The Long Road Home

Driving home from work today I listened to an excerpt from Sidney Crosby's press conference held this afternoon in Pittsburgh. With the NHL hockey season soon sputtering to life, there was no shortage of commentary if one of hockey's greatest talents would return to the ice for the 2011-2012 NHL season.

I'm sure were it not for the clicking of camera shutters, you could have heard a pin drop as "Sid the Kid" opened his mouth to speak, and as he did, Sidney put to rest months of speculation to one of the most storied cases of a sports-related concussion; and it's far from over. It wasn't what hockey fans were hoping to hear, but it was a message that would only be believed if it came from the source.

Sidney Crosby won't be taking to the ice with his Pittsburgh Penguins this NHL season. Flanked by his doctor and the team's GM, Crosby revealed that he needs time for a complete recovery before he can confidently return saying, "I think it's important to get back to where I need to be. And if not, we've seen it many times, you'll get re-occurring issues and I definitely want to stay away from that."

One moment in the conference stood out for me the most. After Crosby provided an update of his condition, he gave the public a small dose of what it needed to hear. Crosby advocated for education of concussions and the frequency of which head hits occur in his game saying, "We've got to make steps to help avoid them."

Canadians love hockey. The game has a unifying effect. But if in the manner of which it is played it removes our best and most exciting talent, the point of the game will soon be lost. We raise some of our youth to excel in sports to their highest degree and then turn a blind eye to what should be tearfully obvious rules to implement. Of the two hits that have taken Crosby out of the game (for now), neither was likely intended to have the effect that they did. But intentional or not, smashing an opponent's face against a half inch thick piece of plexi-glass, or blind-siding a player in the head at center ice in a national game must stop. Anything that could be done to make hockey less of a contact sport should be encouraged and embraced. It needs to happen as soon as possible in order to move up through the younger generations, otherwise the talent we try to nurture will not be seen as athletes but simple entertainment.

There will always be a public thirst for press conferences that draw attention to the athletes we idolize for their achievements. Let's hope in a future not far from now that any new attention can focus on accomplishments, not status updates to what should have been a preventable body injury.