LAS VEGAS, NV – JUNE 23: National Hockey League Senior Vice President Colin Campbell meets with the media following the NHL General managers meetings at the Bellagio Las Vegas on June 23, 2015 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

The emails of an NHL executive are about to become everybody’s business.

The NHL has been ordered by a U.S. judge in Minneapolis to have Colin Campbell’s emails unsealed. Campbell asked the court to keep these emails secret because “they would embarrass him and hurt the NHL’s reputation,” according to TSN.

The emails reportedly contain various obscenities, along with a notable 2013 email in which Campbell, “calls an NHL team trainer a ‘freaking idiot’ after the trainer suggested methods for treating concussed players.”

More than 100 players are currently suing the league, saying that the league and its officials knew of head trauma issues that came from hockey, but prevented themselves from protecting players. The players want to know what the email exchanges said and did about the violence of the game.

Most of the documents that the NHL has given lawyers have been sealed by a court order at the request of the NHL. The judge’s initial ruling on that came Wednesday, but the lawyers of the players are appealing that decision.

Some of the emails that the judge ordered the league to unseal include the following, from TSN:

Mayeron ordered the NHL to unseal a March 25, 2007, email chain in which Campbell and NHL commissioner Gary Bettman wrote to NBC executive producer Sam Flood, complaining about remarks made by Brett Hull regarding fighting during an NBC telecast.

An email chain from Aug. 3, 2011, between Bettman and Montreal Canadiens owner Geoff Molson will also be unsealed, the judge ruled.

In those emails, Bettman and Molson discussed an article about the NFL concussion lawsuits and Bettman’s assessment of the NHL’s potential liability.

The reasoning behind the release of Campbell’s emails specifically would be that the NHL, “has failed to establish that the embarrassment would be ‘particularly serious,’” in terms of the content of the emails.

Campbell reportedly refers to an NHL official as a “shithead,” and also suggested that the league “gas this shithead (referee).”

There will certainly more interesting tidbits to come from these emails once they are released to the public, but the early returns don’t look promising for Campbell and the NHL.

[TSN]

About Harry Lyles Jr.

Harry Lyles Jr. is an Atlanta-based writer, and a Georgia State University graduate.