Cherry blasts doctor for `totally unfair' attack
December 20, 2009
Chris Zelkovich
As expected, Don Cherry came out swinging Saturday night.
Responding to comments from Dr. Charles Tator that the brand of hockey Cherry promotes is contributing to head injuries, the Hockey Night In Canada mainstay lashed out at what he termed a "totally unfair" attack.
"You know, I give it out pretty good, I dish it out," Cherry said during his regular Coach's Corner segment of Saturday's hockey broadcast on CBC.
"I've always been taught if you dish it out, you gotta take it. And I usually take it, but this is totally unfair for this guy to say that I'm responsible."
After holding up the front page of a newspaper featuring Tator's comments, Cherry defended his record.
"I'm not going into all the things I do with touch icing," he said. "I was the first guy for Shoot for a Cure on the whole thing, I could go on and on with a million things ... stop stickers ... I put my money where my mouth is.
"For this guy to come out and blame me for all the injuries I think is totally unfair."
He then launched a new attack on the highly respected neurosurgeon.
"I would hate to think Dr. Tator is doing it just to get his name in the paper," he said.
"I always thought doctors were above all that stuff. I tell you, evidently I was wrong."
When host Ron MacLean added that Tator had been trying to get hold of him, Cherry cut him off.
"Nah, I don't want to talk to him," he said. "I don't want anything to do with the guy."
Cherry then asked, "What's next?" before moving on to hockey-related matters.
He didn't address his profanity-riddled response to a reporter's question on the issue last week.
Don Cherry's views on violence a negative influence on hockey: surgeon
With concern over hockey concussions mounting, a Toronto brain surgeon has singled out television personality Don Cherry for promoting an aggressive on-ice culture he believes is leading to more hits to the head.
"I think he is a negative influence because he applauds aggressive hockey," Dr. Charles Tator said in a telephone interview, after delivering similar comments at a seminar on hockey concussions in Regina.
"We like skilled hockey, we like hard-fought hockey, but we don't like people going to the next step where there are hits to the head."
Dr. Tator said studies show that concussions among professional hockey players have increased.
There is no data on amateur hockey, but anecdotally, Dr. Tator hears concussions are also on the rise there.
"We don't want to change the game of hockey," said Dr. Tator, but it needs to return to a time when players "had respect for their own safety and respect for the safety of their opponents." He said Mr. Cherry, known for plugging "rock 'em, sock 'em" hockey play, should be espousing respect .
Mr. Cherry did not return calls for comment last night.
Dr. Tator's remarks come as the National Hockey League grapples with how to better protect players from the kind of head injuries that have taken more than a few out of the lineup. The league has struck a committee to look into head shots, as a debate simmers over what physical play is part of the game, and what goes too far.
But blaming Mr. Cherry, who champions other safe-play causes, is not fair, says former NHL player Keith Primeau. He was forced to retire in 2006 after at least four, but probably more, concussions.
"No one promotes hitting to the head," Mr. Primeau said in an interview yesterday, noting Mr. Cherry's efforts to reduce injury in minor hockey with the "STOP" decal program that gets children to think before they hit an opponent from behind.
For years, Mr. Cherry has also railed against touch icing, saying it needlessly endangered players who chased after a puck, only to barrel into the boards.
Sherali Najak, executive producer of Hockey Night in Canada, said Mr. Cherry "has been the leader in teaching tough, smart hockey and promotes respect amongst players at every level. Everyone who has watched Don over the years knows this, and any indication otherwise is misguided and a short-sighted misrepresentation of the facts."
Dr. Tator, however, thinks those initiatives are "window-dressing" and won't lead to a cultural shift.
"[Cherry] should be espousing no hits to the head in the professional league because he should know that the pros are the role models for the young people," said Dr. Tator, founder of the Think First foundation, which works to prevent head injuries. The Regina conference was a collaboration between it and Hockey Canada.
"I had a mother in my office with her boy last week who said, 'There's a bounty on his head.' And that just is bad culture. And where do they get that bad culture? I think they get it from people like Don Cherry," Dr. Tator said.
Todd Jackson, senior manager of safety and insurance at Hockey Canada, would not comment on Mr. Cherry's influence. He said awareness of head injuries is certainly up among parents and coaches of amateur players, and there is greater demand for education on how to take a hit, and how to give a hit.
Parents and coaches are reporting concussions more, but it's hard to say whether the actual incidence is up or down. Indeed, there is a lack of data in Canada on long-term effects of head injuries in hockey. That's why Dr. Tator is asking players to commit to donating their brains after they die to a research project he is leading at the Krembil Neuroscience Centre at the Toronto Western Hospital.
According to studies of U.S. football players, sports-related concussions can have devastating effects.
"The concern is that they are shortening their lives, and they're markedly reducing the quality of life, because when they get these changes in the brain, they generally get demented," Dr. Tator said. "So far we don't have pathological proof that this occurs in hockey players. There's a suspicion of it, but we have not proven the case."
Mr. Primeau, who suffers from headaches and cannot exercise without feeling light-headed, has agreed to donate his brain after he dies to a centre in Boston conducting similar research. He is convinced of the long-lasting effects of hockey concussions and urged the NHL to ban head shots.
Read it on Global News: Don Cherry's views on violence a negative influence on hockey: surgeon
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