The unadulterated truth is that professional athletes are interchangeable commodities. Whether it is the hockey goon, the middle linebacker, the Tour de France rider, or the racehorse on the track, the individual needs are sublimated to the owner's bottom line. These businesses are not there to coddle or protect, but to produce revenue.
If a global study of all National Hockey League teams were undertaken would any of us be surprised to see many replications of the Boogaard tale? Left to monitor and regulate its own abuses, which franchises will choose compassion over profits?
Unless the economic ramifications of turning a blind eye to these abuses outweighs the gain, no man, woman or horse is safe.
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