Fighting in professional sports

Well, in the NHL, they actually have to fight, though, instead of throwing a sissy-ass open hand and then backpedalling 50 feet.

 

Zeke, just double-checking here, pal: After about 10 posts ripping on the UFC in another thread, you're now making fun of baseball players for not fighting violently enough?

 

No, I was ripping basketball players, and it wasn't for not being violent enough, it was for punching someone and running away.

Do try and keep up.

 

OK, I meant to write "basketball," you caught me on that. But the point stands.

 

What point?

The mocking isn't an endorsement of fighting, merely a statement that if you MUST start a fight, at least be man enough to stand there and fight.

I'm very glad that fighting is way down in the NHL. While it has a place, that place is very, very limited.

 

The difference between the NHL and the NBA is that the NHL already has rules in place that automatically punish:

1. Leaving the bench to join a fight on the ice.

2. Being the "second man in" in a fight.

The NBA has neither. A rule similar to No. 1 would clean up a lot of the NBA problems.

Oh, and the NFL gets away with the Tank Johnson stuff because it's The Best Run League In Pro Sports. Just Ask Us...

 

The NHL also has linesmen trained in breaking up fights. NBA officials are outgunned physically by the players.

Junior hockey also has a "second fight in the same stoppage" rule that results in an automatic two-game suspension for both guys (unless there's an instigator than the guy getting that penlaty ios the only one suspended). That cuts down on a lot of the bullshit when a fight is on.

 

It is the best run league in pro sports. That doesn't mean it is perfect. Far from it.

The NFL also has a lot more players than the other major pro sports leagues and a culture that encourages violent behavior. So it's not a shock that they are going to have some bad things happen no matter what.

That said, the NFL has never done enough to weed out the real scumbags. I still say Leonard Little should have been banned. He killed a woman while driving drunk and then got busted for DUI a few years later. The Rams and the league owe that woman's poor family more apologies than they could ever deliver for continuing to reward that jackass.

 

Am I the only person who thinks there's nothing wrong with a good old-fashioned hockey donnybrook?



These guys probably saw the NBA clip the other night and wondered what all the fuss was about.

 

Not true. Any player in the NBA who leaves the bench to join a fight gets an automatic one-game suspension.

 

Of course I love a good hockey fight. Remember what my old name used to be. ;D

 

Well, technically, the fan came to Domi, a hapless schmuck falling into the bear pit at the zoo. Or maybe he fell into the Cro-Magnon pit.

The Detroit-Colorado rivalry was just vicious. And it was frigging awesome.