Athletes are stupid, their coaches plead ignorance, and the medical staff is paid to keep guys on the ice/field/court, not to keep them truly healthy.

I had hoped if one good thing could come of Natasha Richardson’s death, it would be a positive impact on how head injuries are handled in sports.

I was wrong.

The PAs for every sports league should demand that a team of highly qualified, PA-employed physicians attend every single game, and have access to check out every player that suffers any injury in a game, and give them a second opinion.

Posted by Nathan from Jonny Ericsson's ice cream truck on 10/21/09 at 09:17 AM ET

There’s no way he should have kept playing.  Getting your “bell rung” means you’ve had some sort of head trauma, whether it’s severe or not.  If he took another hit, not a nasty hit but just any normal one that maybe came in contact with his head, serious damage could result.  Heck, if he fell down again and just tapped his head on the ice, it could have cause a severe problem, too.

Ugh, that looked nasty.  Yeah, I guess it’s legal, esp. since he didn’t really target his head, but it was unfortunate he was so close to the boards and landed right in them.

Posted by BuzzFledderjohn on 10/21/09 at 09:53 AM ET

It might have been clean contact, but from the angle shown it looked like boarding to me.

Posted by matt from ohio on 10/21/09 at 10:33 AM ET

It looked like just one of those plays that happens in hockey, to my eyes. I mean, when you play a sport like this, you run risks. But it’s time for the PA to step up and do their job (to look out for the best interest of their membership). There need to be doctors NOT employed by the teams available all the time, because there’s a conflict of interest otherwise.

Posted by Nathan from Jonny Ericsson's ice cream truck on 10/21/09 at 10:42 AM ET

Isn’t it rugby that institutes a 21-day rest for any concussion?

Hockey’s ahead of football, but it definitely needs to take things more seriously.

Posted by Stevis on 10/21/09 at 10:46 AM ET

DIzziness alone does not necessarily indicate a concussion or brain injury.; not every head hit which “rings a bell” is an injury. Still, I’d be willing to bet there are dozens of maybe even hundreds of actual minor head injuries in the NHL that are ignored each season. Plus, recent research into football-associated brain disorders indicates that long-term damage may occur with repeated impacts that fall below a traditional injury threshold. It’s definitely something that all sports need to take more seriously.

Posted by false_cause from DC on 10/21/09 at 11:54 AM ET

Armstrong is not a huge guy.  If you’re soft and you’re a defenseman then you’re playing the wrong position.  It was a clean hit.  If the Canadiens are out muscled by a team like Atlanta (who has very few grinding players) then they are squeeze the charmin soft.

Posted by stoneman from vegas on 10/21/09 at 12:51 PM ET

Armstrong is not a huge guy.  If you’re soft and you’re a defenseman then you’re playing the wrong position.  It was a clean hit.  If the Canadiens are out muscled by a team like Atlanta (who has very few grinding players) then they are squeeze the charmin soft.

Congrats for missing the point… it’s got nothing to do with the “softness” of the teams, and everything to do with the merits of continuing to play after suffering a likely head injury, no matter how “minor,” relatively speaking, of course.

This type of thing happens to “soft” players, “gritty” guys, “fighters,” and everything in between.

Posted by Nathan from Jonny Ericsson's ice cream truck on 10/21/09 at 01:57 PM ET