Montador suit puts fighting under fire
NHL was negligent, says lawyer representing family of deceased defenceman
“So Bettman, he’s either got blinders on, or he’s getting very, very bad advice from his people.” THOMAS DEMETRIO LAWYER FOR MONTADOR FAMILY
To illustrate the thrust of a lawsuit linked to hockey, lawyer Thomas Demetrio relayed a story from boxing, from the time he had dinner with Muhammad Ali. The old champion had “the kindest eyes I’ve ever seen,” he said. “And he’s got Parkinson’s disease to such an extent where you’d have to be blind to not understand why.”
On Tuesday, Demetrio’s Chicagobased firm filed suit against the NHL in a U.S. federal court on behalf of Steve Montador’s family, 10 months after the retired defenceman was found dead inside his Mississauga home. The lawsuit claims the league was negligent by withholding information about the dangers of repeated head trauma, taking a harsh view of one polarizing topic in particular.
“Stop the fighting,” Demetrio said. “Stop the fighting.”
Montador was 35 when he died. According to the lawsuit, he suffered “thousands of sub-concussive brain traumas and multiple concussions” over more than a decade in uniform, and that he engaged in 69 “on-ice fist fights.”
An autopsy revealed he had been suffering from chronic traumatic en- cephalopathy when he died, the latest in a list of former hockey players found with the brain-wasting disease that first gained prominence in football. It has been associated with a number of difficult conditions, from depression to cognitive problems. In May, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman downplayed the link between the disease and the sport, telling reporters: “From a medical science standpoint, there is no evidence yet that one necessarily leads to the other.”
“So Bettman, he’s either got blinders on,” Demetrio said, “or he’s get- ting very, very bad advice from his people.” The NHL declined comment on Tuesday. The NHL Players’ Association also declined to comment.
“I think the central theory is simple negligence,” said Paul D. Anderson, a Kansas City, Mo.,-based attorney who has been following the NFL’s concussion litigation. “That the NHL had an obligation to inform and educate these players about the longterm risks of repetitive brain trauma.”
Lawyers for Montador will argue he was showing symptoms consistent with CTE, Anderson said, and that it contributed to his death. The NHL will likely argue there were a number of potential causes beyond any brain trauma suffered on the ice.
“The causation chain is going to be burdensome and difficult to prove,” said Anderson, who works at The Klamann Law Firm. “But nevertheless, it can be proven.”
According to the lawsuit, Montador struggled with memory loss, mood changes, sleep problems and depression among other issues arising from his time on the ice. The suit alleges the league is “willing to sacrifice players’ brains in the name of tradition and in the cause of profit.”
The claim takes repeated aim at fighting: “It is hypocritical and, in fact, negligent, for the NHL to express concern for player safety on the one hand, and allow fighting on the other.”
And beyond fighting, it is alleged: “The NHL has developed and promoted a culture of gratuitous violence within NHL hockey.”
Several former enforcers have been diagnosed with CTE, which can only be detected in a post-mortem exam. The disease was found in Derek Boogaard, Reggie Fleming and Bob Probert.
“Denying the existence of a disease, and/or that disease’s relationship to a sport, is a really bad idea,” said William Gibbs, an attorney involved in the case. “The takeaway, for me, is even after Steve Montador’s death, this league is saying, ‘We don’t know enough about CTE to know whether you can get it from playing hockey and having 15 or 20 concussions during your hockey career.’ “Come on. That’s disingenuous.” More than 100 NHL veterans have joined a class action against the league in Minnesota, alleging the NHL withheld information on the dangers of head trauma. That case is still in the discovery phase, with depositions expected to continue for several more months.
Mel Owens, a former NFL player now working as a lawyer for the plaintiffs in that case, rejected the common argument that players knew what they were risking when they first stepped on the ice.
“You get paid for your play, you don’t get compensated in a contract that says, ‘Oh, by the way, you’re going to get hurt in this game, and we’re also going to give you an extra $100,000 on top of it,’ ” Owens said. “Getting hurt is not part of your contract.”