Former NHL 'Enforcer' Dies by Suicide

Former NHL star Chris Simon has died by suicide, and the 52-year-old's family believes his death was the result of a brain condition that affects athletes who have taken many blows to the head. Simon was an "enforcer"—a "tough guy" player expected to jump into fights when the opposing team played dirty. "The family strongly believes and witnessed firsthand, that Chris struggled immensely from CTE [chronic traumatic encephalopathy] which unfortunately resulted in his death," they said in a statement, per NBC News. Simon, who grew up in northern Ontario, played with eight teams over 15 seasons in the NHL, from 1993 to 2008. He finished his career with six seasons playing for Russian teams in the Kontinental Hockey League.

• Some stats. Simon played a total of 857 regular-season and playoff games in his NHL career, the AP reports. He was involved in more than 100 fights, racking up 1,824 minutes in the penalty box.
• Statement from the NHL. "A fierce competitor and teammate, Simon won the Stanley Cup with Colorado in 1996 and reached the 1998 Stanley Cup Final with Washington as well as the 2004 Stanley Cup Final with Calgary," the league said. "Our sincere condolences go out to his family, friends, and former teammates."

• More tributes. Simon is being mourned by his former NHL teams, including the "heartbroken" Chicago Blackhawks and the Ontario Hockey League, which drafted the "imposing 6-foot-3, 225Ib. winger from Wawa, Ontario" when he was 16. "Off the ice Chris was very caring for others," OHL Commissioner David Branch said. "He was a special person, and he'll be deeply missed."
• A "classic Canadian tale told too often." Simon's death is a familiar but tragic Canadian story, Bruce Arthur writes in a tribute at the Toronto Star. He notes that a recent study found that NFL enforcers die an average of 10 years earlier than other players, often because of CTE. In a 2017 bankruptcy filing, Simon said all the money from his playing days was gone and he had early symptoms of CTE, among other ailments. "We know that fighting is bad for you. We just ignore it, sometimes," Arthur writes. "And now, Simon is dead at 52. He was a small-town kid whose grandfathers both played hockey; he was a First Nations story, a junior hockey story, a substance abuse triumph story, an NHL archetype, and finally, an ex-NHLer whose money was gone and whose body was broken, and maybe nobody could help anymore."

(More CTE stories.)