Another enforcer is dead, but he's got thoughts and prayers going for him

Chris Simon fought 121 times during his professional hockey career, then he went bankrupt, sued the NHL and killed himself. And, as always, the hockey world will ultimately be OK with it

The NHL “mourned” the death by suicide of Chris Simon. So did the Ontario Hockey League, where Simon played four seasons before embarking on his NHL career. The NHL Alumni Association was “devastated” to hear the news. The Washington Capitals, for whom Simon scored 29 goals one season, were “deeply saddened” over it all and Zach Leonsis, an executive with the company that owns the Capitals, was “heartbroken.” The Calgary Flames, with whom Simon came within one game of winning a Stanley Cup in 2004, went with the ever-popular “thoughts and prayers” because you can never go wrong with thoughts and prayers.

Yes, the hockey world mourned and was devastated and deeply saddened and heartbroken about the death of Chris Simon. But as usual, it didn’t mourn for too long and was not devastated and deeply saddened and heartbroken enough to actually do anything about it.

We have to point out here that Chris Simon was a very good hockey player who could also fight. He wasn’t a one-dimensional enforcer with no skill. But he fought. A lot. In fact, in a 20-year career in the NHL and KHL in Russia, he fought 121 times, according to the website hockeyfights.com. And including the four seasons he played in the OHL, he served more than 2,800 minutes in penalties. We also know that he struggled mightily after his career, dealt with the demons of addiction, declared bankruptcy, was part of a class-action lawsuit against the NHL over its handling of concussions and ultimately took his own life.

We don’t know definitely whether Chris Simon suffered from Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) from all the hits to the head he endured, and we won’t unless and until his brain is examined. But his family highly suspects that he suffered from the affliction and they were the ones who watched his demise from the front lines. They’re the ones who suffered. They’re the ones who are enduring unspeakable pain.

But even if Simon did not have CTE, he lived a post-hockey life that way too many enforcers endure. Not only do many of them die young, but the time they spend on Earth, particularly after their careers end, is often spent in misery. And that is the price they pay for the fame and fortune and the opportunity to be part of the best hockey league in the world. It’s a price they willingly pay, until the same league they loved so much chews them up and spits them out into a world where they’re often unprepared to function as a normal human being.

And the hockey world – from the NHL to the fans to much of the media that covers it – seems to have no problem with this trade-off. These guys are consenting adults, after all, and they know the risks. Well, there was a time when Chris Simon was one of those consenting adults and he embraced his role. Then he retired and went bankrupt and sued the league and killed himself.

And through it all, the hockey world tut-tuts about it all and mourns and is devastated and heartbroken. And then it goes on its merry way, not only accepting fighting in hockey, but encouraging and rewarding it. The same day Simon died, the league’s most influential power brokers were conducting the GM meetings and fighting was barely addressed. Apologists will fall over themselves telling everyone fighting is down and instigator penalties are up and, boy oh boy, isn’t that wonderful?

But the NHL still, as it always has, penalizes fighting with only a five-minute penalty. And when the players who do it with inordinate frequency end up killing themselves and leaving behind devastated families, the league mourns, then when asked about its level of concern over the connection between blows to the head and CTE, it buries its head very deeply into the sand. “I think the science is still lacking,” deputy commissioner Bill Daly said the day after Simon died. “We will wait to see what the medical experts tell us,” said commissioner Gary Bettman.

Exactly to what medical experts is Bettman referring? The ones who insist there is a definitive link between the two or the ones who will tell him what he wants to hear? It’s not 100 percent certain that blows to the head cause CTE, but the evidence is pretty convincing at this point. But even if it’s not CTE, these men are living miserable lives and often killing themselves. They’re leaving behind a ton of wreckage and they’re destroying themselves.

But beyond the thoughts and prayers, much of the hockey world seems content to keep things just the way they are. This is not a complex, nuanced argument. The fact is, the NHL and every other league in hockey could get the vast majority of fighting out of the game if it had the will to do so. It does not and people will keep dying.

Just as long as they die far away from the rink and removed enough from their NHL careers, we’re all good here. That way they can mourn and be devastated and heartbroken and offer their thoughts and prayers with a clear conscience.

Carry on, then…