In a report that originally ran in The New York Times and The Globe and Mail in Toronto, researchers at Boston University found a degenerative disease in brain tissue donated by former Red Wing enforcer Bob Probert.
It was discovered that Probert had chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) when he died of heart failure last July at the age of 45. Probert who played with the Wings from 1985-1994 and the Blackhawks from 1995-2002 was well known for his fighting accumulating 3,300 penalty minutes and ranking 5th on the all time list.
Probert turns out to be the second hockey player to be diagnosed with CTE. It turns out that Reggie Fleming, a 1960’s enforcer also had the disease. For Fleming though he played in the NHL during a time when helmets weren’t mandatory.
“How much is the hockey and how much is the fighting, we don’t really know,” Dr. Robert Cantu, the co-director of the center, told the Times for a story posted on its website Wednesday night. “We haven’t definitely established that the skills of hockey as a sport lead to a certain percentage of participants developing CTE. But it can happen to hockey players, and while they’re still relatively young.”
With this new discovery and the onslaught of athlete injuries this past year that involved concussions and other head related injuries, you wonder how this will effect the sport of hockey. Will they take an even tougher stance on head shots or will they begin to crack down more on fighting, something Probert was well known for?
Nonetheless, the NHL and other hockey leagues in the United States and Canada will surely take a closer look on this growing issue in sports.
Source: Associated Press, The New York Times, Detroit News, The Globe and Mail
