ADSactly Sports - Violence in sports. When is it too much?
If you have ever had anything to do with sports you will already know that at its roots, sports are designed to be competitive. Beyond the games themselves, the whole purpose of many sports is to beat your competition. In some sports, this is clear and obvious as you see teams and athletes battle against each other to determine a winner. In some cases, it is less apparent as the athletes compete against a clock or for scores but ultimately they are trying to beat their competitors. No matter what level and how much we encourage sports to be played for fun, the ultimate goal is to win. With that desire comes a competitive fire that can push athletes to do unthinkable things in an effort to finish ahead. What happens when that urge to win becomes so overwhelming that it supersedes the ideas of sportsmanship? What happens when sports become violent?
Many sports are rooted in direct competitiveness and aggression. Teams are pitted against each other and the game itself can be physical in nature. Being in highly competitive situations can create an elevated emotional state in athletes. This can lead to players making decisions that they might not normally make in an everyday situation. These decisions can potentially end up having very negative consequences. The desire to win can bring out the best and the worst in us and when emotions are running high there can be reactionary moments by athletes. The need for revenge or payback is greater when you are emotionally charged. Often, the emotions take over so much that the game or sport becomes secondary.
Violence is the use of physical force to injure people or property. Violence may cause physical pain to those who experience it directly, as well as emotional distress to those who either experience or witness it. Individuals, families, schools, workplaces, communities, society, and the environment all are harmed by violence.
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By definition, violence is a physical act directed at others in an attempt to cause harm or distress. We experience this every day in many of the sports we watch and play. The actions might not be designed to physically hurt on purpose but the actions are of such a nature that physical injury in inevitable and almost expected. Violence has become so entrenched in many sports that it is a legal and is actually part of how the game is played effectively.
The following is a list of some of the most violent sports in no particular order: (The ranking of these sports will vary depending on the source but generally most of these sports end up on the list.)
| Violent | Sports |
|---|---|
| Ice Hockey | Boxing |
| Rugby | American Football |
| MMA | Lacrosse |
| Soccer | Australian Football |
| Water Polo | Wrestling |
Sports such as boxing and mixed martial arts are completely based on violence and without the violent acts would cease to be a sport at all. The whole purpose of these sports is to beat your opponent into submission. You are literally punching and kicking another human being until they can either no longer defend themselves or you knock them out entirely. There are some “safety” measures put in place to try and reduce the negative impact of these sports such as gloves and in some cases other protective gear but the reality is that no matter what, someone is going to get hurt and very likely both combatants will endure significant physical harm during the event.
Imagine the emotions that must run through these fighters as they are in the heat of a physical battle where they must attack as hard as they can and also defend themselves. I can imagine that the anger that could spill out during these fights could be quite overwhelming. At this point, the violence that is already part of the sport can be elevated to an entirely different level. Over time there have been some extremely bad circumstances that have occurred in the ring. There have even been some incidents that have left a “black eye” on the sport of boxing. One of the most notable was when Mike Tyson literally bit a piece of Evander Holyfield’s ear off during a fight. If you have the stomach for it I would suggest you look up the worst injuries in MMA online. It is brutal what devastating injuries can occur in one of these fights.
Several of the most popular sports to watch have a tremendous amount of physical contact embedded into the gameplay. These are sports where hitting or tackling are not only a part of the game but a necessary skill to be able to play well. Hockey, American Football and Rugby are examples of these types of sports.
Ice Hockey is considered one of the fastest sports based on the high velocity that the players are moving at and when you add in body checking it makes for a violent combination. When you have two bodies slam into each other at rates of speed upwards of 30KM per hour, there is a high likelihood that physical harm might occur. The skill of body checking is used to separate a player from the puck or prevent the player from receiving the puck. Not only are these hits happening at high speeds, they are often made against the boards that surround the playing surface. These are hard surfaces that players are crashing into. This only adds to the potential for injury.
The impact of these collisions can be absolutely brutal and lead to serious injuries. There have been many occasions where a player has been knocked out on the ice after a body check. Body checking is actually a skill that is taught to players once they reach a certain level. Lacrosse can be just as dangerous as hitting is used in a very similar way. The main difference is the speed of impact.
Hockey is also the only sport where fighting is actually allowed. Since the beginning of hockey, fighting has been a part of the game. Its purpose was to help regulate or protect against players taking liberties with teammates and doing things to intentionally hurt others. It sounds like quite the oxymoron when you consider that the purpose of a fist fight is to do just that. Fighting has been accepted as a part of the game. There has been more of a push in the past several years to eliminate fighting in hockey and there has been some reduction in the number of fights in games but there doesn’t seem to be a willingness for it to be completely eliminated from the game.
Fighting in ice hockey is an established tradition of the sport in North America, with a long history that involves many levels of amateur and professional play and includes some notable individual fights.[1] Fighting is usually performed by enforcers, or "goons"—players whose role is to fight and intimidate—on a given team,[2] and is governed by a complex system of unwritten rules that players, coaches, officials, and the media refer to as "the code".[3] Some fights are spontaneous, while others are premeditated by the participants.[4] While officials tolerate fighting during hockey games, they impose a variety of penalties on players who engage in fights.
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Just imagine the emotions that must take over when the adrenaline form such a high speed and physical sport take over. Throw in the ability to engage in a fist fight and you have a recipe for disaster. Hockey is notorious for violent act beyond the rules of the game. Things like stick swinging incidents or sucker punches have been a tarnish on the sport of hockey. So much that a movie was filmed making fun of just how violent hockey was. Slap Shot is a classic movie that outlines many of the worst parts of hockey’s violence.
Whether you are a fan of hockey or not you may have heard of the Todd Bertuzzi incident where he sucker punched Steve Moore from behind and injured him to the point of ending his career in hockey. There was also the altercation between Marty McSorley and Donald Brashear that led to McSorley chopping Brasher in the head with his stick. Both of these incidents actually ended up in criminal charges being filed because they were so malicious.
Boston Bruins defenceman Marty McSorley, charged Tuesday with assault with a weapon, is the first NHL player since 1988 to face a criminal charge resulting from his actions in a hockey game. The rugged, longtime veteran with the trademark flowing, golden locks was charged as a result of a stick attack on Canucks forward Donald Brashear on Feb. 21 in Vancouver.
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Bertuzzi pleaded guilty to criminal assault causing bodily harm. He was sentenced in December 2004 to one year of probation and 80 hours of community service. He was also suspended by the NHL, and sat out 17 months in part due to the 2004-05 lockout.
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Both American Football and Rugby have an extreme amount hitting and physical contact. Delivering a hit is at the foundation of these sports and is the way in which you attempt to keep a player from advancing with the ball and scoring. These hits can happen at any point in the game and any part of the field. Sometimes if a player is not paying attention well enough they could get hit in some very awkward and dangerous ways. The NFL actually has the shortest average career length of the major North American sports. This is largely due to the physical toll that players endure game in and game out. Even the collisions between offensive and defensive lineman during each play are very violent in nature. Basically, 300 plus pound men are smashing into each other as hard as they can every single time the ball is snapped. Many feel that Rugby is even worse because they do the same things but without the use of as much protective equipment as in other sports.
I think what amazes me most about the whole issue of violence in sports is how much we as fans are not only drawn to it but excited by it. I remember as a kid when I first started watching hockey. My dad would be cheering loudly when there was a fight and the crowd would go wild. Many might even say that the fighting was their favourite part. Fighting was so popular that there have been videos dedicated to hockey fights. Boxing matches and MMA fights have a huge following, These are both sports that we have already stated are built on pure violence. When you stop for a moment to think clearly about it, many of the dangerous things we see in sports are actually things that you could potentially be charged with criminally if you did it outside of the sports arena and yet it is socially accepted in sports. Nascar is notorious for people watching just to see the most parts of the race. Many people enjoy watching the race just to see the crashes. In many cases, as fans, the sport itself is enhanced by the potential for these violent collisions and altercations. Are we truly a society of rubberneckers? Are we really so intrigued and drawn to things that we should be shocked by?
I have only touched the tip of the iceberg with this topic and there are many other sports that have not been mentioned here. There are so many incidents and videos that you could watch detailing the lethal impact of violence in sports. I would highly encourage you to take some time to check out some of the videos online and articles about this issue. There is also the issue around sports violence spilling over to the fans. The emotions can get very heated in the stands and sometimes boil over and turn violent. I will close out with one last incident of violence in a game where emotions got the better of a player. In honour of the World Cup starting, here is a trip down memory lane when 12 years ago in the World Cup final Zinedine Zidane headbutted Italian midfielder Marco Materazzi after an on-field verbal joust.
What are your feelings about violence in sports? Do you enjoy seeing these violent acts or do you feel that they should be eliminated as much as possible? What impact could it have on the specific sport to remove the violent plays?
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