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Major Misconduct: The Human Cost of Fighting in Hockey
Every night in hockey arenas across Canada and the United States, modern-day gladiators drop their gloves and exchange bare-fisted blows to the bloodthirsty roars of the paying public. Tens of millions of people a year, including children, watch and cheer on the fighters. Some players are paid handsomely; others barely a living wage. But either way, these fighters are lauded, valued, and considered to be essential to the game. That is, until their playing days are over. Hockey enforcers spend their lives fighting on ice to protect their teammates and entertain their fans, but when their playing days are over, who’s left to fight for them?
Major Misconduct scrutinizes a highly dangerous and controversial cultural practice. The book dives deep into the lives of three former hockey fighters who, years after their playing days ended, are still struggling with the pain and suffering that comes from bare-knuckle boxing on ice. All of these men believe they may be living with the degenerative brain disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy. They may have had their shot at pro hockey glory, but none of them is rich or famous, and the game has left them with injuries and trauma. They have experienced estrangement, mental health issues, addiction, and brushes with the law. And they’ve stared death in the face.
The debate surrounding fighting in hockey is hotly contested on both sides. This daring and revelatory book explores the lives of those who bare-knuckle boxed on ice for a living and investigates the human cost we’re willing to tolerate in the name of hockey fighting.
Major Misconduct scrutinizes a highly dangerous and controversial cultural practice. The book dives deep into the lives of three former hockey fighters who, years after their playing days ended, are still struggling with the pain and suffering that comes from bare-knuckle boxing on ice. All of these men believe they may be living with the degenerative brain disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy. They may have had their shot at pro hockey glory, but none of them is rich or famous, and the game has left them with injuries and trauma. They have experienced estrangement, mental health issues, addiction, and brushes with the law. And they’ve stared death in the face.
The debate surrounding fighting in hockey is hotly contested on both sides. This daring and revelatory book explores the lives of those who bare-knuckle boxed on ice for a living and investigates the human cost we’re willing to tolerate in the name of hockey fighting.
- GenresHockeySportsNonfiction
232 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 15, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
April 30, 2020
Run a cursory search for hockey online and it won’t take much effort to come across the sport’s complicated relationship with fighting. For some fans, it’s as much a part of the game as the puck or the ice. Watch video of almost any brawl during a game, professional or otherwise, and witness the crowd become instantly electrified as fists fly—oftentimes with a fervor that’s only surpassed by their reaction to a win. Even so, there’s a price for this level of violence, and journalist Jeremy Allingham has detailed its tragic impact on select former players and the sport as a whole.
Allingham offers up front that he’s against fighting in hockey, though it’s a belief he hasn’t always held. Rather, it was a gradual push finalized while watching a particularly brutal on-ice matchup between two teenagers. This early section is compelling as he also offers up his deep roots with hockey, setting up both his authority on the subject as well as his obvious love of the game.
However, his most convincing argument against fighting comes when he utilizes his journalistic background. Although he compiled interviews with numerous professionals from the sport, his primary focus is on three former players—James McEwan, Stephen Peat, and Dale Purinton. Each functioned as enforcers and each has struggled with potential chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a disease often discovered in individuals with repeated traumatic injuries to the head—and something impossible to diagnose while they’re still alive. Allingham treats these profiles with respect, showcasing their often tragic and occasionally celebratory post-playing career lives. While the players themselves still maintain an obvious unparalleled affection for the game, it’s also abundantly clear that their lives have been forever altered by an unnecessary emphasis on fighting.
Yet Allingham doesn’t just stop with engrossing testimonies against the violence. Rather, he offers practical solutions and showcases how anti-violence advocates, including former players, have attempted to influence hockey. Similarly, he also pulls form a wealth of research to chronicle steps different organizations, primarily the NHL, could take to curb fighting in the sport. This section is particularly focused and it’s hard to find fault with his conclusions other than they buck a bare-knuckle tradition.
And while tradition might be enough for some fans who continue to cheer while the punches land, it’s hard to accept that that’s a reasonable suggestion when presented with the full picture Allingham presents. Through horrific interviews, investigation, and examination, he more than makes his case.
Note: I received a free ARC of this book from the publisher through Edelweiss.
Review also posted https://pluckedfromthestacks.wordpres...
Allingham offers up front that he’s against fighting in hockey, though it’s a belief he hasn’t always held. Rather, it was a gradual push finalized while watching a particularly brutal on-ice matchup between two teenagers. This early section is compelling as he also offers up his deep roots with hockey, setting up both his authority on the subject as well as his obvious love of the game.
However, his most convincing argument against fighting comes when he utilizes his journalistic background. Although he compiled interviews with numerous professionals from the sport, his primary focus is on three former players—James McEwan, Stephen Peat, and Dale Purinton. Each functioned as enforcers and each has struggled with potential chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a disease often discovered in individuals with repeated traumatic injuries to the head—and something impossible to diagnose while they’re still alive. Allingham treats these profiles with respect, showcasing their often tragic and occasionally celebratory post-playing career lives. While the players themselves still maintain an obvious unparalleled affection for the game, it’s also abundantly clear that their lives have been forever altered by an unnecessary emphasis on fighting.
Yet Allingham doesn’t just stop with engrossing testimonies against the violence. Rather, he offers practical solutions and showcases how anti-violence advocates, including former players, have attempted to influence hockey. Similarly, he also pulls form a wealth of research to chronicle steps different organizations, primarily the NHL, could take to curb fighting in the sport. This section is particularly focused and it’s hard to find fault with his conclusions other than they buck a bare-knuckle tradition.
And while tradition might be enough for some fans who continue to cheer while the punches land, it’s hard to accept that that’s a reasonable suggestion when presented with the full picture Allingham presents. Through horrific interviews, investigation, and examination, he more than makes his case.
Note: I received a free ARC of this book from the publisher through Edelweiss.
Review also posted https://pluckedfromthestacks.wordpres...
March 18, 2021
It has long been accepted by many in hockey that bare-fisted fighting is a part of the game. Whether new fans, traditionalists, players, owners or anyone else, that thought has rarely been challenged. However, journalist Jeremy Allingham does question that fighting is good for the game in this thought-provoking book.
One of the best aspects of this book is that Allingham approaches the subject from multiple angles. He interviews experts on chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) and gets their views on how fighting will put a player at risk for this condition. He speaks to former players and other people involved in the game for their input. But his best work is his detailed account of the post-hockey life of three former players whose hockey careers were mostly in the role of an enforcer, the player who will fight most often to either protect the team's most skilled players or to send a message of intimidation to the opponents.
The stories of James McEwen, Dale Purinton and Stephen Peat will bring out many emotions. Their stories of how broken their lives became after retirement is not uncommon among their brethren – sometimes with more tragic results. In the case of all three of these men, they are all suffering to some degree of the effects of CTE, they were all clinically depressed and at times sought relief with alcohol or illicit drugs. It is noteworthy that each of them, however, are thankful for what the sport gave them and in the case of McEwen, even became an activist in trying to educate people in the dangers that are present in hockey fighting.
What is also impressive about the book is that Allingham doesn't just state that fighting in the game is bad and what the negative effects are – he also presents realistic and meaningful solutions to address this aspect. These most are in the form of harsher penalties for fighting in the form of suspensions. At some levels of the game, such as American college hockey, they have proven to be a deterrent. While Allingham does acknowledge that the amount of fighting in hockey has decreased in recent years, his book is a call to action for all hockey people to take a harder look at this issue and do what is right for both the game and the players and eliminate this part of the sport.
I wish to thank Arsenal Pulp Press for providing a copy of the book via Edelweiss+ in exchange for an honest review.
https://sportsbookguy.blogspot.com/20...
One of the best aspects of this book is that Allingham approaches the subject from multiple angles. He interviews experts on chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) and gets their views on how fighting will put a player at risk for this condition. He speaks to former players and other people involved in the game for their input. But his best work is his detailed account of the post-hockey life of three former players whose hockey careers were mostly in the role of an enforcer, the player who will fight most often to either protect the team's most skilled players or to send a message of intimidation to the opponents.
The stories of James McEwen, Dale Purinton and Stephen Peat will bring out many emotions. Their stories of how broken their lives became after retirement is not uncommon among their brethren – sometimes with more tragic results. In the case of all three of these men, they are all suffering to some degree of the effects of CTE, they were all clinically depressed and at times sought relief with alcohol or illicit drugs. It is noteworthy that each of them, however, are thankful for what the sport gave them and in the case of McEwen, even became an activist in trying to educate people in the dangers that are present in hockey fighting.
What is also impressive about the book is that Allingham doesn't just state that fighting in the game is bad and what the negative effects are – he also presents realistic and meaningful solutions to address this aspect. These most are in the form of harsher penalties for fighting in the form of suspensions. At some levels of the game, such as American college hockey, they have proven to be a deterrent. While Allingham does acknowledge that the amount of fighting in hockey has decreased in recent years, his book is a call to action for all hockey people to take a harder look at this issue and do what is right for both the game and the players and eliminate this part of the sport.
I wish to thank Arsenal Pulp Press for providing a copy of the book via Edelweiss+ in exchange for an honest review.
https://sportsbookguy.blogspot.com/20...
May 18, 2020
I have been a hockey fan since a young girl watched Hockey Night in Canada every Saturday Night. My husband played, both my children played, I had season's tickets to our local OHL team and tried to get to games whenever the Toronto Maple Leafs were playing a team where we could afford the tickets. Yes, I am a huge hockey fan. I can remember cheering for the big hits, the fights and the scrums, until my son started playing. He was a big kid, taller and heavier than all the other kids his age. When he was called up to play on the travel team when only 13, we were thrilled, until I realized why. They wanted an enforcer, but he was only 13 years old. The first fight, all the other parents were cheering and encouraging him, I was screaming, "Skate away, skate away" as other parents were saying, "Calm down mom, its part of the game." Well that changed my tune in a hurry. I share this story because it sums up what a lot of this book is about.
Jeremy Allingham does a good job researching and interviewing three retired NHL enforcers who have all suffered some level of brain injury. The chapters detailing what these men had gone through after they retired is heartbreaking. Each is dealing with their health and possible CTE in different ways, some more successful than others. He is respectful of what they are dealing with and knows that they have to tell their stories in their own way. He also touches on the number of suicides of the guys who made their living fighting in hockey. Bob Probert grew up and lived in my hometown and I know how much he suffered as a pugilist in the game. We have fundraising motorcycle rides every year to raise money for brain injury research. Over and over he states that if two men started bare knuckle brawling anywhere else, they would be arrested, but it is "part of the game" in hockey. The sad thing is that unless the fans stop cheering and expecting fighting to be part of the game, the owners, who want to make money, will not take it out. Near the end of the book is the following paragraph:
The incessant violence came with a strong and troubling juxtaposition, too. As the referees continued to parade players to the penalty box, the jumbotron showed images of young children in the crowd. Although they were dancing to the music during the breaks in play, only moments before, they had witnessed, internalized, and normalized the sight of multiple grown adult men dropping their gloves to the ice and punching each other in the face. It was upsetting to consider that these hundreds of kids would go home, fall asleep, and wake up the next day for school with the idea that fighting like that is no big deal. That the only accountability for that kind of fighting is to sit in the box for five minutes, and then you’re back doing what you love to do best.
I am a hockey fan! A huge hockey fan. I will continue to watch hockey and go to games, but I do not stand up and cheer during a fight, I do not condone fighting in hockey. I enjoy Olympic hockey where fighting is not allowed, and the stands are full, so the argument that no one will come to the game if fighting is not allowed, is a cop out. It is human lust for blood, plain and simple. I recommend that people who are hockey fans read this book. If you think fighting belongs in the game, this just might change your mind.
Jeremy Allingham does a good job researching and interviewing three retired NHL enforcers who have all suffered some level of brain injury. The chapters detailing what these men had gone through after they retired is heartbreaking. Each is dealing with their health and possible CTE in different ways, some more successful than others. He is respectful of what they are dealing with and knows that they have to tell their stories in their own way. He also touches on the number of suicides of the guys who made their living fighting in hockey. Bob Probert grew up and lived in my hometown and I know how much he suffered as a pugilist in the game. We have fundraising motorcycle rides every year to raise money for brain injury research. Over and over he states that if two men started bare knuckle brawling anywhere else, they would be arrested, but it is "part of the game" in hockey. The sad thing is that unless the fans stop cheering and expecting fighting to be part of the game, the owners, who want to make money, will not take it out. Near the end of the book is the following paragraph:
The incessant violence came with a strong and troubling juxtaposition, too. As the referees continued to parade players to the penalty box, the jumbotron showed images of young children in the crowd. Although they were dancing to the music during the breaks in play, only moments before, they had witnessed, internalized, and normalized the sight of multiple grown adult men dropping their gloves to the ice and punching each other in the face. It was upsetting to consider that these hundreds of kids would go home, fall asleep, and wake up the next day for school with the idea that fighting like that is no big deal. That the only accountability for that kind of fighting is to sit in the box for five minutes, and then you’re back doing what you love to do best.
I am a hockey fan! A huge hockey fan. I will continue to watch hockey and go to games, but I do not stand up and cheer during a fight, I do not condone fighting in hockey. I enjoy Olympic hockey where fighting is not allowed, and the stands are full, so the argument that no one will come to the game if fighting is not allowed, is a cop out. It is human lust for blood, plain and simple. I recommend that people who are hockey fans read this book. If you think fighting belongs in the game, this just might change your mind.
May 10, 2023
I think this book is really important, and I think these guy’s stories are even more important. Even the stories that might make you uncomfortable, like Stephen Peat’s, deserve to be told and are needed to highlight massive problems in this league/sport.
One of my gripes with this book, though, is how it kind of glosses over bad hits as a huge component of this problem with head injuries. It’s brought up once in passing, but he pivots pretty quickly to fighting being a much more major issue. This may have been done to serve Allingham’s point, but it’s possible to keep the focus on the effects of fighting while also adequately acknowledging another aspect of the problem. If the book serves as an argument against fighting, then it should take the time to go over counter arguments. For example, I think he does a really good job at debunking the idea that fighting is something built into the sport, when that’s just historically not true.
One of my gripes with this book, though, is how it kind of glosses over bad hits as a huge component of this problem with head injuries. It’s brought up once in passing, but he pivots pretty quickly to fighting being a much more major issue. This may have been done to serve Allingham’s point, but it’s possible to keep the focus on the effects of fighting while also adequately acknowledging another aspect of the problem. If the book serves as an argument against fighting, then it should take the time to go over counter arguments. For example, I think he does a really good job at debunking the idea that fighting is something built into the sport, when that’s just historically not true.
January 12, 2020
Excellent book. A sober look at the issue of fighting in hockey and the effects on 3 lesser known players who were enforcers. The story of their lives after hockey is very cautionary. This book correctly asks pointed questions about why we allow teenagers in junior and adults in pro hockey to punch each other in the face on the ice. When we eschew the same behaviour anywhere else. This was a well written book and the author clearly wants fighting out of hockey. Hockey isn’t ready yet as well all know. The question is what will it take to have fighting removed?
March 10, 2024
I’ve been a major fan of hockey for 10+ years. For the first half of that fandom, I loved the fighting in it. I thought it truly added value to the sport. There were many games where the losing team needed an energy boost and a fight was that. I can’t pinpoint the turn from enjoyment to dislike for fighting maybe it was maturity or age (going from watching people around my age join the league to now seeing people near my age retire). Allingham describes it perfectly in the introduction- he is describing what he sees at a game where a fight broke out- “I noticed was the players’ faces. Square jaws… but unmistakably, these were a couple of baby faces. Just kids. We, the crowd, were thousands of fully grown adults (with plenty of kids mixed in) cheering, even demanding, that two children beat the shit out of each other with bare fists on ice”.
This book was eye opening to the horrors of brain injury and how far a child will go to make it in sports. Jeremy Allingham goes through three players in the game to discuss the damage of hockey. Our first enforcer, James McEwan discussed how he came to fighting on the ice to make a junior hockey team- “ ‘I just knew. I said ‘I’ve gotta do something to stand out,’ McEwan remembered. ‘There was a bigger guy, a veteran guy… he crossed-checked me and I kinda of went flying, so I got up and challenged him. He’s a twenty-year old, I was sixteen at the time, so we squared up and we went toe to toe for a while. It was good. It got a lot of attention.’”
In part 2, we get to read about one of the most heart breaking enforcers yet and the story that started the author to explore this topic deeper, Stephen Peat. Peat’s story takes us for a whirl wind of emotions about a once bright, young hockey player who loved fixing cars and bikes turned homeless and a felon. If there is one reason to read this book, it’s for how Allingham tells us Peat’s story. It’s devastating. “Walter Peat said he started noticing big changes in his son shortly after his playing career ended... Stephan almost completely lost his ability to focus, which was out of character… known to have the patience to rebuild a motorcycle engine on his own… in addition to the difficulty focusing, Stephen has told me he suffers from relentless headaches, memory loss, emotional outbursts, and substance issues. He hears voices, too. These are all symptoms common with CTE.”
Our 3rd and final enforcer is Dale Purinton. Another NHLer who has had many difficulties with life after hockey due to his injuries. Common with the other two, we dive deeper into how substance abuse was unfortunately is a defining way to cope with the head injuries. “Dale turned to drugs and alcohol to ease the pain. ‘I started really self-medicating because of pressure, and I really felt that we were just animals in circus and people were coming to watch us,’” as we read more about Purinton, we learn about how this has affected his family and him leading to a stint in prison.
Until reading this book, I understood the fighting culture, I didn’t like it but I understood it. If hockey is the sport I love then I had to also love fighting. After reading Allingham’s novel, I hate fighting in hockey. I believe there is opportunity to get rid of it. “And once fighting is gone, it’s true, hockey will never be the same. Because hockey will be less violent. Hockey will be safer. Hockey will be better.”
This book was eye opening to the horrors of brain injury and how far a child will go to make it in sports. Jeremy Allingham goes through three players in the game to discuss the damage of hockey. Our first enforcer, James McEwan discussed how he came to fighting on the ice to make a junior hockey team- “ ‘I just knew. I said ‘I’ve gotta do something to stand out,’ McEwan remembered. ‘There was a bigger guy, a veteran guy… he crossed-checked me and I kinda of went flying, so I got up and challenged him. He’s a twenty-year old, I was sixteen at the time, so we squared up and we went toe to toe for a while. It was good. It got a lot of attention.’”
In part 2, we get to read about one of the most heart breaking enforcers yet and the story that started the author to explore this topic deeper, Stephen Peat. Peat’s story takes us for a whirl wind of emotions about a once bright, young hockey player who loved fixing cars and bikes turned homeless and a felon. If there is one reason to read this book, it’s for how Allingham tells us Peat’s story. It’s devastating. “Walter Peat said he started noticing big changes in his son shortly after his playing career ended... Stephan almost completely lost his ability to focus, which was out of character… known to have the patience to rebuild a motorcycle engine on his own… in addition to the difficulty focusing, Stephen has told me he suffers from relentless headaches, memory loss, emotional outbursts, and substance issues. He hears voices, too. These are all symptoms common with CTE.”
Our 3rd and final enforcer is Dale Purinton. Another NHLer who has had many difficulties with life after hockey due to his injuries. Common with the other two, we dive deeper into how substance abuse was unfortunately is a defining way to cope with the head injuries. “Dale turned to drugs and alcohol to ease the pain. ‘I started really self-medicating because of pressure, and I really felt that we were just animals in circus and people were coming to watch us,’” as we read more about Purinton, we learn about how this has affected his family and him leading to a stint in prison.
Until reading this book, I understood the fighting culture, I didn’t like it but I understood it. If hockey is the sport I love then I had to also love fighting. After reading Allingham’s novel, I hate fighting in hockey. I believe there is opportunity to get rid of it. “And once fighting is gone, it’s true, hockey will never be the same. Because hockey will be less violent. Hockey will be safer. Hockey will be better.”
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 5, 2021
I'm a big hockey fan, and for a long time I enjoyed the fights and thought since the players consent to playing and fighting was part of the game, there was no problem with fighting in hockey. But I'm older, wiser, and more compassionate now, and fighting no longer sits well with me. This book laid out three personal stories of ex-hockey players who have had their lives forever changed by the physical and mental effects of violence in hockey, and provides information about CTE (Chronic traumatic encephalopathy) that affects many players but cannot be diagnosed until after death. It addresses the cultural, historical, and legal issues surrounding fighting in hockey as well. The book really convinced me that fighting should be removed from hockey, as well as violent checking. Players discussed in this book and the author both provide a myriad of ways this could be easily implemented. The love of the game is clear throughout, and I'm convinced the game would be just as wonderful and even more so if the players weren't risking their health and lives for the entertainment of the public. I hope more fans and the rulemakers at the NHL take this issue seriously and find a solution to protect players.
December 31, 2025
The book chronicles three former hockey enforcers, James McEwan, Stephen Peat, and Dale Purinton, and how they deal with the after-effects of fighting in their hockey careers. McEwan topped out at the ECHL, while Peat and Purinton both played in the NHL, though all three have similar issues related to fighting, and showcase how much they struggled after playing. All of them dealt with major issues, though all expressed enjoyment of the sport still. Allingham finishes with an appeal to end fighting in hockey, noting that the human toll is too much for what it brings. It's a fairly difficult read at times, but very worthwhile.
May 7, 2020
This book is really good. There is so much truth and honesty in these pages which will shift perspectives possibly for ages. I believe that anyone involved in hockey needs to read this book to truly understand the severity which contact to the head can cause. This knowledge will save lives.
February 11, 2025
Review for Major Misconduct can be found on Hockey Blog In Canada.
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