Lindros won’t stop talking until he gets action on concussions
Former NHL star frustrated his life-saving message isn’t taking hold with lawmakers
It was while waiting at the Toronto airport on Wednesday, while his flight was initially cancelled and then twice delayed because of an ice storm, when Eric Lindros began to wonder if he was ever going to get to Ottawa.
Part of him might have wondered if there was any point.
For the better part of three years, the retired NHLer has become the face of concussion research and awareness after his Hall of Fame career was shortened by repeated hits to the head. And while he’s made strides by helping push Rowan’s Law forward as the standard concussion protocol for Ontario, it’s been a slow and uphill climb for someone not used to the red tape and bureaucracy.
So when Lindros was invited to speak at the House of Commons’ health committee and share his views on sports-related concussions this week, there might have been a sense of, “Here we go again.”
Enough talk. It’s time for results.
“We all know the problems, but we need actions,” he said. “What are we doing?
“Let’s get moving here. There were some efforts, but it was different from what I imagined. It was supposed to be moving a little bit. But I don’t know where it sits. I think there are a lot of groups trying out there, but even on the research side, we could be doing a lot better.”
Sometimes, when you’re delivering the same message for what seems like the 1,000th time without any real change, it’s easy to get cynical. That was the feeling Lindros had as minister after minister repeatedly asked for suggestions on how to make the NHL safer, while Lindros tried to steer the conversation back to his attempt at making Rowan’s Law more than just a provincial-wide protocol.
“Unfortunately, we wasted some time talking about the NHL,” he said. “We’re not going to change the NHL.”
Then, while leaving the House of Commons, Lindros turned on his phone and checked his email. There, waiting in his inbox was an invitation from Michael Tibollo, the Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport in Ontario, asking him to be part of a followup committee for Rowan’s Law.
Lindros smiled. Someone had been listening.
“At least something is coming there,” Lindros said. “We’ll see what we can come up with and get this moving and rolled out properly. But the needle got moving. That’s a good thing. Now let’s get busy and roll up our sleeves and move along here.”
Lindros is smart enough to know that, if you want to get people talking about the severity of head injuries, you have to talk about them in a way that affects most Canadians. So the majority of his testimony centered on hockey, even though most head injuries occur on the playground.
Lindros made headlines for suggesting kids shouldn’t play year-round hockey, because “the brain (needs) to take a break,” and advocated for introducing body contact after kids hit puberty.
Listen, it takes everybody to push it. You want to talk to me, I’m happy to talk. But this doesn’t go off unless it’s a group. So yeah, let’s keep this rolling.
He also implored the NHL to take a firmer stance on hits to the head.
Lindros understands concussions are going to happen. Which is why his focus is on Rowan’s Law, named in honour of Rowan Stringer, a 17-year-old rugby player from Ottawa who died after playing through her second concussion in a week. The removal-and-return-to-sport recommendations are now provincial law. Lindros wants this protocol carried across the country. But before that can happen, he knows the Ontario law, which passed less than a year ago, still needs fine-tuning.
“You can’t just roll things out nationally without trying some things provincially,” Lindros said. “And this law, while we think that it can work in any province outside of Ontario, we know that it’s not perfect. Give us a couple of years to implement this, tweak it and change and alter as we learn more about concussions and how the system is working on the street with parents and doctors and listening to what they have to say.”
Dr. Dan Cass, chair of the Rowan’s Law advisory committee, says Lindros “brings this kind of impatience, and sometimes that’s a good thing. It pushes us to say, ‘We need to push a little harder.’ ”
Until then, Lindros is happy to keep speaking — even if it feels like he’s talking about the same things over and over again.
“Listen, it takes everybody to push it,” Lindros said. “You want to talk to me, I’m happy to talk. But this doesn’t go off unless it’s a group. So yeah, let’s keep this rolling.”