美国国家公共电台 NPR--NHL commissioner disputes link between hockey and CTE brain disease

NHL commissioner¹ disputes link between hockey and CTE brain disease

Transcript²

For hockey fans, it's the best time of the year – the start of the Stanley Cup playoffs. But the physical aspect of playing the game has led to increased concerns about potential links between hockey and chronic³ traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). National Hockey League (NHL) Commissioner Gary Bettman says he remains⁴ unconvinced that there are any connections between the degenerative brain disease and playing NHL hockey.

"We listen to the medical opinions on CTE, and I don't believe there has been any documented study that suggests that elements of our game result in CTE. There have been isolated⁵ cases of players who have played the game [who] have had CTE. But it doesn't mean that it necessarily came from playing in the NHL," Bettman told NPR's A Martinez on Morning Edition.

Preliminary findings of a study conducted by Boston University (BU) appear to contradict Bettman's assertion. Researchers found that each additional year of playing hockey may increase a person's chance of developing CTE by about 23%.

"In football, we've shown this really robust⁶ relationship between years of football play and risk for CTE. We wanted to take the same approach for hockey and our numbers are now such that we can start to make estimates about the relationship between years of hockey play and risk for CTE," Jesse Mez, associate professor of neurology at the BU School of Medicine and a BU CTE Center investigator⁷, tells NPR.

The study looked at the brains of 74 people, ranging in age from 13 to 91, who played hockey at various levels from youth hockey to professional sport. Nearly half of the individuals, 46%, also participated in other contact sports such as football. All of them donated their brains to research after their deaths. The researchers found that among 74 donors⁸, 40 of them, or 54%, had developed CTE.

The researchers note that more research is needed, as the study may not represent the general population of hockey players. After years of denial, in 2016 the National Football League acknowledged a link between CTE and playing football and last year revised its concussion⁹ protocols¹⁰ once again.

During a sometimes-heated exchange with NPR's A Martinez, Bettman dismissed any comparison between football and hockey. "The two are not comparable in terms of the amount of contact," he says.

Both football and hockey, however, are among the contact sports with some of the highest concussion rates.

"It should be in the NHL's purview¹¹ to try to reduce head impact, so I don't think it's useful to make statements that there seems to be no relationship [between hockey and CTE]. I think there should be a desire to help to address the health and safety of players," Mez says.

Several NHL players who were diagnosed with CTE after their deaths were "enforcers" whose unofficial role is to protect the team's top players. This can include aggressive responses, such as bare fist fights to retaliate¹² or intimidate¹³, although Bettman says there are no "designated fighters like we used to [have] in the old game."

Bettman says roughly eight out of ten games today are played without a fight. And he characterizes the fighting that does erupt as "spontaneous emotional reaction."

"At the end of the day, it is a part of the game that is an emotional outlet," Bettman says.

The NHL's Stanley Cup playoffs continue through the end of May, with the Cup Finals slated¹⁴ to begin on June 3.

The interview has been lightly edited for clarity and length.

Roughly 80% of our games do not have fights. That's probably a record low. The types of fights we have compared to years ago are spontaneous emotional reaction to what takes place on the ice. We don't have players who are designated fighters like we used to in the old game. The role of fighting in the game has evolved and really acts as the thermostat¹⁵, because remember, we have a very fast, physical, emotional game where players are encouraged to have body contact. And, by the way, they happen to be carrying sticks.

On the NHL diversity and inclusion report that found 84% of league employees are white

That was a number that was not unexpected. But making the decision to have such a report and make it public is consistent with our goal of making sure that we're welcoming and inclusive and that we're going to hold ourselves accountable in a very public fashion as to how we're progressing to improve and increase our diversity. So having that report and making it public was a conscious effort to say, we're going to do better.

On some players and teams refusing to participate in NHL Pride Night events

Clubs make their own decisions. To the extent that they have Pride Nights, the elements that they put into them have always been left up to the clubs, and it's always been left to the players as to who wants to participate. And overwhelmingly, our clubs and our players support Pride Night and what it stands for. And I don't think that the notion that a couple of players on each team or on some teams we're not comfortable wearing pride jerseys¹⁶ is not an indictment¹⁷. To the contrary, you have to be tolerant of all views and all expressions. And sometimes respect and endorsements¹⁸ are not the same thing.

1 commissioner   

n.（政府厅、局、处等部门）专员，长官，委员

参考例句：

• The commissioner has issued a warrant for her arrest.专员发出了对她的逮捕令。
• He was tapped for police commissioner.他被任命为警务处长。

2 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

3 chronic   

adj.(疾病)长期未愈的，慢性的；极坏的

参考例句：

• Famine differs from chronic malnutrition.饥荒不同于慢性营养不良。
• Chronic poisoning may lead to death from inanition.慢性中毒也可能由虚弱导致死亡。

4 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

5 isolated   

adj.与世隔绝的

参考例句：

• His bad behaviour was just an isolated incident. 他的不良行为只是个别事件。
• Patients with the disease should be isolated. 这种病的患者应予以隔离。

6 robust   

adj.强壮的，强健的，粗野的，需要体力的，浓的

参考例句：

• She is too tall and robust.她个子太高，身体太壮。
• China wants to keep growth robust to reduce poverty and avoid job losses,AP commented.美联社评论道，中国希望保持经济强势增长，以减少贫困和失业状况。

7 investigator   

n.研究者，调查者，审查者

参考例句：

• He was a special investigator for the FBI.他是联邦调查局的特别调查员。
• The investigator was able to deduce the crime and find the criminal.调查者能够推出犯罪过程并锁定罪犯。

8 donors   

n.捐赠者( donor的名词复数 )；献血者；捐血者；器官捐献者

参考例句：

• Please email us to be removed from our active list of blood donors. 假如你想把自己的名字从献血联系人名单中删去，请给我们发电子邮件。
• About half this amount comes from individual donors and bequests. 这笔钱大约有一半来自个人捐赠及遗赠。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 concussion   

n.脑震荡；震动

参考例句：

• He was carried off the field with slight concussion.他因轻微脑震荡给抬离了现场。
• She suffers from brain concussion.她得了脑震荡。

10 protocols   

n.礼仪( protocol的名词复数 )；（外交条约的）草案；（数据传递的）协议；科学实验报告（或计划）

参考例句：

• There are also protocols on the testing of nuclear weapons. 也有关于核武器试验的协议。 来自辞典例句
• Hardware components and software design of network transport protocols are separately introduced. 介绍系统硬件组成及网络传输协议的软件设计。 来自互联网

11 purview   

n.范围；眼界

参考例句：

• These are questions that lie outside the purview of our inquiry.这些都不是属于我们调查范围的问题。
• That,however,was beyond the purview of the court;it was a diplomatic matter.但是，那已不在法庭权限之内；那是个外交问题。

12 retaliate   

v.报复，反击

参考例句：

• He sought every opportunity to retaliate against his enemy.他找机会向他的敌人反击。
• It is strictly forbidden to retaliate against the quality inspectors.严禁对质量检验人员进行打击报复。

13 intimidate   

vt.恐吓，威胁

参考例句：

• You think you can intimidate people into doing what you want?你以为你可以威胁别人做任何事？
• The first strike capacity is intended mainly to intimidate adversary.第一次攻击的武力主要是用来吓阻敌方的。

14 slated   

用石板瓦盖( slate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Yuki is working up an in-home phonics program slated for Thursdays, and I'm drilling her on English conversation at dinnertime. Yuki每周四还有一次家庭语音课。我在晚餐时训练她的英语口语。
• Bromfield was slated to become U.S. Secretary of Agriculture. 布罗姆菲尔德被提名为美国农业部长。

15 thermostat   

n.恒温器

参考例句：

• The thermostat is connected by a link to the carburetor.恒温控制器是由一根连杆与汽化器相连的。
• The temperature is controlled by electronic thermostat with high accuracy.电子恒温器，准确性高。

16 jerseys   

n.运动衫( jersey的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The maximum quantity of cotton jerseys this year is about DM25,000. 平方米的羊毛地毯超过了以往的订货。 来自口语例句
• The NBA is mulling the prospect of stitching advertising logos onto jerseys. 大意：NBA官方正在酝酿一个大煞风景的计划——把广告标志绣上球服！ 来自互联网

17 indictment   

n.起诉；诉状

参考例句：

• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。
• They issued an indictment against them.他们起诉了他们。

18 endorsements   

n.背书( endorsement的名词复数 )；（驾驶执照上的）违章记录；（公开的）赞同；（通常为名人在广告中对某一产品的）宣传

参考例句：

• He must make much money on those tennis shoe endorsements he does. 他替那些网球鞋珍重广告，就赚了不少钱。 来自互联网
• But celebrity endorsements remain an important promotional tool for marketers. 尽管如此，邀明星助阵仍是营销人员重要的推广手段之一。 来自互联网