ABOUT STEVE > Bertuzzi Incident
"Bertuzzi's attack on Moore... may be the most vicious attack in team sports history." During the 2003-2004 season, Steve's rookie year in the NHL, the Colorado Avalanche team that won the Stanley Cup just two years before with Peter Forsberg, Joe Sakic, Milan Hejduk, Alex Tanguay, Rob Blake, and Adam Foote, had made the further off-season acquisitions of Paul Kariya and Teemu Selanne. Despite the all-star lineup, Steve made the team and worked his way up to earn time on the first and second lines on a team that was first overall in the NHL at the time. In a game with close-rival Vancouver Canucks, Steve body-checked Canucks player Markus Naslund. The check was ruled clean by both officials on the ice. The Canucks asked for it to be reviewed by the league, and it was again ruled a clean body check by the NHL head office. Despite the NHL rulings, members of the Canucks organization continued being quoted publicly making threats and seeking retribution on Steve at a following game, including players Brad May and Todd Bertuzzi, General Manager Brian Burke and head coach Marc Crawford.
"There's definitely a bounty on his head... It's going to be fun when we get him." On March 8, 2004, in Vancouver, the second rematch game between Vancouver and Colorado, Steve engaged in his first NHL fight. Steve also scored a goal. In the third period with Colorado ahead 8-2, Canucks player Todd Bertuzzi followed Steve around the ice and sucker-punched him from behind. He then drove an unconscious Steve head-first into the ice, where he lay unconscious in a pool of his own blood. Steve suffered three broken vertebrae (without paralysis) and a concussion, among other injuries.
"Some fans at Vancouver's GM Place called the police to have them arrest Bertuzzi -- and this is his home stadium." - Joel Stein, TIME Magazine Steve devoted the months and years following the incident to recovering from his injuries and attempting to return to his NHL career. Sadly, that was not to be. After five years seeing world-leading doctors, therapists and rehabilitation specialists, and tremendous progress, Steve was told by his doctors he would not receive medical clearance to return to play. During that process he realized that the medical community doesn't know that much about concussions, and that there are limited medically accepted treatments available other than rest. In seeking out answers he also learned that many of the world's best doctors are not collaborating enough or sharing their information or their experiences with one another. Thus The Steve Moore Foundation was born, to facilitate the collaboration that was lacking, and to make real progress in the areas of concussion treatment and prevention.
"This is a particularly vicious attack... Hockey -- no sport -- is immune from the laws of the land." - Paul Martin, Canada's Prime Minister |
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