Brian Burke Coming In Hot With An All-Time Quote On Concussions
For those of you who don’t know, Brian Burke is currently the President of Hockey Operations for the Calgary Flames. Before that he was the GM of the Toronto Maple Leafs and he’s also mastered the art of wearing an untied tie. More on that later. But anyway, he held a press conference yesterday to say the Calgary Flames will just skip town if they don’t get a new rink soon. Which–to some people–may have been the biggest Flames news of the day. But somewhere along the way, Burkie managed to squeak this quote in there and holy tit balls is it the most glorious thing I’ve ever heard in my life.
“Be the change you want to see in the world” – Mahatma Gandhi
“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself” – FDR
“If you don’t want to get a concussion, be a swimmer” – Brian Burke
Here’s the thing. Concussions suck. I think we can all agree on that. I don’t think anybody wakes up in the morning and says to themselves, “thank god we have concussions”. And I do think that we should use all the technology we have at our disposal to prevent them. With that being said, concussions are just a part of contact sports. The same way that broccoli is a part of a healthy diet. There are plenty of people out there who wish that broccoli doesn’t exist but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s on the food pyramid. You don’t want to eat broccoli, that’s you’re on decision to make. But some people like to eat healthy. And if you like to eat healthy, that means that sometimes you have to down a plate full of broccoli. If you want to play professional sports, sometimes you may accidentally get caught in the head and you end up with a concussion.
You want to keep your brain intact? Go be a fucking accountant or swim around in piss water with Ryan Lochte. You want to be a professional hockey player? You might end up in the quiet room at some point in your career. Hopefully it’s not often. Hopefully the concussions are few and far between. But Brian Burke is just keeping it real as a hockey guy. And that’s refreshing.
*On the next episode of Brian Burke doesn’t know how to tie his tie*
