Dave Babych played in the NHL for some 18 years as a defenseman. At the end of the regular season in 1998, while playing for the Flyers, he was hit on the foot by a slap shot. The resultant injury was at first thought to be a bruise, but ended up being a broken foot.

The Flyers wanted him on the ice for the playoffs that began a couple of weeks later. He tried to play, but said the pain was too much. He came off the ice and told Flyers coach Roger Neilson, “I can’t go. I don’t want to hurt myself or the team.”

According to Babych, Neilson told him the team doctor said he could play, and he had to play, they needed him. He did. The foot was shot with painkillers to get him back on the ice.

Last week a jury awarded Babych $1.02 million in lost wages and $350,000 in pain and suffering damages in a case brought by Babych. He claimed his career was shortened and he continues to suffer pain because the doctor who said he could play was negligent in letting him go back on the ice.

The award came against the team doctor. Comcast, the owner of the Flyers, was dropped as a defendant in the suit. The court found the doctor was an independent contractor of the team, not an employee, so the team was not liable for the doctor’s medical decisions. Further, the court said there was no evidence the team had committed any fraud or misrepresentation that would lead to their being at least partially liable.

The case raises a time-honored conflict between doctors, players, and the teams. How often have we heard it said that if a coach or GM of the team says to a doctor, “We want that guy playing,” the doctor’s ability to render a purely medical decision is impinged upon. If the doctor doesn’t clear the player, is his position with the team in jeopardy?

Babych argued that team doctors’ “decisions have to be made for you, the patient, not for anyone else.” Babych said that did not happen in his case.

The jury found the doctor did not treat Babych’s foot injury in a way that met normal medical procedure. The doctor argued otherwise and said the team’s desires did not affect his medical decisions.

Flyers’ GM Bob Clarke said, “The doctors don’t send a player out there hurt. They never have. He [the doctor] didn’t send a player out there who was in danger of getting more hurt.”

Therein lies the rub. Teams love to couch playing hurt, that macho thing in sports, in the “can’t get more hurt” vernacular. That’s the question teams love to ask doctors and then say, “He can play.”

The case raises issues for players and teams in all sports, and not just at the professional levels. If teams hire the doctors as employees, the chance for lawsuits is reduced. Claims would then go to worker compensation panels with less monetary award ability.

However, players would be even less trusting of doctors employed by teams. The doctors would be further squeezed in the vice of what teams want and what is best for the players.

The easy answer is patients come first, always. The reality is, doctors are human and those who like sports like to be associated with teams. Some pro teams now put the right to be the team physician out to bid. I know one team that got $3 million for this honor.

Lawsuits such as Babych’s are inevitable. Verdicts like this one help keep the system honest.

Old Town native Gary Thorne is an ESPN and NBC sportscaster.