Oh, wait.

There is no NHL season. There is no NHL season because at the base of all these fancy words, expensive suits and lavish conference rooms, we have two male peacocks headbutting each other with feathers in full display. It’s really the only analogy I can think of, when I see clips of Fehr and Bettman in the negotiation tactics. Two giant peacocks squawking at each other and not one actually making a move and charging. It’s like the bar fight, where the guys shove each other and cuss and make grand gestures, but nobody actually throws a punch.

For the sake of the fans, the vendors, the small businesses…someone throw a damn punch already and let’s all be friends again.

Soapbox done, on to the blog for tonight.

There are a few things I am quite passionate about, and as you may have guessed from previous posts, concussions and brain injuries are one of them. Why? Because I think there’s still a massive amount of confusion and more frighteningly, a ton of misinformation and dismissal of their severity.

Look, Sidney Crosby is not the first person to get a concussion. He’s not the first person to suffer the symptoms for a very, very long time. Not the first person to have their entire life thrown upside down by this invisible but catastrophic injury. And perhaps it’s not even fair to call it invisible,  the people who have gone through it will tell you it is very tangible, very evident. Sidney Crosby is not the first person to suffer this debilitating affliction, but he is perhaps one of the most famous. While I’m sure he’s not going “Awesome! I’m glad I got that concussion because so many people are learning from it!” there is a quasi silver lining here. Yes, he suffered. Yes, he may still be suffering. He may always suffer the repurcussions.

But more people are talking about it now. And that, friends, is a fantastic thing.

When I was on the varsity cross-country running team, one of my teammates was a girl from Nova Scotia named Jennie-Mae–or JMae, as I call her. JMae and I would get together often when I lived in Nova Scotia during my summer months, and she was the ideal athlete. A competitive runner, a competitive (nationally!) cross-country skiier, a great soccer player. The girl could do it all.  Last summer, in the middle of a soccer game, she took a ball to the temple that was kicked at point-blank range. The result? A severe concussion that still plagues her a year later. A concussion that took a few doctors before a diagnosis, and even more doctors to help handle her post concussion syndrome.

Talking to her this summer, she mentioned the struggle of getting up every day and dealing with the headaches. The light sensitivity. The nausea. The insomnia combined with the desire to sleep all the time, the constant fatigue. She talked of waking up one day feeling fine, only to wake up the next feeling awful and months behind in her recovery. The frustration of being an athlete forced on the sidelines for extended periods of time, the distrust that comes from not knowing what’s going on in your own body. The complete lack of independence.

Listening to her strife was heartbreaking. This is a very real injury, with very real repurcussions. It changes a person’s life. I’m sure only few know what Crosby actually went through on a day to day basis–whether he was able to drive or feed himself (instead of lacking spatial perception and having the fork hit your ear when you think you’re aiming for your mouth), whether he would randomly get dizzy and lose a whole day because he needed to lie down. I’m sure only few people were able to see the steam come out from his ears when he was asked “Are you feeling better yet? Can you play?” I can only really imagine the frustration he felt when trying to explain to reporters and fans that yes, he was fine today, but that was no guarantee that he would be fine tomorrow. Because you just don’t know with this injury.

Listening to JMae’s story brought it home. Yes, Sidney Crosby  put concussions on the map. He got people talking. Now let’s get them talking even more, so that we’re not leaving people in the dark anymore.

Voyages in Concussion Land: the Homeless, Sidney Crosby and Me
by Tabatha Southey

Nearly two months ago, I was on a return visit to the emergency room, to deal with a concussion I had sustained during a bike accident. A doctor studied my MRI results for a while and then he talked to me, as another doctor and a nurse had already done, about Sidney Crosby.

Everyone in Concussion Land talks about Sidney Crosby. I heard one brain-injury patient who had been in a car accident several years earlier say, “Thank God for Sidney Crosby. Before Sidney, people just stared at me blankly when I told them about my injury. Sidney put this thing on the map.”

Several people in the waiting room at the clinic nodded. One woman added quietly, “Do you find you’re more emotional now than before your concussion – that you cr …” And before she could finish saying “cry,” all four patients in the room burst into tears. Which I found hilarious, but I was crying too.

The doctor on that particular night in emergency talked to me so much about Sidney Crosby, and in such a roundabout way, that I finally said, “Just give it to me straight, doc. Are you trying to tell me I’ll never play professional hockey again?”

He looked meaningfully over at the nurse and then made a note on my chart. I was bombing. Not that I cared, because one of the most striking and common symptoms of a concussion is feeling oneself permeated by what should be an alarming sense of detachment but is only a sense of detachment.

I had planned to go on holiday just before my accident. I have instead wandered – somewhat crookedly, as my balance is poor (like Sidney’s, I’m told!) – around my city, as if I hardly know it, sometimes to stirring effect. It’s another kind of holiday to see your town that way: I’ve felt as if it’s unknown to me and as if I’m about to leave it soon.

I’ve thought often of a study conducted in 2008 at the Centre for Research on Inner City Health at Toronto’s St. Michael’s Hospital, where I’ve been lucky enough receive much of my treatment. The study concluded that 53 per cent of the 904 men and women it examined who were in homeless shelters had sustained a traumatic brain injury, compared with an 8.5 per cent lifetime prevalence rate among the general population (according to U.S. figures).

Significantly, 70 per cent of those people had suffered their injury before they became homeless. A head injury can bring a loss of income and cognitive difficulties that cause issues with impulse control, all of which could lead a person to end up on the street. I’ve also wondered if the dissociation many concussion sufferers experience, including me, might contribute.

Possibly one loses an inappreciable factor, the part of oneself that fights to stay put, when an accident renders all things equally unfamiliar. I’ve looked up at a line of buildings and seen them as if there were the final scenes in a sad, vividly shot film.

Yet, in these past few weeks, I find, as I was told by a former boxer I would, that I have longer and longer periods of feeling normal and at home again.

I’m still tired, worn out by lightweight social contact. I have a friend and fellow writer, Eric Rutherford, who suffered a concussion around the same time as I did. As Eric put it, “Small talk, chat, even more than debate, is exhausting.”

Sound and light remain a problem, but the endless headache and pain in both eyes have lessened. There is neurological damage behind my left eye (the side I went down on, the bike helmet spit in two inside – so please, everyone, bike helmets). My left pupil is still, and may remain, huge. I lost more than 10 pounds, so pretty much half my body is covered by my left pupil now.

As well – and scientists had thought this impossible – since the accident, my spelling is worse.

But I’m coming around again, no question. When I arrived home, very early in the morning, after that last night in emergency, I had one of the most vivid dreams of my life. I was standing, wearing a simple dress, in the Antarctic, and around me were five or six beautiful and enormous penguins. It was very calm and one penguin in particular was looking down at me.

When I awoke, I lay there thinking about it, and realized that Sidney Crosby plays for the Pittsburgh Penguins, a fact I didn’t consciously know, as I don’t follow hockey. My unconscious is a lot sportier than I am, I guess.

I felt as if Sidney had come to tell me I’d be okay, and he was right. Thanks, Sidney.

Original link: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/commentary/columnists/voyages-in-concussion-land-the-homeless-sidney-crosby-and-me/article4593260/

Social media as it applies to businesses, however, is a whole other ball (puck?) game. All of a sudden, strategy becomes key. Timing is essential. Frequency, identity, relevance, all of these things now play integral roles in the 140-character space you previously used to announce to the world that you were dancing around your room in your underwear. I’m constantly fascinated by this still-arbitrary line that seems to exist between an overload of information, and the classic voyeurism that my generation craves and that social media satiates. I don’t think SM is ever something that anyone will figure out with 100% certainty, because it’s a constantly evolving phenomenon. The main cardinal sin in social media, though, is something easily identifiable. In my experience, one thing has come back to repeatedly bite big time CEOs and business owners in the ass: the belittling of the importance of social media. Thinking it’s a useless, pointless platform that nobody cares about is one sure fire way to get burned by it. Many, many people–big time people– have lost their jobs by simply posting an assinine comment on social media, or by a mass public movement started on social media that could not be ignored. Respect its power.

In any case, I loved this article. It revealed a whole new side to the NHL’s business model.

And, they’re right. The NHLPA is winning. By a longshot.

NHL Losing War on Social Media
by Bruce Dowbiggen

Perhaps NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly was having a bad day. Asked about the criticism on social media over NHL labour tactics, Daly said negotiating a new collective agreement (CBA) is still Job 1. “We do not intend to abdicate that responsibility in reaction to uninformed ramblings on Twitter,” he said in an e-mail.

Ah, the uninformed ramblings on Twitter, the fifth column of the NHL lockout. For those not scoring at home, Twitter did not exist in 2004-05. Facebook was a dating site. When Daly needed to herd the cats of public opinion last time, he needed only to round up the usual suspects of mainstream media, many of whom were NHL broadcasters or sponsors.

Now, as it orchestrates another controversial lockout narrative, the NHL is faced with a massed choir of players, agents, journalists, statisticians, humorists, cranks, idlers and outright liars vying for the last word on how the NHL is doing. To say nothing of sarcastic Taiwanese cartoonists, seen on YouTube.

Daly has estimated, “I think opinion on Twitter is 50-50 for the NHL/NHLPA.” Nice try. Almost everyone concedes that, because of social media, the NHL is running uphill in this PR battle compared to the lost season of 2004-05.

One day’s harvest on social media reveals NHL Lockout: 15 Reason Why Hockey Fans Hate Gary Bettman (Bleacher Report), 9 Ideas for NBC To Replace the NHL (because we couldn’t get to 10) on Awful Announcing and threats to boycott NHL sponsors on YouHaveTwoWeeks.com.

On Twitter, Anaheim star Teemu Selanne is calling Daly’s boss Gary Bettman “the most hated man in hockey.”

Lockout accounts have sprouted like mushrooms: @stopthelockout2012, @against lockout, @nolockouthockey, #becauseitsthelockout … the list is long.

“The 2004-05 lockout was the catalyst for hockey’s digital media revolution,” notes Greg Wyshynski, who blogs as Puck Daddy. “When the media here in the U.S. stopped covering hockey for roughly a year, fans started writing their own ‘beats’ on blogs, attracting an audience and continuing that work long after the NHL reopened its press boxes.

“Instead of waiting for ESPN to give the lockout its customary 23 seconds of news before giving Barry Melrose the floor for his ‘drunk uncle at the wedding’ analysis, hockey fans of every experience level and demographic can distribute and scrutinize the news of the day on Twitter – while also offering a suitable place to vent, frequently profanely.”

“Fans no longer have to wait for a talk-show host to put them on the air or a letter to the editor to be printed,” says Mitch Melnick, long-time radio host on TSN Radio 690 in Montreal. “The immediacy of a well-crafted tweet almost has the effect of putting you in the room when Gary Bettman reads them. And you know he reads them. If not originals then certainly via retweets… Whether they care or not is an entirely different matter.”

Have the sound and fury affected negotiations? The man who preceded Don Fehr as executive director of the NHLPA thinks so. “Twitter has changed the landscape since the last CBA negotiation in that every development in this standoff has gone viral almost instantly,” says Paul Kelly, now a sports lawyer in Boston. “Social media has also allowed the parties to attempt to shape public opinion directly and through surrogates, including players, agents, owners, friendly media sources and others.”

That has caused the NHL to scramble to appear sympathetic to the Internet voices. “We understood going into this that the landscape was going to be different with the prevalence of social media,” Daly has written. While Bettman has reportedly shuttered his own Twitter account, and the NHL’s own Twitter account has been mute on labour issues, NHLPA members aren’t being shy.

“Just wanted to send out big congrats to gray [sic] bettman on his 3rd consecutive work stoppage. Impressive stats for someone w no athletic skill,” tweeted John-Michael Liles of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Prospect Connor Carrick said, “The fact that bettman makes more money than most of the players actually in the league #Garbage I just really dislike the guy.” Minnesota’s Jason Zucker added, “This whole lockout thing is really making me mad! How does Bettman now have 3 lockouts under his name? Common denominator here! #NoLockout.”

Don’t look for the online rhetoric to cool soon. It won’t much change the NHL’s bargaining tactics, but the hatin’ will make the postlockout reconstruction that much more difficult than in 2005.

Playing the game

Social media are also instructive for catching up. Former Philadelphia Flyer Orest Kindrachuk popped up, talking about his concerns that the lockout might hurt the game. “Both sides should “do what’s good for the game,” Kindrachuk said.

Though they were economically strip-mined by the NHL and their union leader Alan Eagleson for decades, it’s quaint to hear retired players still talk about what’s good for the game.The NHL is about the game the way American Idol is about the singing.

Original link: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/hockey/nhl-losing-the-war-on-social-media/article4558319/ 

A former NHL contact recently tweeted this article and it caught my eye. Now, as a 25 year old (already mildly jaded, admittedly) still trying to break into the industry, I roll my eyes at most “How-To” career kick start articles. Why? Because I find them mind-numbingly hopeful. Breaking into this industry is not a recipe, it’s not follow steps 1-3 and you’ll get to step 4. No. It’s a healthy mix of relentless hard work, and…well….luck. A lot of it comes down to luck.

And yes, the harder you work, the luckier you’ll be.

But, I’ve heard numerous times that it’s also about just being in the right place at the right time. Hard work can ensure you have the opportunity to be in that place, but as far as right time, nobody can control that.

I like this article, I think it’s a good base and it’s nice to restore that hope. However, I don’t see it as a guarantee. I have been doing all these steps for years and I’m really not any further advanced than I was when I graduated university.

Success: I’m doing it wrong.

The Secret to Breaking Into Sports
By Chris McKinney – @ChrisMcKinney

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Want to know the secret to breaking into sports? It’s really not much of a secret. You’ve heard it before. Many times, I’m sure. But this time I want you to do something about it. Are you with me? Good.

Below are four (not-so-secret) power moves that will help you get to where you want to go with your sports business career.

1. Out-Hustle Your Competitors

Here’s the secret: Out-hustle the competition. Beating your opponents takes an enormous amount of work. Especially in the sports business industry. But it starts in the mind. You don’t out-hustle the competition by accident. It happens on purpose. Until you make a conscious decision to do so, it’s not going to happen.

Application: Add an hour or more per day to your schedule to work on breaking into the biz.

2. Be Relentless

Landing a job in sports is about rolling up your sleeves and getting after it. And not giving up. That’s how you win a job. When you pursue your dreams — and you’re relentless — everything else will take care of itself.

Application: Network like a man or woman on a mission. Because you are.

3. Get Out of Your Comfort Zone

If you’re an athlete, or former athlete, you’ve heard the old saying, ”No Pain, No Gain.” In the off-season that was your mantra while you were preparing for the future. The same approach applies now. Planning and preparing to launch a sports career requires you to get out of your comfort zone and embrace the pain so you can enjoy the gain.

Application: Outline a plan of attack.

4. Have Something to Sell

Before you start working in sports, you first have to work in marketing. Self-marketing, that is. In order to land your first job in sports — and build your sports career from there — you must be able to sell yourself. But you’ve got to have something to sell. Your diploma alone won’t cut it. Grades either. Dig deeper.

Application: Find one or two things you do extremely well. Package it in a way that brings value to a company. Lead with that.

Original Link: http://www.sportsnetworker.com/2012/09/18/the-secret-to-breaking-into-sports/

The second major reason I have abstained from the topic is for this very simple reason: it enrages me. I won’t go into the whole schpiel of broke student trying to make it in this industry, working endless hours for free, getting stepped on, yelled at, etc. That’s part of the territory and anyone who doesn’t understand that probably doesn’t belong in the mean world of pro sports.

I don’t think either party in these negotiations is right. I think the players are wrong, and I think Bettman is wrong. Both are essentially fighting for the same thing (of which I don’t particularly believe either are entitled to) and neither side is willing to back down…again, for the same reason. It comes down to arrogance, to money grabbing, to sense of entitlement, to owing.

In fact, it comes down to everything BUT the love of the game.

I respect the players, I do. I respect that they are putting their bodies on the line out there. But I don’t respect them getting millions for it, nor do I respect their desire to get even more. No. Shut up. Just…no. I could go on a LONG epithet about the players of old–Rocket, Beliveau, Howe–who also had FULL TIME JOBS in addition to playing hockey because their salaries weren’t high enough to make a living. And you know what? They played for the love of the game. Every night.

They didn’t play to maintain a lifestyle where dropping $110,000 on a bar bill in one night is normal.

ANYWAY.

Back to my original point.

The players, the owners, the GMs, they all stand to be mildly affected by this lockout. But the people who are really losing out are the fans–the fans who work hard and save up their money to be able to buy hockey tickets that cost a few hundred dollars (a few thousand if you’re in Montreal). Faithful fans who get emotional and near violent when their team loses, fans who ride the ebb and flow of the 82 game season right alongside the players. Fans who yell, cheer, bust your eardrum when their favourite players score, fans who faithfully boo the opposing team’s superstar. Fans who stand out in the cold clutching an even colder beer during an outdoor game. Fans who, even though you SUCKED this year, stick by you and keep hope for a better season next year.

You like your big salaries, boys? You have only the fans to thank for that.

There’s also a sub-culture of people that stand to be bulldozed by the potential lockout: people like me. Recent graduates trying to carve a name out for themselves in the industry. For 4 years, I have been slowly but steadily climbing the ladder in. At times, it felt like I was stuck on a wrung for awhile and not going anywhere–but other times, like last year, I felt like everything was coming together and all of my hard work was  finally paying off. I was getting more opportunities than I had in the past, I was being brought along to bigger gigs like the Winter Classic, the All Star game, even certain regular season games that required travel. I was excited. Stoked. At the end of last season I felt like everything was slowly but surely falling into place and I could pick up this season right where I left off, which is a higher step than I have ever been.

And you know what? All of that stands to go to shit. Contacts and persistence is everything in this industry, and it is a big deal to go a year without being seen in the NHL. The more people see you, the more they start to recognize you. The more people start to see you everywhere, the more they start to talk to you and try to figure out what you’re doing, what you’re about. And the more they know, the better. Going a year without seeing or speaking to many of these people is detrimental to my career at this stage, I’m still a pawn that is easily replaceable and perhaps even more easily forgotten. It’s a brutal reality but one that I’m all too aware of. It’s the nature of the beast.

And I’m not alone, either. Every season I meet people my age from all over, every one of them with much the same eager yet frantic look on their faces as me, desperately trying to remember every detail and how every producer takes their coffee and terrified of making a mistake. We have spent months, years, some of us longer than we should have, waiting to just be at the right place at the right time. Waiting for someone to notice. Waiting for the years of 80+ hours of free work a week, full course loads, belittlements, manual labour in the form of “internships,” expenses we covered with money we didn’t have just to get experience, mistakes we were yelled at for as if it was the worst thing in the world, full time jobs AND university AND unpaid “course credit” work….waiting for all of it to finally, FINALLY pay off.

And you know what? This could have been the year for one of us. For a few of us. For all of us. But if there’s a lockout, it won’t be. Not only will it not be the year, but it could absolutely, completely abolish all of the insanely hard work some of us have put in for the past few years trying to make it in an industry that they clearly take for granted.

Think about that.

It has been months since I updated. Oh, the humanity. The agony. Burn me at the stake. I’m sorry, I should have known this would happen in the summer time. I spend my summer months at my second home in Nova Scotia, and when I’m around the ocean…well, let’s just say that not much gets done. Nothing that doesn’t involve bathing suits, surfboards, barbecues, bonfires and a few cases of ice cold Keith’s (you got some nerve if you drink anything BUT Keith’s in Halifax).

Anyway. I’m steering clear (for now) of the CBA negotiations plaguing the state of the NHL. Not necessarily to avoid controversy, but because I don’t have much to say on it. Or rather, I don’t have much to say on it that somebody else hasn’t already said better and far more eloquently, so I’ll leave it to the pros. It’s becoming quite the beaten dead horse anyway. The only thing I will venture to say is that last year was such an awesome year career-wise for me with lots of advancements, so if the NHL does go into lockout, I will be 50 shades of pissed.

There’s your pop culture reference for the day.

Anyway, back to the blog.

Hayley Wickenheiser is awesome. Really, there’s no other way to put it. She trains and competes with the big boys, and she dominates at it. Though I’ve never had the pleasure of meeting her, I think she’s an incredible role model to young girls who want to get in the game. Let’s face it, there’s not a thriving opportunity for women hockey players past a varsity squad, and nothing is more infuriating that being forced to give up on a sport you love to play because of a dead end. Hayley made her way through a men’s league and took whatever they threw at her, throwing it back twice as hard. I idolize her strength, her determination, her guts.

She’s just all kind of awesome.

Hayley Wickenheiser one of first female characters in NHL video game
By Sarah Ratchford

She’s been a pioneer in the hockey world for years. Now, Hayley Wickenheiser is making video game history too.

The star of Canada’s women’s hockey team is one of the first two female athletes to be featured as a playable character in a professional sports league video game.

Players of EA Sports’ NHL 13 will have the option of choosing either Wickenheiser or veteran American defenceman Angela Ruggiero as avatars.

“Traditionally, video games have been seen as something for boys, and hockey’s been seen as a game for boys,” Wickenheiser said in an interview Tuesday. “And now it’s not.”

EA Sports started including female players in NHL 12, which featured generic female characters. But this is the first time recognizable, real-world female athletes are a part of the made-in-Canada game.

EA Sports included the female player in NHL 12 after a 14-year-old girl e-mailed the company saying she felt underrepresented as a hockey video game fan.

“This year we are very excited to continue our effort of creating a more representative experience for female hockey fans by adding two of the greatest female athletes to ever play the game in Wickenheiser and Ruggiero to ‘NHL 13,“’ EA senior producer David Littman said in a statement.

In addition to Wickenheiser and Ruggiero, former NHL stars Jari Kurri, Doug Gilmour and Dominik Hasek have also been added to the Legends roster for NHL 13.

Wickenheiser says having women represented as professional athletes is about “equality for women and doing the right thing.”

“You know, what’s great is that females are 50 per cent of the population that play video games nowadays, and 50 per cent of the population, or more than that, so I think it’s a natural fit,” she added. “I think women’s sport has really grown.”

Forced to play on boys teams when she was young, Wickenheiser has done her part to foster that growth.

In 2003, she became the first woman to record a point in a men’s professional hockey game with the Kirkkonummen Salamat of the Finnish second division. She also played for a men’s team in the Swedish first division in 2008-09 and received the Order of Canada for her contributions to growth in women’s hockey.

But the three-time Olympic champion says it wasn’t easy being a girl playing with boys when she was growing up in Shaunavon, Sask.

“I remember walking into a rink used to be so much stress because they would know you’re a girl,” she recalled. “So I would just run to the bathroom and hide as quickly as I could.”

She would try to stay out of sight until she could put her gear on and get out on the ice.

Wickenheiser, 34, says she didn’t know that other girls played hockey until she was about 12, when she watched the women’s world championships on TV and was inspired to go to the Olympics.

“Now, I see young girls with a hockey stick and a hockey bag walking into rinks across Canada, and it’s not a big deal,” said Wickenheiser.

While the star forward may be featured in the NHL video game, Wickenheiser doesn’t think it’s a realistic goal to integrate female players into the league.

“I think the real goal for women in hockey should be to have a professional league, and there’s no reason why they can’t in time,” said Wickenheiser, who helped lead the Calgary Dinos to the Canadian women’s university title earlier this year. “It could be equally as entertaining as the NHL.”

Since she’s still active as an athlete, Wickenheiser doesn’t necessarily see herself as the person who will get that idea off the ground, but she says she can see it coming together in the near future.

In the meantime, gamers will have the option to choose Wickenheiser or Ruggiero in NHL 13. The game, which is developed in Burnaby, B.C., will be released Sept. 11.

Original Link: http://tinyurl.com/9ufrjs9

I thoroughly enjoy watching him conduct interviews, but I enjoy his articles on his blog even more. He’s just a really smart guy.

This one, in particular, hit the nail on the head. After I watched Game 3 of the Penguins/Flyers series, I was more or less stunned into silence. I couldn’t wrap my head around the fact that Crosby, who must be well aware that he is one punch to the noggin away from being an assistant coach, was not only in the middle of scrums but was instigating them. With men that were far, far out of his league (Hartnell, anyone?). Some speak of his competitive edge. Some speak of his inability to play any other way.

I understand competitive. But drive to compete does not equal stupidity. And his inability to play the game any other way? If he doesn’t learn how to, he won’t be playing, period.

Kudos to Hartnell is he did indeed hold back, as Elliotte speculates. It couldn’t have been easy, but the hockey world should thank him.

Crosby Centre of Attention in Wrong Way
by Elliotte Friedman

You’d think by now I’d know it’s hard to get into a nuanced argument in 140-character bursts.

Anyway, here is more detail into my twitter argument that a Sidney Crosby injury in the final seconds of today’s Pittsburgh/Philadelphia melee would be devastating for the NHL.

First thing’s first: No Flyer could be blamed for fighting Crosby at the end of that game. He was in the middle of everything and not in a good way.

Tell you a quick story. Just before Crosby suffered his first concussion in January 2011, I was scheduled to do an interview with him. As part of the preparation, I asked a few Flyers for their opinions. They were complimentary — even Mike Richards, who hated him the most. They said he’d really decreased his complaining on the ice and just played hard.

That’s why it was so stunning to watch him in Game 3. Undoubtedly, the Flyers were telling each other, “We’ve got him. He’s totally unglued.” Swatting the glove away from Jakub Voracek was so…high school.

If I was a Flyer, I’d have wanted to rip into anything in a white jersey after James Neal’s hit on Sean Couturier. It was dirty and made Aaron Rome/Nathan Horton look like a tickle fight. Crosby was on the ice and getting involved.

This is not about protecting Sidney Crosby or the Pittsburgh Penguins or having any issue with what was going on or cheering for a particular team or anything that myopic people accuse us of.

Best for the sport

It is about what is best for the sport.

Remember how big the Todd Bertuzzi/Steve Moore incident was? Remember how big the Zdeno Chara hit on Max Pacioretty was? If Crosby suffers another serious injury in the middle of that brawl, the reaction and consequence would eclipse both of those stories combined.

Like him or not, you cannot argue that he is the NHL’s most marketable player and — at his peak — its best (although Claude Giroux is trying his damndest to disprove the second part.)

After re-watching the last few minutes several times, can’t help but wonder if Flyers forward Scott Hartnell held back. That’s a mismatch, and Hartnell really didn’t try before Craig Adams stepped in. Remember his second comeback when a few guys looked nervous to hit him? Imagine you’re the one who throws the punch that ends his career. That might lead your Wikipedia entry.

Here’s Coach’s Corner from last week. I have a better understanding now of what Don Cherry was talking about. Crosby loves to compete and play a gritty game, but, on Sunday, he crossed into “What are you going to do about it?” territory.

He can’t do that anymore. The consequences are too great.

You can love Sidney Crosby or you can hate him. Everyone’s entitled to their own opinion. The problem is: if someone does do something about it, everyone loses.

Original Link: http://tinyurl.com/74b4tfk

Fortunately, then, that my observant and endlessly curious tendencies allow me the gift of not only learning from my own mistakes, but learning by osmosis through the mistakes of others. And while a lowly production assistant I may be, that hasn’t stopped my jaw from hitting the floor on numerous occasions when faced with something so odd and so misplaced.

Women in the sports industry. It’s a tough topic, particularly when spoken about by a woman who hasn’t yet really “made it” in said industry. However, over the past 2 years I have witnessed behaviour from women in positions of power within the NHL that has absolutely boggled my mind.

So the humble pie is taking a step back in place of the soap box tonight. Respect, ladies–you’re doing it wrong.

Top Five Mistakes Women Make in the Sports Industry:

1. There’s Something About the Way You Look Tonight
Is it fair that women are judged on their appearance more than men? No. Does that make it any less of a reality? No. Sour grapes. Women have two options here: shut up and pick your battles, or insist you’re going to change the way society thinks and wear things that are ridiculously inappropriate all in an effort to announce “I am woman, hear me roar.”

I have seen women in this industry step off the team bus teetering on 4 inch stilettos and a low cut dress. Sure, you’re a woman, and you’re succeeding in the sports industry. You should be proud of that. What you shouldn’t do is draw attention to every single female part that you have. I’m not saying go for the frumpy look and button up in suits all the time, but do have a constant awareness as to how you’re being perceived. Tone down the make up. Lose the sky high heels that make you walk like a baby giraffe. Make sure your skirts are not too short, and your tops are not too low cut. You can be chic and stylish while still being classy.

A few years ago, I did something that I now refer to as my “social experiment”. Always a girl with chestnut brown hair and bronzed skin, I decided to dye my hair platinum blond. The reactions from people were disappointing but not surprising. They would speak to me slower, and pronounce their words more. Men began calling me “sweetheart” or “cute” in professional, business conversations. Mistakes I made were forgiven and mildly scolded in the same voice you’d use for a child.

All because of how I looked.

So when I was at the All-Star game a few weekends ago and out of the players’ bus came a young team representative with bleached blond hair, orange skin, an incredibly tight fitting dress (and she was curvy to say the least) with make up caked on, I cringed. She looked like you could peel her face off, she was wearing so much foundation. Her thick black eyeliner was winged out at the ends, attempting to make her eyes look cat like. She sashayed her hips and was very focused on trying to walk a straight line in her ridiculously high heels.

Ladies, respect. Always be aware of how you are being perceived. There is a time and a place to flaunt what you’ve got—but at work or on a team bus with 30 NHL players is not the place.

2. I’m Not Your Friend, I Just Work Here

Can your male counterpart go out for a beer with one of the guys, and make nothing of the situation? Absolutely. As a woman, can you? No. Look, none of this is fair. I know that. I know it’s sexist and enraging and still so derogatory to women. But I also know that it’s not going to change—not for a long while. So cry about it all you want, you won’t win. And in this industry, you need to pick the battles that you know you can win.

A few women in communications positions in the NHL will constantly refer to players by their nicknames. It appears in online team reports, in public interviews, in printed quotes. I can’t even begin to fathom how they, or anybody, would think this is appropriate. It is far too flirty and personal to be considered professional.

You are not their friend. You never were, and if you’re trying to be, then you need to get out of the business. A player is not Duper or Tanger or Schenner or Iggy. They are Pascal Dupuis, Kris Letang, Luke Schenn and Jarome Iginla.

Never forget your place in this industry—and it’s not on the ice, with the players. When it is, fine, call them by their nicknames. But in the meantime, stick to their actual names. Otherwise you end up looking like a 15 year old fan girl trying to get close to them because they’re dreamy.

When I was travelling with the men’s team at Concordia University, we had a code. When we were on the team bus out of the public eye, the nicknames flew. I never called them by their actual names and they always called me Cosmo. But in public, in my writing, and in my outside-world interactions with them, we always referred to one another by our names. It established a code of respect amongst one another, and they viewed me as a working professional and not one of the guys.

And again, if you’re trying to get on a more personal level with “the boys”—get out of the business and join the wives’ club.

3. Check Your Feelings At The Door

Jennifer Hedger is one of my idols in life, I think she’s a real smart cookie. She summed this one up best: “Nothing makes a male boss more uncomfortable than an emotional female employee.”

Bingo. And it doesn’t even have to apply to the boss-employee relationship; it goes for ALL work relationships. We all have days where things are going so terribly that we just want to sit down and cry, and we either do just that or end up snapping irrationally at those around us and making decisions that are 100% based on the frantic, chaotic emotions we are experiencing at the moment.

When that happens—pardon the pun—but be a man.

Do not show emotion on the job, ever. Show passion, show intensity, show character—all of these things have emotional links but are incredibly different than showing emotion. Do not, under any circumstances, cry. Do not whine to get what you want. Put on your big girl panties, and ask yourself how a man would deal with the confrontation.

Then do exactly that.

At the Bell Centre this year, a female team representative from the visiting side was near the locker room as the team played a warm up game of soccer. She was on a call that clearly upset her, because as she hung up, she made a dramatic show of kicking the wall, then leaning up against it and bursting into tears. The players didn’t approach her. Nobody approached her. She stood there and wailed some more until deciding her efforts were futile, so she retreated to the bathroom and continued to pout for the rest of the night.

Don’t. Ever. Cry.

4. I Think, Therefore I Am.

I read a great article a month ago about salary discrepancies amongst the two genders, for the exact same positions. When hired for a job, the company usually offers the lowest end of the salary range they’re willing to pay. The woman, 90% of the time, accepts and walks away. Do you know what the man does?

He counter offers. 90% of the time.

Its how companies can get around ethical laws that dictate men and women be paid the same base salary. Both are offered the same salary, but men are self-assured of their worth and are more confident in their abilities. So they ask for more, and they receive it.

Just as appearance is everything in this industry, so is attitude and confidence. Trust that you didn’t get to where you are because of your good looks. Trust that you got there because you are qualified, because you are smart, and because you are the best person for the job, man or woman.

And if you did, by chance, get there because of your looks—everybody knows. Trust me. You aren’t hiding anything.

5.  Bitter Flatters Nobody

The women I have met in this industry can be very clearly separated into one of two categories: the female powerhouses who fought tooth and nail to be where they are and will gladly help another female in any way they can….and the women who fought, and will do anything in their power to stifle any threatening female from entering their world and stealing their job.

Unfortunately, the latter are the majority.

Where is this girl on girl hate coming from? As a jaded youngster (by industry standards, anyway) I’m of the persuasion that you should help somebody who idolizes you, so that they don’t have to fight as hard as you did. That’s how we start to change this business, start to change our image. If you fought to get to the top, lend a hand to somebody struggling on the rungs of the ladder. Give them a boost. Help them, because nobody helped you.

However, too many women are focused on these younger apprentices and see them as a threat, ready to swoop in and steal jobs. Look, that may be the case in the modelling world. But in the sports industry, if you’re good at your job, you’re not going anywhere.

Alright, the soapbox is done for tonight. Time to go back to munching on some humble pie.

It started with Bettman instilling the rule that after a hard hit to the head, players will be brought into a dark room and questioned by the doctor. First off, this wasn’t being done already? WHAT? Secondly, and perhaps even more troublesome–this is at the team’s discretion. If the team says “Well, he looks like he still has all his noodles,” then the player stays on the bench.

This is where more needs to be done. As much as there is a culture of machismo amongst the players, that culture bleeds into the coaches, too. They want to win games. If the guy looks alright, or even if he only looks mildly loopy, then put him back on the ice.

The Penguins vs Montreal game on November 28 was a great example. Kris Letang got absolutely steamrolled by Max Pacioretty, and you could see his head snap back. Right on the spot, I called a concussion. It was easy to see. You don’t get hit in the head that hard and not have at least a few birdies flying around your head.

But he sat on the bench, fixed his nose, and there he was back out there. And the next game, he was diagnosed with a concussion. Unreal.

Savard brings up an excellent point in the article–take the onus off of Shanahan. Players are still gambling out there, risking the suspension and being completely irresponsible. There’s still too much inconsistency on Shanahan’s part. Let’s take the guessing out of it. If you hit a player in the head, you’re gone 10 games. No ifs, ands or buts.

And the player who gets hit is automatically seated for the remainder of that game, and the next game. Take the macho element out. Blame the doctors, not the player. He wants to play, but the doctors won’t let him.

Because what does one more game seated on the sidelines even matter, if it means you can either take care of the concussion right away, or realize you’re fine.

Ask Sidney Crosby if playing one more game on January 5th was worth it.

Savard still dealing with symptoms, hopes for return
by Matt Kalman

While some might consider Marc Savard‘s NHL playing career over, the inactive Boston Bruins center is still classifying himself and his battle with post-concussion syndrome symptoms as day-to-day.
              
Savard, who was at TD Garden on Saturday to promote the suite at the Bruins’ home rink he’s donated for pediatric patients at Children’s Hospital Boston with a focus on children suffering from the effects of head trauma from both a medical and psychological standpoint, said he’s wants to see how things go with his recovery this year before making any more definitive decisions about his future.
               
He last played in an NHL game in Colorado on Jan. 22, 2011, when he suffered his most recent concussion on a clean hit by ex-teammate Matt Hunwick.
               
“Right now, the way I’m still feeling and the daily issues I’m having, it’s tough to see a bright future right now,” he said. “It’s tough, but there’s still some days when you want to get back and play. But again, I know too if I possibly get hit again, what could happen. So it’s a day-by-day thing still. I’m still hoping that something happens that I feel a lot better.”

Savard says his main issues are headaches, which have recently improved, and short-term memory loss. He recounted a particularly scary scenario that happened to him not too long ago when he went to watch one of his sons play hockey.
               
“I left the keys in the ignition. I turned it off at least, but I went in and watched the game and I was like ‘jeez, where are my keys.’ And I had left them in the ignition,” he said. “Just little things that I never seemed to do that seem to keep happening.”
               
Once battling depression, Savard characterized himself as happy these days. He spends a lot of time with his three children – ages 11, 10 and 8. As an assistant coach for his oldest son Zachary’s minor team, Savard has kept himself in the game he made a living playing. His back-loaded contract calls for him to be paid through the end of the 2016-17 season, so an official retirement announcement seems to be far off in the future.
               
In his situation, Savard is in a unique position to both comment on how the NHL is handling head-injury problems like his – which started with Matt Cooke‘s blindside hit in 2010 that was the impetus for the adoption of Rule 48 – and also the way head injuries in the game are being weeded out at the youth levels.
               
As far as NHL suspensions and the job League disciplinarian Brendan Shanahan is doing, Savard gave the league credit for doing a “great job.” But the veteran of more than 800 regular-season NHL games would like to some of the objectivity taken out of discipline.

“I think at the end of the day, maybe, it needs to be 10 games or more. Like if you do it, you just know you’re getting 10 games,” said Savard about violating Rule 48. “It’s in black and white. I just think so obviously the pressure comes off Brendan Shanahan, too. But it’s right in black and white. But I also think a lot of rules should go that way.”
               
At the youth level, Savard has witnessed how a four-minute penalty for any contact to the head has affected the sport.
               
“The penalty minutes have gone up, that’s for sure,” said Savard. “But the kids are learning. They are being taught. But I think they’re scared – they’re more scared than ever.”
               
Savard recounted when one of his children admitted that what had happened to his father was affecting his game. The former NHL All-Star also revealed that he cringes sometimes when he sees his kids or one of their teammates take or throw a big hit. He thinks there’s progress, however, being made in the effort to make the game safer.

“They’re thinking. And I think it has come a long way, slowly,” Savard said. “It’s going to be a slow process but the kids are learning – that’s for sure.”

The Bruins went on to win the Stanley Cup without Savard last June. He attended a few games, but wasn’t able to make it to Vancouver for the championship clincher. A few days later he participated in the celebratory parade through Boston. More than 200 goals and 700 points dot his NHL resume.

While he never expected that just a few months shy of his 35th birthday he’d be looking at the possibility of no longer playing hockey at the game’s highest level, Savard expressed little bitterness about how things ended for him.
               
“I mean, obviously, it was tough last year not to be a part of being there because I felt I could’ve helped at times, too. But I was excited. And when I sit back and look at it now, if I don’t ever play again, I am happy,” said Savard, who figures to be a semi-regular fixture at home games now that he’s donating the suite. “I guess I went out a winner, too. I’m on the Stanley Cup, I got a ring, and a lot of credit to Peter Chiarelli and the organization for doing that for me. That was unexpected but very nice. And so at the end of the day, I had a decent career, if I don’t play again. And I’m enjoying what I’m doing right now.”

Link: http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=612936 

Concussion-like symptoms.

There is NO SUCH THING as concussion-like symptoms. You do not have the symptoms of a concussion, without having sustained a concussion. It’s really as simple as that. Now, when it comes to Crosby, I think journalists want more concrete answers. I’m of the persuasion that journalists have a right to more concrete answers, too. When Crosby signed the dotted line to play in the NHL, he signed his health and the majority of his life away. Growing up in the spotlight, he knew that. And as the face of the NHL, his health is no longer a personal matter. It is, unfortunately, everyone’s business.

A side tangent to this matter is the fact that the Penguins, and Crosby, are notoriously sneaky when it comes to injuries. They will twist and turn every single word to the point where it often takes multiple, rudely blunt questions to just confirm that a player is indeed injured. No Penguins player has a concussion. They have concussion-like symptoms. A player is not hurt, he’s resting. I realize that this issue can get a bit tricky, because often players want to keep their health personal. I don’t think that’s unreasonable. But I do think it’s unreasonable to lie for no reason. For example, Crosby has gone on the record multiple times saying the concussion he suffered January 1st was his first–hockey related or not.

It wasn’t.

Rewind back to October of 2007, when Orpik was levelled by Simon Gamache. Orpik suffered a pretty bad concussion (ironically,  he also passed the ImpACT test. What a useless test). Reporters huddled around Crosby and asked him about Orpik. One reporter asked Crosby if he had ever sustained a concussion.

Yes, he said. Playing wall ball when he was about 8. He was running away from the wall and fell backward, hitting his head. It was bad, he said, he remembers throwing up a lot and not being able to sleep.

Curiously, that video can no longer be found on the Penguins website.

Huh.

Crosby’s Concussion-Like Symptoms Simply Spell Concussion
by Joseph Hall

When it comes to a concussion, you either have one or you don’t.

So when sports team officials announce that a player is suffering from “concussion-like symptoms,” they’re actually fudging the facts of an injury, two of Canada’s top neurosurgeons suggest.

“There is no (clinical) term ‘concussion-like.’ You either have one or you don’t,” Dr. Charles Tator, a Toronto Western Hospital neurologist says of the phrase.

“It’s a make-believe term that I think teams cook up to avoid the issue that a player has had a concussion.”

Tator, a leading advocate for head protection in sports, points to the case of Maple Leafs goalie James Reimer, who was out of the lineup for six weeks this season with what the team claimed was something only akin to concussion.

“And if you look at those films when he got hit, it was a terrible hit . . . to the head and they called it ‘concussion-like’,” Tator says.

“They didn’t own up to the fact that he had a concussion.”

The same terminology was used again this week to describe Pittsburgh superstar Sidney Crosby’s condition, when the Penguin said he wasn’t sure when he would return after coming back from a major concussion.

Tator says there are currently no medical scans or blood tests that can give a conclusive physiological diagnosis of concussion.

But, he says, there are several standardized lists of symptoms that allow physicians to determine if such an injury has been suffered.

One of the most important of these is the so called Sports Assessment Concussion Tool, or SCAT 2, which lists some 22 symptoms that are consistent with the syndrome’s presence.

These include effects like headache, dizziness, nausea or frank unconsciousness, Tator says that occur in the immediate wake of an injury.

Longer-term symptoms include such things as light sensitivity, ringing in the ear, emotional changes or memory loss.

“And we say one or more of those symptoms make the diagnosis of concussion,” Tator says.

While trainers, parents and coaches should be familiar with these signs, such oral examinations require both a competent physician and a compliant patient to come to a clinical conclusion of concussion.

“The actual diagnosis is made by an actual health care professional like a medical doctor,” Tator says.

“You also need an (honest) patient. You need those two to dance here.”

Players who “fudge it” during a concussion examination make it “hopeless” to come to an accurate diagnosis, Tator says.

Dr. Michael Cusimano, a neurosurgeon at St. Michael’s Hospital, agrees that “concussion-like symptoms” point to a simple conclusion.

“I think they do have a clinical meaning, they mean you’ve had a concussion,” Cusimano says. “These (terms) are euphemisms they are using. That’s what it sure sounds like to me.”

Cusimano is part of an international research race to discover blood markers that would provide a clearer diagnosis of concussion, in the same vein as the enzymes that are currently used to show that a heart attack has occurred.

Link: http://tinyurl.com/7h3avhr

In any case, that’s why it has been awhile since the last update.

Now, onward.

I’ve been very lucky in this industry to meet a lot of people who are very successful in my career path, and fellow students or colleagues who are stuck in the same spot as I am. Some have been pretty hard to deal with, but others are more than willing to extend a helping hand. A few of these books on this list were recommended to me already by professors and professionals in the industry, and the other few I’m slowly working through. No one book holds all the answers on how to succeed, but these provided a lot of insight into that world–which can be a tricky, convoluted one in the best of times.

A personal favourite–Never Eat Alone. My generation doesn’t capitalize to the full extent on so many networking opportunities.

Sports Jobs Books: 5 Books to Help You Land a Job in Sports
by Matthew Weinberger

While no specific “playbook” has ever been written for getting a job in the sports industry, there are hundreds of books that feature principles applicable to obtaining the sports job of your dreams. It would be foolish to try to create a “be all, end all” list of books to read because there are tons of legitimate contenders out there. Instead, for your benefit,  below are five book suggestions that you can start reading now and into the new year. These books will give you an immediate head start on key tools you need to help you in your quest to obtain the sports job of your dreams. By applying the principles given by the authors in the correct ways, you will be well on your way to establishing yourself as a thought provoker, influencer and someone who can bring creative and unique ideas to a sports organization.

 Sports Job Books

Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith (2008)

Let’s face it, as this point in the “social media game” obtaining almost any job is difficult without the help of that thing we call the World Wide Web. But if you dive deep into the “social media game”, there are tons of fantastic tools that you can utilize to help you stand out. The days of paper resumes are soon to be left in the dust. It’s becoming more important than ever to “own” your online resume, and this is a book that will help you get the best start. There are cases upon cases of individuals using the web as a personal branding tool, becoming so-called “experts” in a given community, and leveraging that expertise as a way to establish trust in their particular community. In Trust Agents, expert bloggers Chris Brogan and Julien Smith break down, step by step, how you can use social media and the power of social networks to improve your reputation and relationships online. They cover all the basics from starting a blog to finding where the “conversation” is being had. If you haven’t read this book, I suggest starting right here.

Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? by Seth Godin (2010)

It’s no secret that there are people ready to knock down doors to work for sports organizations. In order to land that elusive sports job, you need to become indispensable. In this book, Seth Godin will help you come to grips with what will make you worthwhile to the organization compared to those coming up behind you. An excerpt of a particularly intriguing part of the book on resumés: “If you don’t have a resumé, what do you have? How about three extraordinary letters of recommendation from people the employer knows or respects? Or a sophisticated project an employer can see or touch? Or a reputation that precedes you? Or a blog that is so compelling and insightful that they have no choice but to follow up? Some say, `Well, that’s fine, but I don’t have those.’ Yeah, that’s my point. If you don’t have these things, what leads you to believe that you are remarkable, amazing, or just plain spectacular? It sounds to me like if you don’t have more than a resumé, you’ve been brainwashed into compliance. Great jobs, world-class jobs, jobs people kill for – those jobs don’t get filled by people e-mailing in resumés.” Do you want to be Indispensable? Well, let Linchpin show you the way.

How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie (1936)

By today’s standards, How to Win Friends & Influence Peopleis a dinosaur. However, this book’s message is timeless, and should be required reading by all. Carnegie teaches important principles on how to communicate with others and how to handle people appropriately. The sports business industry is a people driven industry, if you are going to succeed and land a sports job, you are going to need to be able to work alongside others seamlessly. Since the mantra of getting a sports job is “networking, networking networking,” what better book to include than one that deals specifically with interpersonal skills and how to interact with other human beings!

Never Eat Alone: And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time by Keith Ferrazzi (2005)

I’m a bit biased here, because I will fully admit that I swear by Keith Ferrazzi’s work, but it’s with good reason. Ferrazzi is a master networker. It was tough choosing between Never Eat Alone, and his other work titled Who’s Got Your Back, you certainly can’t go wrong with either. Each chapter highlights a different networking technique to master. Most importantly, Ferrazzi harps on building meaningful relationships rather then just dropping business cards and resumes on a whole roomful of people. “Ferrazzi presents a whirlwind of ideas to widen your circle of contacts that goes way beyond the usual stale concepts of ‘networking’.”

Crush It!: Why NOW Is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion by Gary Vaynerchuk (2009)

Within the last year or so, Gary Vaynerchuk has become what some may call an “overnight sensation.” He will tell you straight up that one of the biggest secrets to his success is that he will outwork anyone. That alone is worth the price of admission. If you want to get into the sports industry, a big step is to simply work harder then everyone else – of course, just working hard is not enough. You need to be knowledgeable about what you are speaking about, and offer a desirable skill set. In Crush It, Gary Vaynerchuk speaks passionately about how “anyone can build a career around something they are passionate about.” Here you will learn “Why social media has evened the playing field, destroying the “gate-keepers” who had previously dictated the distribution of content,” and “How to beat unemployment and create wealth-building opportunities by building and maintaining a personal brand.” Lets face it, most likely if you are dying to enter the sports industry, it is something you are extremely passionate about. Very few people sign up for sports gigs without the fire burning inside of them. This book will help light that fire inside of you to go out and land that job.

Link: http://tinyurl.com/7llca7q