Note: The below posting was originally from a Facebook Note of mine from earlier in the year, first written in March 2011, before the series of tragic deaths of current and retired players this summer. Although I have used real names in the posting, there was no participation or input from any player or individual named in the below posting. The entire article is purely meant in the spirit of conjecture, and I wish all NHL players a safe and productive season.
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There are two national sports in Canada, hockey and lacrosse, however there is a third unofficial national sport perhaps even more common than the two mentioned above - that is talking about hockey when an incident or series of incidents raises the issue of violence in the sport.
Often when discussing the three main culprits in hockey; hits to the head, hits from behind and fighting the common refrain are "will someone have to die before they change the rules". To which I respond, "I hope it never comes to that, but if it does where the incident happens will have as big an effect on the outcome as the incident itself". More on this in the main part of the posting.
Firstly a disclaimer... I love hockey, my eldest son plays it, and next year I'll have both my sons playing. There is no sport like it on earth. It is essentially two sports. First you have to learn to skate, and then secondly you need to learn how to play the game. It's fast and physical; the games can be decided in a split second. The players themselves are unique amongst professional athletes, yes they're well paid, but largely they are nicest most down to earth people in professional sport.
Secondly, I want to be upfront… I do not want a ban on fighting in the NHL, like many people I enjoy a good hockey fight between two willing combatants, hockey fights rarely involve serious injury, usually the two parties exchange words, nod, drop the gloves, and go at it for a minute; then pat each other on the bum, acknowledge the other fighter with a nod and a statement like "good go" then skate off to the penalty box for five minutes while the fans and their team mates cheer wildly. While a mutual respect between players is maintained.
That is of course if all goes as per usual. Right now there are currently three designated NHL 'tough guys' out with concussions. Players are getting bigger and stronger, but heads aren't. One day a player will fall - likely accidentally - hit their head on the ice and never get back up. If this happens in Canada the uproar will be huge but will subside and The Game will continue as it always has after some hand wringing and a couple of token rule changes.
But what if the death happens in a "non traditional" hockey market, say in the southern United States? What if, the player is an American whose family wants justice and accountability, what happens next?
Let me also be clear, writing fiction is not my forte, and this is my first attempt at it. However here we go... The setting is Anaheim California, the date January 24th, 2012. I did a fair amount of research for this piece I just didn't want to make anything up. The family background for George Parros is accurate, as is the sentencing structure for the State of California.
The parts about the personal and professional ordeals faced by enforcers that are brought up in the trial - which many hockey fans won't like - about substance abuse rates, anxiety before games and incidents with the law I also did not make up but came from actual interviews I've read with former NHL players that generally speaking only come out after the players retirement. I based the incident on the likely next round after their January 20th, 2011 bout in Toronto.
I am also fortunate to live next to a cameraman for Rogers Sportsnet and knows many of the people in this story on a personal basis. He was a great source of inside knowledge.
So forgive me for going ‘all Tom Clancy like’ but here we go, “The Trial of Colton Orr”
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He had the date circled on his calendar, November 27th, 2011, the Leafs annual swing through the Southwestern United States to battle Pacific Division teams they only see once a year. Normally just a time for the players to experience some nicer weather, and for expat Torontonians living in California to see their home team come to visit.
Not for Colton Orr, the Leafs tough guy had suffered a concussion following a fight with Anaheim's George Parros at a game in Toronto the previous year when he fell and hit his forehead on the ice. Orr was unable to play for the rest of the season and watched in frustration as again his team missed the playoffs. After discussing his future in hockey with his family, it was decided he would continue in the game he loved the following season.
The incident itself that caused him to miss the season was unremarkable and completely accidental. He respected Parros, a tough with a heart of gold who every year grew his hair long only to shave it off at Christmas in order to donate it to charities that made wigs for children with cancer. Parros - a native of Pennsylvania - had taken an unusual route to the Big League for an NHL enforcer, the son of an executive at Toy's R Us, he arrived in the NHL not from the usual rough and tumble East Coast Hockey League or the WHL, but was an Ivy League student who came into the pros through the U.S. college system, the polar opposite of Orr.
After the fight, learning of Orr's concussion, Parros had texted Colton and wished him a speedy recovery. They were combatants, but like all tough guys there was a mutual respect that they had for each other as fellow fraternity brothers in what has to be one of the toughest jobs in all of professional sport.
As the game approached the texts followed once more, back and forth. They'd go again, in the first or second periods depending on the score and on their coaches giving the go ahead, a practice more common than most hockey fans would care to admit.
Game day came, and by the second period Toronto was ahead 3 -0. Having talked in the opening frame they agreed to 'go' on their first shift in the second period. Honor would be satisfied, the crowd and the player’s benches would go wild, and the game would continue.
Then it happened; the whistle blew to drop the puck, then blew again as the players dropped their gloves and squared off. It was a short fight, ended with not a particularly hard punch but Parros was off balance. Head turned in an awkward position, he fell, helmet off, hit the ice and didn't get back up. Taken off in a stretcher, then an ambulance to Anaheim General Hospital. The game continued, the fight sparking the Ducks. Several more altercations followed, none with serious implications but with the Leafs losing 5 - 3 by the end of the third period.
George Parros had more than a concussion; there were multiple head and neck injuries from the awkward nature of his fall and the impact of his head with the ice. Remaining in a coma for nine days, his parents and wife Tiffany finally coming to the wrenchingly painful decision to remove him from life support.
George Parros aged 32 of Washington Pennsylvania, became the first player in NHL history to die as a result of a fight.
What followed was a perfect storm of a now perceived villain on a team with deep pockets in a foreign city that considers itself at the centre of the hockey universe and a well connected, but bereaved family who happen to live in perhaps the most litigation happy society in the world.
George was the only member of his family to play hockey, a game the rest of his parents, and family would not have paid any attention to if not for their son, and never fully understood his role as enforcer.
A complaint to the Orange County Police and the District Attorney followed. The parents of George Parros requested and received that manslaughter charges be brought against Colton Orr, George’s widow Tiffany filed a separate $250 million dollar civil suit against the NHL.
The result shook the league and brought the NHL more coverage than it had ever received, and not the kind it wanted. Immediately the league ordered a moratorium on fighting - not a ban but a temporary halt pending the outcome of the trial and civil suit. The American Hockey League and several minor leagues such as the Ontario Hockey League and the Quebec Major Junior League soon followed.
After consulting with both team, and NHL Players Association Legal counsel, Colton Orr surrendered to US Authorities in Buffalo, New York. Not considered a flight risk he was never the less held without bail in Anaheim due to the high profile nature of the case.
Attempts by the league to settle out of court we met with determined refusal by the family of Mr. Parros and the Manslaughter Trial of Colton Orr began in a media circus like frenzy on June 9th, of that same year.
Unlike if the trial was held north of the border there would be no publication ban, cell phone records were subpoenaed, expert witnesses were brought in by both the defense and the prosecution. Names that were unfamiliar to most Americans but were household names in Canada: Tie Domi, George Laraque, Nick Kypreos and Donald Brashear amongst others were brought in, cross examined; as well as coaches and general managers both past and present. Primary amongst them Brian Burke former GM of Anaheim, and the Team USA Olympic squad, and now currently also Toronto's General Manager.
While most Americans viewed the trial as a mere curiosity, Canadians were glued to their sets. Covered live on CPAC the normally barely watched Parliamentary Access channel achieved the unheard of feat of actually being competitive in the ratings, beating out both CBC and CTV in afternoon viewership.
The questions asked of the witnesses under oath laid bare many cherished NHL myths... in rapid succession prosecutors peppered witnesses like Tie Domi and Marty McSorley with questions like: Why do players fight? What's the purpose of fighting in hockey, what is the impact on the game?"
Burke was pressed to answer why Detroit - the most consistently successful team of the past 15 years - did not feel the need to carry a full time enforcer, yet somehow did not seem to have an issue with other teams taking "liberties" with their players.
Why in an age of a salary cap and struggling franchises do teams waste cap space on players who only play maybe 4 - 5 minutes a game and don't contribute on the scoreboard? Why when the leagues most consistently successful team didn't feel the need to do so? What also was the personal impact on players, on teams of the role of tough guy?
Under oath, retired player after player admitted they largely fought to keep their jobs in the League, they fought to 'spark' their team mates and to get the crowd into the game. When pressed, all admitted - as they had done previously in interviews - that the issue of protecting team-mates was officially their job but was largely rendered useless as the resulting retaliation penalty would only put their own team at a disadvantage. Under oath player after player stated that although they saw fighting as "a part of hockey" it was only partially done for the stated reasons of protecting teammates.
Subpoenaed cell phone records again proved that as in the Orr/Parros bout, most tough guys already knew who they may have to fight in any given game, and often contact each other setting the ground rules in advance. Laying bare the myth of the noble enforcer protecting venerable team-mates - hard to swallow when you have two pages of transcripts from pregame texts between say Colton Orr and Matt Carkner talking about when they're "going to go".
The news only got worse for hockey fans on both sides of the border. What was the personal effect on player and family lives of the role of enforcer? Yes guys like Scott Thornton and Darcy Hordichuck were largely good guys off the ice who devoted hours of their free time to charity work in the community, but there was a dark side, a side that people rarely heard of and didn’t want to see.
Hours of player testimony and police report after police report detailed much higher arrest rates, for NHL enforcers as opposed to regular players. Peter Worrell, Bob Probert, Chris Neil, the list continued, until now their transgressions largely overlooked by a hockey loving public.
The court heard from team doctors and from former players themselves, from some of the toughest guys ever to don skates. Tales of players not allowing their own children to watch their games because it gave them nightmares “seeing daddy get hurt”, of anxiety before certain games where they knew they had to face a certain opponent, of missed pregame naps. The tales of vulnerability from players with otherwise fierce reputations were heart rending. Many told of using alcohol or prescription drugs to sleep, team doctors, and NHLPA legal counsel testified under oath that if there was a substance abuse problem on a team it was usually with the "tough guy" and stemmed from personal anxiety about their role and well being.
Many like Domi and Laraque under oath spoke of family conflict, Domi of his mother not speaking to him for days if he had a fight, Laraque, of being ashamed to speak with his mother about his role. The sight of both men - the toughest of the tough in their time - in testifying under oath - sometimes in tears - was a sight not seen by many outside their closest circle, and shook the public to its core. Even hockey icon Don Cherry had to admit to his use of alcohol to calm the occasional "night before" nerves.
Finally it came, what was probably the seminal exchange of the trail, the phrase... All hockey fans know it but it was about to be exposed to the non hockey loving public... "The Code".
I don't have the transcript in front of me but the exchange went something like this in an exchange between the lead prosecutor and defense witness Scott Thornton of the Boston Bruins who was asked to testify on the role of fighting in hockey.
Prosecutor - after watching a short clip from a Boston/Pittsburgh game - Mr. Thornton, why did you assault (throughout the trial prosecutors refused to use the word fight referred to them as 'assaults' for effect on the jury) Mr. Matthew Cooke", clearly he had not attacked you personally you appear to have gone after him deliberately"
Shawn Thornton: "It was in retaliation for a dirty hit on one of my team mates from a previous game that resulted in a concussion...
Prosecutor: So you were taking revenge, taking matters into your own hands - had not Mr. Cooke already been penalized by the National Hockey League? Mr. Thornton, US law prohibits vigilantism, you cannot go taking matters into your own hands. Especially several days after the initial event" Then holding a copy of NHL Regulations in his hands he asked:
"Show me where in the rule book it allows for your actions"
Defense Attorney: "Objection Your Honor, how is this relevant"
Judge: "Overruled, Mr. Thornton, answer the question"
Silence... then the response...
Shawn Thornton: "It's not but... but, The Code... "
That was it... the moment the prosecution had been waiting for... The lead prosecutor exploded: "The Code! The Code!! What Code!!?" Mr. Thornton, where did the game of hockey originate"?
Shawn Thornton: "In Canada sir"
Prosecutor: "In Canada..., and since when Mr. Thornton.., tell me when" his voice rising for emphasis and effect, "when does an unwritten code - if such one exists - have precedent over the laws of the State of California, the State of Pennsylvania, or the Laws of the United States of America, tell me Mr. Thornton, tell me please!! Last I heard hockey rinks are not designated as Canadian Embassies, you do not have diplomatic immunity Mr. Thornton". Tell me why your unwritten 'code' can have precedence over more than 200 years of US Law!!? Can you answer that for the jury, for the family of Mr. Parros, can you Mr. Thornton?"
Shawn Thornton: "No sir, its’ just how it is."
The trial went on for two more days, with the defense stating that Colton Orr was acting as expected in his role, that both he and Mr. Parros knew the risks their role entailed. That yes the game of hockey could be played without fighting - as it is in the Olympics - and not effect the overall game, but it was an aspect of the game that both fans and players did largely enjoy.
Defense and Prosecution rested, the jury deliberated for what seemed a very tense two and a half days, then reported their verdict. A jury made up of individuals who had little or no knowledge of the game of hockey at the beginning of the trial found Colton Orr, aged 30 of Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada guilty of the lesser charge of Involuntary Manslaughter.
Under the State of California's Determinating Sentencing Protocol the judge had little room for discretion; and Colton Orr was given the standard 36 month sentence for Involuntary Manslaughter, to be served in a California State Prison. The family of George Parros had been pushing for a regular Manslaughter conviction and 10 years in prison. Both sides appealed unsuccessfully while Orr served out his sentence.
What happened in the years that followed...? A total ban on fighting in hockey in North America was introduced and two more charges brought - successfully - against NHL players for on ice assaults.
The ruling was a disaster for the National Hockey League, over the following five years the league contracted, losing 4 teams, with several more on the verge of bankruptcy. Winnipeg and Quebec City never did get their former franchises back, largely because as a result of the "Colton Orr Affair" insurance rates became too prohibitive for many cities to afford.
Colton Orr was released early on parole and but broke from the expense of his legal fees. With assistance from the Players Emergency Fund, he managed to put himself through school and now practices sports law with fellow ex NHL enforcer Stu Grimson in Nashville Tennessee, never fully though putting the ordeal behind him.
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Could happen, but hopefully not.
My take on current events, from a non ideological perspective. You can't see clearly if you colour your lens.
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