COUNTING HEADS
Spotlight on concussions
Ken Dryden is one of the most thoughtful, intelligent and articulate former athletes from any professional sport, so it’s not surprising his speech was so interesting and thought-provoking last Friday night at the Heads Up forum on concussions at McGill University.
The former Canadiens goalie and Hockey Hall of Famer called CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy) the “smoking gun” in sports and added the greatest risk to sports is head injuries. Dryden said the risk of head injuries is far greater now than ever before as mainstream sports — like hockey and football — have become “extreme sports” with athletes who are bigger, stronger and faster and start practising and training for one specific sport 12 months a year at a young age.
The 69-year-old Dryden, who won six Stanley Cups with the Canadiens, noted the brain doesn’t distinguish between a punch to the chin for a boxer or a football player’s head hitting the turf during a tackle.
David Mulder, the Canadiens’ longtime team doctor, calls concussions the “invisible injury” because it isn’t as simple as an X-ray or a blood test to properly diagnose one.
“We’re all looking for a diagnostic test,” Mulder said. “And we don’t know how to treat concussions … we just rest people. We have no drug, we have no hormone. Now, people are doing some very interesting things in terms of innovative methods of treating concussions. I think we’re progressing.”
Dryden talked about the film Concussion, saying it was a good movie, but added the real story was about Mike Webster and not the battle between a good doctor (Bennet Omalu) and the big, bad NFL over the effect of head injuries.
Webster was a Hall of Fame centre with the Pittsburgh Steelers who ended up homeless while battling depression, anxiety and dementia. He was found dead in his truck at age 50 in 2002.
Omalu discovered during the autopsy that Webster had CTE. Dryden said the movie should have been about “somebody’s life,” meaning Webster, who is believed to have suffered multiple concussions during his NFL career.
While Dryden never suffered a concussion during his NHL career, Anthony Calvillo’s CFL career came to an end as a result of a concussion he suffered in 2013 when he was quarterback of the Alouettes. The back of Calvillo’s head slammed into the turf at Saskatchewan’s Mosaic Stadium as he was tackled by the Roughriders’ Ricky Foley.
Calvillo, who is now the Alouettes’ offensive coordinator/ quarterback coach and attended Friday’s event at McGill, said there are 25 symptoms for a concussion and he had two of them after leaving the field in Saskatchewan for the final time in his career.
“I had pressure in the head, which is one of them,” Calvillo said. “The light was not a big issue, but I was very irritable. I was driving my family crazy for like three months. Those are two of the 25 that I had. So if you have one, you have to make sure that you’re symptom-free before you can go on to the next step. For me, it took me a long time just to get over that pressure. It was a good three months before I could even start doing any physical activity. It was frustrating.
“I’ve had concussions before and went through the protocol and got back on the field very quickly,” Calvillo added. “But this one, my goodness. There wasn’t anything I could do physically to make this thing go away except for rest.”
Calvillo, 44, said he’s fine now and that he always trusted the doctors throughout his 20-year career in the CFL.
“I have faith in what all these doctors are doing in trying to make sure that they give us the best information to give us a chance not just to play football, but just to have a normal life after football as well,” Calvillo said.
“It’s up to the athletes to tell the doctors, the trainers: ‘This is how it feels,’ ” Calvillo added about players being honest following a head injury. “Because the only way the doctors can do their job is having all the right information.”
Moving forward, Dryden said concussion prevention is more important than improved medical treatment, noting: “We’re better at repairing broken legs than broken brains.”
He said it’s time for the decision makers in sports leagues to catch up with the scientists and come up with rules and penalties to limit the number of concussions players and doctors have to deal with.
“It is time for the decision makers to catch up with the lifeaffecting impact of their sport on their players,” Dryden said. “Games have changed and the good news — the great news — is that games can change again. In this room and outside these walls, who are the decision makers? What’s stopping them?”
That’s a very good question.
It’s up to the athletes to tell the doctors, the trainers: ‘This is how it feels.’ Because the only way the doctors can do their job is having all the right information.