NHLPA executive director Marty Walsh shares doctor's insight on dangers of hockey and concussions, draws football comparison

Hockey is a contact sport, which makes it a little more dangerous than other sports. Concussions happen frequently. That "dangerous" label is often applied to football, since those players hit each other, often violently and to the head and neck area.

However, NHLPA executive director Marty Walsh has revealed that football, though it has its own concussion and head injury issues, might not be as bad for the head as this sport is.

He said:

"It's dangerous. You know, it's dangerous they wear the helmets and things like that and the visors, but it's still dangerous. The ice doesn't move, the boards don't move."

Walsh added:

"A doctor in Boston told me that football players, seem to be the most prone to concussion. They're banging into each other, but he said, probably more dangerous is hockey, because of the ice and the boards. And so I want to make sure any, any scientific discoveries are made, that our players understand... I'm not going to ignore it. It's not something we're going to ignore."

Walsh leads the NHLPA, which is partly responsible for making the game better for the players. That includes matters of health and safety, which concussions are.

---

Longer hockey careers linked to CTE

The longer one plays the sport, the higher their risk of CTE, a recent study shows. Boston University conducted a study last year that revealed that CTE is increased by lengthy playing careers.

CTE is a progressive brain disease that often stems from repeated concussions, which is something NHL players risk.

Jesse Mez, co-director of clinical research at the CTE Center and associate professor of neurology at the BU Chobanian and Avedisian School of Medicine, helped research this and concluded that longer careers made CTE more likely.

She said via Boston University:

“Ice hockey players with longer careers not only were more likely to have CTE, but they also had more severe disease. We hope this data will help inspire changes to make the game safer, as well as help former ice hockey players impacted by CTE get the care they need.”

Arturo J. Aguilar, a medical director at BU Student Health Services and Athletics, also said:

“We educate them before they even get concussed. Symptoms can sometimes be hard to know, it could be something as small as not sleeping as well. Sometimes symptoms are delayed for hours.”

With how fast ice hockey players skate, the collisions are often very impactful, and if done to the head, much more dangerous.