Book review: CBC reporter exposes the human cost of fighting in hockey
Credit to Author: Stephen Snelgrove| Date: Fri, 25 Oct 2019 18:14:31 +0000
Major Misconduct: The Human Cost of Fighting in Hockey
Jeremy Allingham | Arsenal Pulp Press
$22.95, 240 pages
Picture this: Two muscular young men armed with sticks and strapped into protective armour are standing toe to toe, battering each other senseless. Blood spatters fly from the brutal blows and blood lust echoes from the audience. Is this an out-take from Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome? Nope, just another ordinary night in Canadian hockey.
Jeremy Allingham, who will be familiar to many local readers from his work with CBC radio, grew up, like many Canadians, loving hockey. In fact, some of the most beautiful and lyrical passages in this book (a work that is rich with elegant prose) powerfully describe the joys of hockey, the hiss of blades against newly groomed ice, the speed and precision of a well-executed pass, the bond of brotherhood and mutual support shared by hockey players.
All of this is well done, and if Allingham had stopped there, this book would have been merely another anodyne love letter to a contact sport. But this book is both a love letter to hockey and a sharp critique of the way the rink has been turned into a modern gladiatorial arena. For his critique, the author has been attacked on social media, insulted and accused (gasp!) of insufficient masculinity. Clearly, when both money and toxic manhood are challenged, the responses can be ugly. We are in the author’s debt for his refusal to let the insults deter his reportage.
Allingham focuses on three players who were famous as fighters during their hockey careers, James McEwan, Stephen Peat and Dale Purinton. All three have suffered from a haunting legacy from their years as hockey enforcers — a legacy of concussions and other injuries, depression, headaches, substance abuse, and troubled relationships. All three may suffer from chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) a trauma-induced degenerative condition caused by their sports injuries, but no one will be sure until they die. At this point, CTE can only be definitively diagnosed in an autopsy.
Every Canadian and every hockey fan around the world should read this book. Allingham brings his stylish prose and reporter’s eye for detail to bear on what should rank as one of our worst sports scandals. He describes the cost that our young gladiators pay and challenges us all to take steps to clean up hockey so its beauty and precision are no longer obscured in Yeats’ “blood-dimmed tide.” Highly recommended.
Tom Sandborn lives and writes in Vancouver. He welcomes your feedback and story tips at tos65@telus.net