Prof. Timothy Dewhirst, Department of Marketing and Consumer Studies, wrote a commentary in the Jan. 25 edition of the Toronto Star, comparing National Hockey League rules related to protecting players heads to those in other sports.

The NHL, he wrote, appears comparatively lax when it comes to ensuring that players are safeguarded from things like body checks targeting the head – an act that can cause serious injury.

The National Football League has adopted rules that protect defensive players from such blows, he wrote. While the violence inherent in football remains intact, the rules recognize “the dangers of multiple concussions and their role in chronic traumatic encephalopathy.”

Dewhirst’s teaching and research expertise includes  sports, arts and entertainment marketing, as well as research methods, marketing theory, and marketing management. He is senior research fellow in marketing and public policy in the Gordon S. Lang School of Business and Economics.