@Gitche: Concussion ist nicht gleich Concussion. Manche dauern Wochen, andere Monate - nichts ist so unberechenbar wie eine Gehirnerschütterung, deshalb gehen die Ausfallzeiten ziemlich weit auseinander.
Brisco hat schon auch Recht - die Teams sind vorsichtiger geworden, ja. Aber die Teams schrecken immer noch nicht davor zurück, die Spieler mit Schmerzmitteln vollzupumpen. Die Boogaard-Geschichte der NY Times hat da ein paar Passagen, bei denen ich nur den Kopf schütteln kann. Die Story selbst (auf nytimes.com) ist unfassbar lang, also hier mal ein Auszug:

Brisco hat schon auch Recht - die Teams sind vorsichtiger geworden, ja. Aber die Teams schrecken immer noch nicht davor zurück, die Spieler mit Schmerzmitteln vollzupumpen. Die Boogaard-Geschichte der NY Times hat da ein paar Passagen, bei denen ich nur den Kopf schütteln kann. Die Story selbst (auf nytimes.com) ist unfassbar lang, also hier mal ein Auszug:
Die Teams halten sich da auch extrem bedeckt:Most N.H.L. teams have about 10 affiliated doctors — specialists and dentists with practices of their own. Boogaard had learned that there was no system to track who was prescribing what.
In one three-month stretch of the 2008-9 season with the Wild, Boogaard received at least 11 prescriptions for painkillers from eight doctors — including at least one doctor for a different team, according to records gathered by his father, Len Boogaard. Combined, the prescriptions were for 370 tablets of painkillers containing hydrocodone, typically sold under brand names like Vicodin.
Noch erschreckender ist der Teil über die Schäden, die Boogaard's Gehirn aufwies. Sicher war Boogaard ein viel beschäftiger Fighter, aber der Grad der Schädigung zeigt doch deutlich auf, wie gefährlich Hockey sein kann. Nicht nur Fights, sondern auch Hits sind da eine Gefahrenquelle. Hier der Auszug:Since the day of the funeral in May, Len Boogaard said, he has not heard from the Rangers.
The team refused to answer a detailed list of questions regarding their medical treatment of Boogaard during the season and his time in rehabilitation.
It also refused requests to speak to General Manager Glen Sather and the team physician, Dr. Andrew Feldman, among others, about Boogaard. Instead, it e-mailed a four-sentence statement from Sather that read, in part, “We worked very closely with Derek on and off the ice to provide him with the very best possible care.”
[...]
In Minnesota two Sundays ago, the Wild honored Boogaard with a pregame tribute. The tribute showed Boogaard running over opponents, smiling with fans and talking to children. It showed each of the three N.H.L. goals he scored.
It did not show a single punch.
The Wild would not answer questions about the video. They also refused to address specific questions about Boogaard’s medical care, concussions, addiction and rehabilitation, or the availability of drugs through team doctors. Requests to speak with General Manager Chuck Fletcher and the medical director, Dr. Sheldon Burns, were refused.
Leider sieht die Liga aber da nicht wirklich Handlungsbedarf:Boogaard had chronic traumatic encephalopathy, commonly known as C.T.E., a close relative of Alzheimer’s disease. It is believed to be caused by repeated blows to the head. It can be diagnosed only posthumously, but scientists say it shows itself in symptoms like memory loss, impulsiveness, mood swings, even addiction.
More than 20 dead former N.F.L. players and many boxers have had C.T.E. diagnosed. It generally hollowed out the final years of their lives into something unrecognizable to loved ones.
And now, the fourth hockey player, of four examined, was found to have had it, too. But this was different. The others were not in their 20s, not in the prime of their careers.
The scientists on the far end of the conference call told the Boogaard family that they were shocked to see so much damage in someone so young. It appeared to be spreading through his brain. Had Derek Boogaard lived, they said, his condition likely would have worsened into middle-age dementia.
[...]
It did not take long for Dr. Ann McKee to see the telltale brown spots near the outer surface of Boogaard’s brain — the road signs of C.T.E. She did not know much about Boogaard other than that he was a 28-year-old hockey player. And the damage was obvious.
“That surprised me,” she said.
A neuropathologist, McKee is one of four co-directors of Boston University’s Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy and the director of the center’s brain bank. She has examined nearly 80 brains of former athletes, mainly retired football players and boxers who spent their careers absorbing blows to the head. The center’s peer-reviewed findings of C.T.E. have been widely accepted by experts in the field. The National Football League, initially dismissive, has since donated money to help underwrite the research.
The group may now have its most sobering case: a young, high-profile athlete, dead in midcareer, with a surprisingly advanced degree of brain damage.
“To see this amount? That’s a ‘wow’ moment,” McKee said as she pointed to magnified images of Boogaard’s brain tissue. “This is all going bad.”
The degenerative disease was more advanced in Boogaard than it was in Bob Probert, a dominant enforcer of his generation, who played 16 N.H.L. seasons, struggled with alcohol and drug addictions and died of heart failure at age 45 in 2010.
In the past two years, C.T.E. was also diagnosed in the brains of two other former N.H.L. players: Reggie Fleming, 73, and Rick Martin, 59.
The condition of Boogaard’s brain, however, suggests the possibility that other current N.H.L. players have the disease, even if the symptoms have not surfaced.
The N.H.L. is not convinced that there is a link between hockey and C.T.E.
“There isn’t a lot of data, and the experts who we talked to, who consult with us, think that it’s way premature to be drawing any conclusions at this point,” N.H.L. Commissioner Gary Bettman said. “Because we’re not sure that any, based on the data we have available, is valid.”
The researchers at Boston University say that C.T.E. is a nascent field of study, but that there is little debate that the disease is caused by repeated blows to the head. They said that the N.H.L. was not taking the research seriously.