July 9: Headshots

Hockey: The NHL is still working out some specifics of next year's new headshot rule. The emphasis is going to be on the "East-to-West hits". That is, not the checks that happen the way Willie Mitchell hit Jonathon Toews; rather, the way Richards hit Booth. Those blindside hits are malicious and are not needed in hockey. There are many chances to land punishing checks where the victim will be in relatively safe positioning.

One thing I've thought of is a scaling system that punishes offenders based on two criteria. First, the offender's records. If we're talking about a Datsyuk hitting a vulnerable player in the head then there would be a different outcome than if Matt Cooke did the same hit. A simple three-level system that carries increasingly harsh supplementary discipline. As a note, this should be retroactive upon approval of the rule. Second is the additional suspension added on top of the automatic suspension.

First offense: 3-game suspension as long as the hit was clearly not intent to injure.

Second offense (or first time with a clear intent to injure): 5-game suspension plus the additional (which will be discussed in the second criterion). Players suspended here still count towards the team's salary and cannot be placed on long term injury. In other words, teams signing players with a history or a likelihood of a player are running the risk of throwing money away.

Third offense (or second if the first offense was considered intent to injure): immediate season suspension with overlapping 20-game suspension plus the additional (which will be discussed in the second criterion). A player committing this offense with less than 20-games left in season will serve the rest of the suspension in the following year. If that player is bought out or is leaving his current team then that player must pay a fine in the form of his current per-game earnings for each game left in his suspension. Like in the second offense, players suspended in this fashion still count towards their team's salary cap. The third offense is repeated until that player cannot pay his fines (and will likely not be signed by another team ever again).

The second criterion, "additional": The additional is the true balancing to this rule. Some players think trading a 5-game suspension for a hit to the head is worth taking out a star player for 40 games. The "additional" penalty is determined based on the number of games missed by that victim. For example:

Player X hits Player Y.
This is Player X's first offense.
It's determined there was a clear intent to injure.
Player X is given a 5-game suspension.
Player Y misses 12 games as a result of the hit.
Player X serves the 5-game suspension then the 12 -game portion.

Once Player Y plays again then the accumulation of the number of suspendable games is stopped (even if the injuries suffered following the hit by Player X result in Player Y missing additional games).

I don't like the term "eye-for-and-eye" because it is probably one of the most misinterpreted ideas in Western culture. However, this is pretty close to it. More of a tit-for-tat. This is a punishment system that is entirely based upon the damage inflicted in a single hit, rather than a precedence made involving two other players in entirely different circumstances. Focusing on the microcosm of a single hit makes easier to determine an appropriate punishment. Often there is talk about the extent of the injury determining the degree of the punishment. I feel that this adds a systematic process to managing the punishment of offending players.