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silent_jay · 02-23-2009, 07:42 PM

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Does Race Allow the NHL to Get Away with All That Fighting?

The short answer is yes. Fighting is up 24 percent this year in the NHL, and while this amazes no one, maybe it should.

After all, there shouldn’t be any fighting in hockey and there already was plenty of fighting in the NHL before this year.

The only reason that hockey gets away with all of this goon-like behavior is because 99 percent of the league is made up of white players.

If hockey were predominately played by blacks there would be so much criticism and racial slurs thrown at the athletes that there would be a call to ban the sport.

NBA Commissioner David Stern is very careful to keep fighting and dirty play out of the NBA and is so concerned about image that the players have a dress code when showing up for a game.

As you know, the NBA is over 80 percent black while the majority of the fans are white. I do not think that Stern is being biased against the black players; it is just that, unfairly, society is less forgiving of blacks' unruly behavior than whites.

Hence, Stern, is wisely just protecting his product. Unlike NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, Stern, along with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell are actually good commissioners because they have the guts to makes changes that are good for their respective sports.

MLB, Soccer, and the NFL also keep fighting out of their sports. And football is a more inherently violent sport than hockey; hence, hockey has no excuse for all that barbaric, uncontrolled fighting.

Amazingly, some sports commentators feel differently. Recently on his ESPN show (“Rome is Burning”), Jim Rome (who usually has more intelligent opinions) argued that fighting makes hockey safer, and hence, was necessary.

He argues that the enforcers are necessary to prevent sticking, tripping, and checking from behind by the team’s goons against the star, skilled players. While this may seem like a logical argument on its service, this is shortsighted and moronic thinking.

First of all, the NFL is proof positive that this argument is logically flawed and just plain silly. Given how much he influences the outcome of a game, is there any player is sports that is more important to protect than the quarterback in the NFL?

Again, the short answer is no, and the NFL protects the quarterback (along with the wide receivers and running backs) by having rules AND enforcing them. And the NFL does it big time -- no wimpy two- or five-minute penalties, but with large fines and suspensions.

The NFL functions better than the NHL without any goons and enforcers, and is, as mentioned, a more inherently violent sport than hockey. Secondly, international, Olympic, collegiate, and pre-1970 NHL hockey (to a lesser degree) all manage(d) to get along just fine without all that fighting.

A commentator on ESPN’s “Around the Horn” said that you cannot keep fighting out of hockey because they carry sticks. This is another silly argument; after all, sticks are rarely used in a violent way in the NHL.

And when they are used in the NHL, Bettman actually gives the players lengthy suspensions to deter them from using them in the future. In addition, some District Attorney’s offices have filed criminal charges against some of these animals.

Plus, lacrosse, which last year was the fastest growing sport in the country, uses sticks and there is ZERO fighting in lacrosse. Imagine that!

Sorry, this is just another lame excuse by commentators and fans that like fighting in the NHL and will not admit the real reason that it exists: they enjoy it. Why? I do not know.

If the NHL gave more severe penalties for sticking, tripping, cheap shot checking, and most of all, fighting, it would all go away (OK, almost all of it).

And the sport would be more exciting because the more talented players would get to showcase their breath taking stick-handling skills (for example) more often. (As a side note, to help in this area, the NHL should make the rinks bigger like in International and Olympic hockey.)

Fighting is obviously in the NHL because the NHL and some of their bloodthirsty fans want it in the sport...not because it needs it to be in order to be a better and more exciting sport.

The NHL is afraid it will lose some of their fan base if they take out the fighting and other goon-like behavior. While this maybe true, they will also gain some fans if they clean up the sport and make it more athletically appeasing to the eye (i.e., exciting to non-blood-thirsty fans).

If you want fighting, then go to a boxing or UFC bout. Or better yet, go to a moronic WWE bout where you will find fans with a similar mentality as yourself.

The shortsighted Bettman and the rest of the NHL do not have the guts to take fighting out of the NHL and make it a better and more exciting sport.

And the reasons they get away with this is because some their fans have a barbaric mentality and because 99% of their players are white. Sad, but undeniably true...and we call ourselves an advance society and species.

This may be one of the most absurd articles I've ever read about fighting in hockey. I've never seen anyone in their right mind try to make the connection between race and fighting. Apparently this guy's never heard of Donald Brashear, Georges Laraque, or Peter Worrell.

To say that there is no fighting in Lacrosse is an outright lie, I've watched NLL games and trust me, they fight, probably more than hockey, if not more then on par. Trying to compare the violent nature of football and hockey is like apples and oranges, two totally different sports.

I don't buy most of the arguments people use to try and ban fighting in hockey. They say concussions, well that little rubber puck packs one hell of a wallop when you take it in the face, or then there's the headhunters who dish out head shots like they're candy.

I understand a young man died last month in Whitby, and everyone has a hard-on to ban fighting again, and I feel bad for his family, but he knew what could happen when he dropped the gloves. Helmets come off in fights, that was the first thing I always popped off my opponent, unless we both agreed to remove our own helmets and have at it that way. I knew once my helmet came off, my head could meet the ice in a not so friendly manner, I knew the risks, didn't stop me though.

When I was 17 I fought a guy who smacked my head off the ice after I missed him with a punch, did I get a concussion? Sure did. It wasn't the only one, I lost track of how many concussions I had in my 20 years of playing hockey. The majority of them came from hits though, not fights, and yes I did fight a lot in every league I played in.

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........pre-1970 NHL hockey (to a lesser degree) all manage(d) to get along just fine without all that fighting.

Now I didn't play hockey pre-1970, I was only born in 77, but I sure have watched my fair share of games from the good old days of hockey, and I don't know what this guy is smoking to say they didn't fight much back then, maybe we could bring back all the stick swinging that used to go on and show him fighting in hockey really isn't so bad after all.

Just found another article where an 'expert', guess being an associate dean make people experts on fighting in hockey these days, he seems to think it may be time for Canadian law to get involved so fighting is illegal and punishable. All I can say is these 'experts' should go back to their cozy little classrooms and labs and keep their mouths shut if they don't know what they're on about.

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TORONTO — Violence in hockey is a public health issue that should not be left to hockey leagues to police themselves, said Kevin Wamsley, associate dean of health sciences at the University of Western Ontario.

The National Hockey League has been “hesitant” to address the issue of fighting and it may be time for politicians to take charge, said Wamsley, who will participate on Tuesday at a symposium on violence in hockey in London, Ont.

“We permit fighting, we celebrate it, we endorse it but people are being hurt badly on a consistent basis,” he said. “It may be time for Canadian law to become involved and create a legal environment that makes fighting in hockey illegal and punishable.”

Dr. Graham Pollett, medical officer of health for Middlesex-London Health Unit said the symposium will bring together coaches, players and parents to raise awareness and explore the “culture of violence” in hockey.

“There are many people who think that fighting is just part of the game,” said Pollett, host of the symposium. “This is just a way of thinking that needs to be challenged.

“The game sells itself without fighting. Its speed, its competitiveness — those are the things we all love about the game and would exist without fighting,” he said.

Removing fighting from hockey is not an “attack on the game” but will require a cultural shift, he added.

Fighting in hockey has long been debated and was most recently back in the spotlight following the death of 21-year-old Don Sanderson, a senior men’s player with the Whitby Dunlops who died after hitting his head on the ice during a fight.

In the wake of Sanderson’s death the Ontario Hockey League announced new rules that would see players suspended for removing their chinstraps or helmets before or during an altercation.

Bryan Lewis, former director of officiating for the NHL said hockey rules have changed over the years to clamp down on fighting but eliminating it is unrealistic.

“They could ban it tomorrow,” he said. “But we would be fooling ourselves if we think it is going to stop.”

He said officials need to “go after” habitual offenders and would like to see rules written that would better protect players on the ice.

“I think there has to be stronger enforcement and rules written saying the moment a helmet is off that is the signal that this must stop,” he said. “You can’t play on the ice without your helmet so why should you be allowed to fight when you are still at peril?”

Dave Simpson, former captain of the London Knights said fighting is a “silly side show” that slows down the game.

It is not tolerated in any other major sport he said noting “we don’t call a 350 pound NFL linebacker a wussy because he can’t fight.”

“The media still puts a tussle on every night and says who won instead of treating it for what it is which is a grown man pulling another grown man’s underwear,” he said.

What do the hockey fans of TFP think, is race why the NHL gets away with fighting? Should fighting be banned at all levels? If it should be banned, first off, how? Suspensions, fines, criminal charges? My opinion on the subject is pretty clear, I've fought in hockey, never got hurt in a hockey fight aside from a black eye or a cut, which to me isn't hurt. Discuss.