides to every story, and maybe one of them bought and paid for.” – David Michaels
When the big tobacco to a stable of experts to cast doubt on new research and come up with a scientific debate, which was not, they formed the Tobacco Industry Research Council, and found the perfect man to do the dirty work: Clarence Cook Little, sadly, placed on the cover of Time magazine smoking a pipe, and first director of the U.S. National Cancer Institute. NHL cobbled together a few blue ribbon panels; the best known is the above-mentioned, concussion working group. The press director, Dr. Echemendia fingers Bettman line, as does the entire league of mercenaries. Compare Echemedia opinion on the fact that the expert is not in the league payroll, USA Hockey, Dr. Michael G. Stewart.
Risks to Bettman and others are not insignificant. Their delaying tactics not only hurt their credibility, they put the players from the NHL, all the way down to youth hockey clubs in danger. In addition, the league could face the threat of a lawsuit reckless in the future if it is not proved in accordance with the requirements of the jury that the death of a player from the TEC, or the development of other neurological diseases such as Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s disease are the result of playing hockey and the league knew it was a good chance. Do you agree with the battle? Elbow to the jaw is not the same as participation in combat. I know it is cowardly, but you can always get out of combat. Players can not get out of what they call stage.
The bell tolls for Gary Bettman. More and more professional athletes have agreed to donate their brains at Boston University Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy for the post-Morten examination. Evidence will grow. Given the seriousness of this situation, we’re talking about human lives here, it has the potential to become his lasting legacy as the man who borrowed large pieces of tobacco and deliberately put profits ahead of safety. There is only one solution: With Office Brendan Shanahan on player safety cut dangerous and illegal head shots so close, the league should make hits, like those made by Raffi Torres v. Marion Hossa is punishable by a lifetime suspension from the NHL, and a substantial fine players on the team, aimed at pension fund players. Keep an appeal on the ground. Enditem
